The Overjustification effect and what it means for Steemit
Various community members have argued that steemit needs to adjust the reward structure, but not many have articulated why it is so important to get it right. My last post was about how Steemit has had a positive effect on me, but I do think there is a real danger on this website...
I think we need to talk as a community about a psychological phenomenon called the Overjustification effect.
The effect is basically the phenomenon of an external reward reducing intrinsic/internal motivation to perform an action.
This is something that needs addressing here on Steemit: The effect of rewarding users for actions (posting content and upvoting) which they previously did for free is potentially damaging because it shifts motivation from instrinsic to extrinsic. If rewards are too small, any interest in the activity will be lost. Some studies (citation needed) have found that if this is the case, intrinsic motivation does not necessarily return.
What I’m saying is that if we don’t get minnow rewards right (and many here have already argued that we haven’t yet), then we risk users being turned off not just steemit, but any form of blogging/posting, and that would be really sad.
If we take a closer look at a study which looked at the impact of financial rewards on volunteering, you’ll see what I mean. Bruno and Goette (1999) have shown that financial rewards reduce intrinsic motivation. If large enough, the reward/extrinsic motivation can compensate for this effect, but if the reward is too small, it doesn’t compensate for the loss of intrinsic motivation, and overall engagement declines. For example some Swiss researchers found that financial rewards for volunteers actually led to a reduction in the number of hours people were volunteering (rewarded volunteers worked less than non-rewarded volunteers).
If we don’t reward minnows (like me) adequately for their hard work, then they will disengage.
I wonder where I could suggest a button for:
"if you liked this article, may we suggest you read....etc"
I would like to read more articles like this one, so I guess for now, I'll just hunt them down the old fashioned way.
That's nice of you to say Judyd100 - I will probably post more stuff like this sooner or later... why not follow me? @freewill
I think the best way to make suggestions right now may be to write a post about it and hope it gains traction...
You are aboslutely right! But the problem I see is, that we teach our children from the first day of their life, that nothing they do is worth anything, unless they get praise for it. So we reduce the instrinsic motivation from the start.
And of course now we have billions of adults who think they're worthless, unless some stranger tells them they're not. It's sad. I'm planning to do a blogpost on the negative effects of praise in early childhood. (Please don't steal my idea ;) ) We need to be more sensitive for the negative influence of words, even if they are well-meaning. (But parents spanking their children also only want the best for them, so...)
Intersting thought - thanks for sharing! I wouldn't steal your idea - but please let me know when you post it so I can check it out. I've followed you, please consider returning the favour : )
There it is. Hope you enjoy it!
And followed :)
Nice one! Thanks : )
It is absolutely true. I think I have read in the book "predictably irrational" that our brain is actually wired to separate social and economically beneficial activities.
If you mix money in we immediately change into our "do I get enough to do this" mode.
In a test they asked people to help lifting a huge sofa onto a truck. Most of the people did help.
Later on they reframed the question to: would you please help me with this for 1 dollar?
Most of the people left with grim expressions.
It's definitely something I think the devs need to consider!