The extrinsic incentives bias is an
attributional bias
In psychology, an attribution bias or attributional bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and others' behaviors.Kelley, H.H. (1967). Attribution theory in social ...
according to which people attribute relatively more to "extrinsic incentives" (such as monetary reward) than to "intrinsic incentives" (such as learning a new skill) when weighing the motives of others rather than themselves.
It is a counter-example to the
fundamental attribution error as according to the extrinsic bias others are presumed to have ''situational'' motivations while oneself is seen as having ''dispositional'' motivations. This is the opposite of what the fundamental attribution error would predict. It also might help to explain some of the
backfiring effects that can occur when extrinsic incentives are attached to activities that people are intrinsically motivated to do. The term was first proposed by
Chip Heath, citing earlier research by others in
management science
Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...
.
Example
In the simplest experiment Heath reported,
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
students were asked to rank the expected job motivations of
Citibank customer service representatives. Their average ratings were as follows:
# Amount of pay
# Having job security
# Quality of fringe benefits
# Amount of praise from your supervisor
# Doing something that makes you feel good about yourself
# Developing skills and abilities
# Accomplishing something worthwhile
# Learning new things
Actual customer service representatives rank ordered their own motivations as follows:
# Developing skills and abilities
# Accomplishing something worthwhile
# Learning new things
# Quality of fringe benefits
# Having job security
# Doing something that makes you feel good about yourself
# Amount of pay
# Amount of praise from your supervisor
The order of the predicted and actual reported motivations was nearly reversed; in particular, pay was rated first by others but near last for respondents of themselves. Similar effects were observed when MBA students rated managers and their classmates.
Debiasing
Heath suggests trying to infer others' motivations as one would by inferring one's own motivations.
References
{{Biases
Cognitive biases