Why does the overjustification effect occur?
We’ll answer this question and share what we’ve learned from research in this area.
Another possible explanation is that people sometimes viewexternal reinforcementas a coercive force.
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The cognitive evaluation theory (CET) is an additional option that might explain the overjustification effect.
CET posits that extrinsic motivation decreases a person’s autonomy, one of the necessary components of intrinsic motivation.
They were told that the goal of the study was to investigateproblem-solving concepts.
During the first session, no reward was given for configurations that they were able to reproduce.
Neither group received a reward for configurations completed in the third session.
Both groups continued to work on their puzzle for similar lengths of time during the first session.
However, since the subject pool was so small, more research was needed to confirm this effect.
Experiment Two
Deci’s second set of experiments was conducted in the field versus a laboratory setting.
They involved eight students who were headline writers for a college newspaper.
These studies took place during the final 10 weeks of paper production, which was broken into three periods.
The first period was four weeks with the remaining two periods being three weeks each.
The experimental group was offered $0.50 per headline during the second period of the experiment.
No pay was offered outside of this period, and it was never offered to the control group.
The time it took them to complete these headlines was used to determine their levels of motivation.
However, the time that the control group spent continued to diminish throughout each session in the experiment.
Deci translated these results to suggest that verbal reinforcement and positive feedback increase intrinsic motivation whereas money does not.
Additionally, reduced motivation with financial rewards looks like it’s longer-lasting.
The award, in this experiment, acted as the extrinsic motivation.
rather than their abilities (“You are so smart!")
This is because the grade received is a performance-contingent reinforcer.
It reinforces the studying behavior but is dependent upon actually doing well rather than simply going through the motions.
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DOI:10.1037/a0035661
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