Praise raised motivation; expected rewards for a task cut time on it afterwards

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   96 experiments compared people who got a reward with people who did not. They included children and college students. About 3,500 people were in the time-on-task analysis.

2. 02

   What they did

   Rewarded people got praise, or a reward such as money, for doing an activity. The other people got no reward. Time on the activity was counted after the reward was taken away.

3. 03

   What happened

   Praise led people to spend more time on a task, and to say they liked it more. Expected rewards for a task led people to spend a little less time on it later. They did not change how much people liked it. Across all rewards, time on the task did not change clearly. The reviewers did not rate the quality of the studies.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Across 14 comparisons, praise led people to spend more time on the task afterwards.

   • Rule: Get feedback on your progresstested

   Pooled analysis of 14 studies with 918 people · vs people who got no reward · behaviour was recorded

2. Helped

   Across 12 comparisons, praise made people say they liked the task more.

   • Rule: Get feedback on your progresstested

   Pooled analysis of 12 studies with 785 people · vs people who got no reward · they rated themselves

3. Mixed

   Across 40 comparisons, rewards for a task led people to spend less time on it later.

   • Rule: Get a reward or payment for doing ittested

   Pooled analysis of 40 studies with 2,015 people · vs people who got no reward · behaviour was recorded

4. No difference

   Across 32 comparisons, expected rewards for a task did not change how much people said they liked it.

   • Rule: Get a reward or payment for doing ittested

   Pooled analysis of 32 studies with 1,961 people · vs people who got no reward · they rated themselves

Source