Are Rewards Demotivating? Myth and Reality

One of the central themes for this blog is the tremendous power of recognition and reward to increase engagement, drive behavior and motivate employees. Rewards, praise and community all play a role in this process—and the basic principles of social psychology, positive feedback and operant conditioning make it clear why this works.

But occasionally someone asks us about studies of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that have come out of the education world, and they express fears that rewards...