Daniel Pink#1 NYT bestselling author of 7 books

The puzzle of motivation: Dan Pink -TED

14 Aug 2024 · 1 min

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This content was created by Daniel Pink. This content was uploaded by Daniel Pink. This is a YouTube TED Talk titled "The puzzle of motivation: Dan Pink -TED" (content_type: YOUTUBE, uploaded 2024-08-14). The excerpt is a monologue by Dan Pink describing a behavioral experiment in which one group was timed to establish norms and another was offered monetary rewards; paradoxically the rewarded group performed worse, taking on average 3.5 minutes longer. The passage illustrates Pink's point about how common business-style incentives can undermine performance, a robust finding in social science. (thumbnail: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WvV2MmzuDc0/sddefault.jpg)

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He gathered his participants and he said, I'm going to time you, how quickly you can solve this problem. To one group he said, I'm going to time you to establish norms, averages, for how long it typically takes someone to solve this sort of problem. To the second group, he offered rewards. He said, if you're in the top 25% of the fastest times, you get $5. If you're the fastest of everyone, you get $20. It's a nice motivator. Question: How much faster did this group solve the problem? It took them, on average, 3.5 minutes longer. 3.5 minutes longer. Now this makes no sense, right? If you want people to perform better, you reward them, right? That's how business works. But that's not happening here. And what's interesting about this experiment is that it's not an aberration. This is one of the most robust, findings in social science, and also one of the most ignored.