When Payment Undermines the Pitch Journal Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Studies on crowding out document that incentives sometimes backfire—decreasing motivation in prosocial tasks. In the present research, we demonstrated an additional channel through which incentives can be harmful. Incentivized advocates for a cause are perceived as less sincere than nonincentivized advocates and are ultimately less effective in persuading other people to donate. Further, the negative effects of incentives hold only when the incentives imply a selfish motive; advocates who are offered a matching incentive (i.e., who are told that the donations they successfully solicit will be matched), which is not incompatible with altruism, perform just as well as those who are not incentivized. Thus, incentives may affect prosocial outcomes in ways not previously investigated: by crowding out individuals’ sincerity of expression and thus their ability to gain support for a cause.

publication date

  • October 1, 2016

has restriction

  • closed

Date in CU Experts

  • January 7, 2023 8:41 AM

Full Author List

  • Barasch A; Berman JZ; Small DA

author count

  • 3

Other Profiles

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0956-7976

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1467-9280

Additional Document Info

start page

  • 1388

end page

  • 1397

volume

  • 27

issue

  • 10