Don’t Pay for Favours
August 4th, 2008
What’s the best way to encourage people taking a mock test to do their best? Should you pay them:
a)Â 2.5 cents per correct answer.
b)Â Nothing.
2.5 cents is a lousy amount of money, but it’s better than nothing, right? Wrong. This was tested out in Israel, and it turns out that people do 10% better when doing it for free than when offered the small cash reward.
What’s going on here? Test-takers in the two scenarios above had the following mindsets:
a) What’s in it for me? 2.5 cents isn’t worth the trouble.
b) I’ll help out. If I do my best they can figure out if the questions are too easy or not.
It would seem reasonable that these mindsets could combine into something like “I’ll help out and earn a few bucks at the same time”. But actually, it’s pretty much one or the other. Scientists have even tracked the two mindsets down to different parts of the brain, and generally, only one is active at a time.
So when you need help with something, you should either pay enough to answer “what’s in it for me“, or ask for a favour instead (and return it later). If you offer too little money, you just draw attention to the fact that it’s not enough. Pay enough or don’t pay at all.
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