The results of a study by Edward Deci '64, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, were summarized in a September 5 USA Today editorial titled "A damaging lesson for college-bound kids: Good deeds require a payoff." The editorial is about teenagers working on community service projects for the sole purpose of adding it to their college applications.
Deci's study "investigated 'What happens when you pay people for an activity they enjoy?' He gave college students pleasurable block-building puzzles to solve. He told half the students they'd get $1 for each solved puzzle. After a while, Deci said the experiment was over and he had to leave the room for a few minutes. The students could do more puzzles, he added casually, or read magazines. Then he watched them through a one-way mirror. The students who had earned money spent less time playing with the puzzles than those who hadn't received rewards. That's because the money undercut their internal motivation, shifting attention onto the reward itself."
