Event

Brain to Society: Decision and Behavior Seminar Series with Ayelet Fishbach

Wednesday, March 7, 2018 11:00to12:00
Price: 
Free
Ayelet Fishbach

It's About Time: Can Earlier Rewards Increase Intrinsic Motivation?

Ayelet Fishbach, Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Prior research on intrinsic motivation compared the presence versus absence of rewards. By contrast, we compared immediate versus delayed rewards, finding that more immediate rewards increase intrinsic motivation by creating a perceptual fusion between the activity and its goal (i.e., the reward). Specifically, framing a reward from watching a news program as immediate (vs. delayed) increased intrinsic motivation to watch the program, and receiving an immediate bonus (vs. delayed; and vs. no bonus) increased intrinsic motivation in an experimental task. The effect of reward timing was mediated by the strength of the association between an activity and a reward, and was specific to intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation—immediacy influenced the positive experience of an activity, but not perceived outcome importance. In addition, the effect of the timing of rewards was independent of the effect of the magnitude of the rewards.

About the speaker

Ayelet Fishbach studies social psychology, management and consumer behavior. She is an expert on motivation and decision making. Fishbach has authored over 90 publications. Her research has been published in psychology, management and marketing journals, including Psychological Review, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Her research is regularly featured in the media, including WSJ, CNN, Chicago Tribune, NPR and was selected to be featured in the New York Times ‘Annual Years in Ideas.’ Fishbach has served as an action editor on several journals, including Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and she has served on the editorial board of 10 leading journals in psychology and management. She has further served as the president of the International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) and as a member of the Council of the Society for the Study of Motivation.

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