PBS MEDIASHIFT: Can Social Sharing Survive the Rise of Rewards-Based Campaigns


November 8th 2010.


what-to-avoid-using-social-media-for-brand-loyaltyLeft alone in a room, a group of people were given a complicated seven-piece puzzle, known as a Soma cube, and told to assemble the pieces into specific designs. One group was offered a monetary reward for each correctly assembled puzzle; another group was offered nothing. They worked at the puzzles until being told they could stop. And then the experiment really began.

Edward Deci, the research psychologist behind the study, told the subjects to read a collection of magazines while he recorded his findings. Instead of tabulating the puzzle data, he observed the subsequent behavior of both groups. The group promised payment tended to quit assembling the puzzles, picking up the magazines instead. The group offered nothing was more likely to keep trying.

“When money was used as an external reward, intrinsic motivation tended to decrease,” Deci wrote of the experiment. (Click this link to read the full paper, “The Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation,” as a PDF.)

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By Mya Frazier

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