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Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars (1999)
| Venue: | Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes |
| Citations: | 204 - 1 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Kohn99punishedby,
author = {Alfie Kohn and Houghton Mifflin Company},
title = {Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars},
booktitle = {Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes},
year = {1999},
publisher = {Mifflin}
}
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Abstract
Alfie Kohn challenges our reliance on carrot-and-stick psychology in Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. This is an intriguing indictment of rewards at work, at school, and at home. "Do this and you'll get that, " (Kohn, 1993, p. 3) summarizes the prevailing strategy for managing workers, teaching students, and raising children. Kohn contends that managers, teachers, and parents dangle goodies, from candy bars to sales commissions, in front of people in the same way a pet is trained. Kohn destroys a universal myth in his groundbreaking work demonstrating that while manipulating people with incentives seems to work in the short run, it is a strategy that eventually fails and ultimately does lasting harm. He draws from hundreds of studies of a diverse group of students, workers and children and demonstrates that people actually do inferior work when they are lured with money, grades, or other incentives. Kohn makes the case that the more artificial inducements are used to motivate people, the more they lose interest in what they are being bribed to do. The first six chapters, grouped under the heading "The Case Against Rewards " lay out the central argument. Chapter 1 reviews the behaviorist tradition, the prevalence of pop behaviorism in our society, and some reasons (pragmatist belief systems and orthodox economic theory) for its widespread
Keyphrases
gold star lasting harm sale commission incentive plan pop behaviorism groundbreaking work short run prevailing strategy universal myth case reward diverse group ll get pragmatist belief system behaviorist tradition parent dangle goody carrot-and-stick psychology candy bar artificial inducement intriguing indictment alfie kohn inferior work orthodox economic theory central argument
