100 Things: Every Designer Needs to Know About People

54. People are More Motivated by Intrinsic Rewards than Extrinsic Rewards

Let’s say you’re an art teacher, and you want to encourage your class to spend more time drawing. You create a Good Drawing Certificate to give to your students. If your goal is to have them draw more and to stick with it, how should you give them the certificate? Should you give them one every time they draw? Or only sometimes?

Mark Lepper, David Greene, and Richard Nisbett (1973) conducted research on this question. They divided children into three groups:

• Group 1 was the Expected group. The researchers showed the children the Good Drawing Certificate and asked if they wanted to draw in order to get the certificate.

• Group 2 was the Unexpected group. The researchers ...