When Carrots and Sticks Work
Finish your dinner or you don't get dessert… Clean your room and you'll get 30 more minutes of screen time… Be good in the store and we'll pick out a toy…
If you have ever been around children for any extended period of time, you have probably said some version of those statements. While I do not have children myself, I have worked with kids of varying ages as a Children's Director for 6 years and have an additional 4 years under my belt as a middle school teacher. So I totally get it when you find yourself in a moment when you just want to punish or reward. I also totally get it if you read my post last week and were a little annoyed or defensive, so let me add a little more to the story.
In those moments, when you just need someone to do something now and you want them to do it fast, we tend to lean toward carrot and stick motivation because in the short term, it works. As described in Psychology Today, "operant conditioning motivates behavior through external means. These techniques are highly effective and succeed at behavioral modification in a multitude of environments across species." Daniel H. Pink elaborates on this idea in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Pink dives deep into various studies that show the value of "carrot and stick" motivation. The original study he cites, one that kicked off a new line of thinking around motivation, goes all the way back to 1949.
Harry Harlow and his colleagues were observing the impact of motivation in eight rhesus monkeys. They expected the monkeys to show the anticipated behavior at the time, which was that they would be more motivated to complete a series of puzzles when external factors like rewards and punishments were introduced. However, they discovered that as soon as the first group of monkeys received the puzzles they immediately began solving them. Furthermore, when the second group received rewards for completing their puzzles, they discovered that it hurt their performance. The monkeys in the group that received a reward made more mistakes and completed the puzzles slower and less frequently. This is the same result we saw last week in the daycare study.
So how is it that rewards and punishments can be "highly effective" while at the same time hurt progress? The difference is in the type of activity:
"Using operant behavioral strategies is effective when we need swift compliance. However, for domains of learning that necessitate the utilization of creative processes, we should be wary of purely operant methods. Instead, cultivate intrinsic drive by using what we know from experimental research - design environments that facilitate the development of competence, autonomy, and readiness to nurture creativity." -Jessica Koehler, Ph.D.
When you are trying to get your child to use the potty for the first time, you don't need to worry about decreasing their intrinsic motivation. Why not? I don't know about you, but I don't know many adults that need to be motivated to use the bathroom. Going to the potty is not a creative activity. It doesn’t require problem solving and it's not something you hope to improve and grow in over time. When you reach a certain age, the fight will be over which is why a little behavior modification isn't going to hurt anyone. This type of activity is called algorithmic: "you follow a set process to achieve a certain result."
In the case of the monkeys, rewards did not work because it was a creative activity that required problem solving. In the case of the day care, punishment did not work because "being on time" is not a simple and straight forward task. While it may first appear that way - arrive to the school by 4pm - what we are really trying to change and improve is the characteristic of "being responsible" which is more complicated.
Whether it be at work with your team, at home with your kids, or with your own personal goals you are trying to accomplish, understanding the different types of motivation can give you a leg up in life. The next time you are ready to take out that carrot or stick, take a minute to ask the question: is this algorithmic - straight forward with clear obvious steps? Or is it heuristic - a task that requires creativity and problem solving? If it's the latter, maybe put away the toy car and try to cultivate some intrinsic motivation.
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