Extrinsic incentives bias

What is Extrinsic Intrinsic Bias?

Extrinsic intrinsic bias, usually called extrinsic incentives bias, concerns how we explain other people's motivation. We may give external rewards, such as money or recognition, more weight in their decisions than in our own, while giving interest and personal satisfaction less weight.

What the research found

Heath (1999) reported three laboratory studies and one field study in which people judged others to be more motivated by external incentives and less by intrinsic incentives than themselves. The research concerns beliefs about motivation. Whether a reward actually improves performance is a separate question.

Examples of extrinsic intrinsic bias

Workplace incentives

A manager might assume employees care mainly about bonuses, while describing their own motivation in terms of interesting work and creative freedom. That difference in explanation is worth examining before designing an incentive scheme.

Educational rewards

A teacher might focus on grades and prizes while giving too little attention to a student's interest in the subject. This illustrates the possible mismatch; it does not show that grades or prizes always reduce motivation.

Personal relationships

A friend helps you move. You credit the free meal you promised them and overlook the possibility that they wanted to help. Again, the question is what motivated that person, not whether meals are effective incentives in general.

Why it matters

If your account of someone's motivation is wrong, the offer you make may fit them poorly. Ask what they value, examine their behavior and test the results of an incentive scheme. Your explanation for your own effort should not automatically be more generous than your explanation for theirs.