People expecting a reward for a task perform worse than those expecting nothing, especially on tasks requiring cognitive sophistication and open-ended thinking¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr1·q2
Currency · newest study 1994 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? At least two dozen studies show people expecting a reward for completing a task do not perform as well as those who expect nothing, with worse performance on more open-ended tasks. → Kohn 1994
Evidence¶
Kohn 1994¶
Kohn, Alfie. (1994). The Risks of Rewards. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education Urbana IL. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED376990
q2 · i? · review · r1
The digest's review section reports that "people expecting to receive a reward for completing a task... simply do not perform as well as those who expect nothing," an effect described as robust across ages, sexes, reward types, and tasks. No effect sizes are printed.
"At least two dozen studies have shown that people expecting to receive a reward for completing a task (or for doing it successfully) simply do not perform as well as those who expect nothing (Kohn, 1993)."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- People offered a reward generally choose the easiest possible task, whereas children without rewards pick tasks just beyond their current ability — related
- Expected tangible rewards reduce later free-choice engagement with a rewarded task, while verbal praise does not — related
- Self-determination theory holds that autonomy support raises intrinsic motivation, and a meta-analysis finds expected tangible rewards undermine it — a broader claim this one bears on
- Open-ended tasks produce higher AI literacy performance than structured tasks — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
rewards-reduce-task-performance |
title |
People expecting a reward for a task perform worse than those expecting nothing, especially on tasks requiring cognitive sophistication and open-ended thinking |
description |
People expecting a reward for a task perform worse than those expecting nothing, especially on tasks requiring cognitive sophistication and open-ended thinking |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
1994 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — kohn-1994 |
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