On Thu, 27 Jan 2005, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> Although may people
> have said extragavant and silly things here, no one
> has actually yet said, I believe, that material
> rewards do not motivate.
What is extravagant and silly here is assuming that common sense ideas about incentives and rewards are verified by psychological research. In short: not as simple as Justin assumes. There is literally decades of research that demonstrates how increasing rewards does not necessary increase motivation or behavior. --e.g., cognitive dissonance research, the stuff on how rewards undermine intrinsic motivation, etc. I want to emphasize that this is not anecdote, speculation, or wishful thinking: this is a conclusion drawn from rigorous scientific research. People do not simply and blindly respond to rewards in the way Justin assumes.
That said, I'm a little disappointed leftists are bickering about the fair distribution of income for workers. Are we really that well socialized into the capitalist worldview? Whatever happened to the abolition of the fucking wage system?
Miles