Stephen Shapiro has a great post
explaining Dan Ariely’s research
on rewards.
As he states…
“In a nutshell,
when a dollar value is assigned to a task,
people weigh the effort
against the financial return.
But if no dollar amount is specified,
we evaluate it differently.”
This is the country fair phenomena.
A man will spend $500
trying to win a big stuffed bear worth $20.
That same man would never spend $500
trying to win $20.
Ariely points out that gift cards
or incentives with a clearly stated cash value
are treated like cash
and compared to the effort needed.
Unless the cash reward is large
related to the amount of work required
to earn that reward,
non cash rewards are better incentives.