Punished by Rewards
by Alfie Kohn · first published 1993
63% recommend35% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Research-heavy case that rewards, bonuses, praise and grades undermine intrinsic motivation. Suits managers, educators and parents rethinking incentive plans, gamification or gold-star systems.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Criticizes the system of motivating through reward, offering arguments for motivating people by working with them instead of doing things to them.
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Mentions per year
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Don't read the article, just read the book. It's called Punished by Rewards, written by Alfie Kohn. Think of it this way: if you're not reading books, you fail. And if you're reading books but not books like this, then you're reading the wrong kinds of books and you also fail.…
on “Joel Spolsky: Thanks or No Thanks” ↗You might be interested in the book "Punished by Rewards" by Alfie Kohn. It goes into detail about why praise can be detrimental, and what to substitute for it. From the description on his site <http://www.alfiekohn.org/books/pbr.htm>, it "[draws] from…
on “I Was Told I Was Very Smart” ↗…the task (or behavior) itself; this is one of the most thoroughly replicated findings in the field of social psychology." http://www.alfiekohn.org/managing/cbdmamam.htm — and see also Alfie Kohn's book Punished By Rewards.
on “The San Francisco Games Revolution Is Over” ↗…https://blog.abuiles.com/reading-feed/nonviolent-communicati... -- going through the book is important for the context but this can give you a quick overview of what it is about. Other books in my list are: - Punished by rewards by Alfie Kohn - On the shortness of life by Seneca
on “Ask HN: Books on specific topics that have applied to many areas of your life?” ↗For a different view, see "Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes".[1] It's about extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the person and is what's typically…
on “Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor mortality ratings” ↗Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards provided hundreds of sources, tested and re-tested proof, and description of experiments proving over and over again that for humans, extrinsic rewards kill intrinsic motivation. If you want your child…
on “On paying for software” ↗Also Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards, a thick tome dedicated to the research and reasons of how and why punishment and rewards don’t teach what’s intended and don’t motivate as intended... and how extrinsic motivation kills intrinsic motivation.…
on “Young children would rather explore than get rewards” ↗…theory that maximum money gets you "the best" is... under-evidenced. It's just as likely to get you the greediest, the most manipulative, or the most opportunistic. A good place to start is with Kohn's "Punished by Rewards", which covers a fair bit of research on how intrinsic motivation is undermined by extrinsic motivation. The people I know who are great at something do it because they truly love it. Whereas the most…
on “Some tech founders are getting huge pay packages” ↗The Finnish school system sounds very much like the ideal learning environment that Alfie Kohn describes in Punished by Rewards.
on “What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?” ↗Great post. The reference to Alfie Kohn is worth following up on. His book "Punished by Rewards" changed my world view about what motivates people.
on “Paul Buchheit: The two paths to success” ↗…crashes. So when you see literally dozens of startups offering prizes to kids for exercising or brushing their teeth, it's highly probletic to say the least. The original book on this is Alfie Kohn's Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. Pretty much the most important book for any entrepreneur to read. Daniel Pink also has a much more recent book called Drive,…
on “The San Francisco Games Revolution Is Over” ↗> I feel that somehow belittles my efforts. It does. There's lot of psychology research on this, intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, etc. Have a look at Alfie Kohn's books, like Punished by Rewards.
on “What if you didn't need money or attention?” ↗…for more people than others. Extrinsic motivation (rewards/punishment, or, as I like to simplify it, punishment -- because withholding the carrot is just that), is not sustainable. See Alfie Kohn's Punished by Rewards for an exhaustive list of papers and experiments. The list you provided can be related to basic human needs: > –Feeling like no one is scrutinizing your work to notice whether you're doing a good job…
on “Carrot and Stick: that doesn’t work on Programmers” ↗…that might have stymied your friend... research suggests that when working for a reward people are typically less creative and less thoughtful than when intrinsically motivated (see Alfie Kohn's book Punished by Rewards).
on “The need for tooling and the need for mastering your tools” ↗I've gone down this rabbit hole before (albeit around ten years ago), I think the closest there are are the Alfie Kohn books. E.g. No Contest, Punished by Rewards, etc. Those are more about parenting and the school system, there aren't really any books on early childhood development if that's what you're looking for.
on “Ask HN: Research Based Parenting/ Pregnancy Books?” ↗