While many educators and scientists have worked to prove the positive effects of monetary incentives on education, many have not considered the negative effects monetary incentives have on intrinsic motivation. A study was conducted in China in which scientists used a stopwatch activity to examine how much intrinsic motivation is influenced by extrinsic rewards. The study results showed:
“The electrophysiological data showed that the differentiated feedback-related negativity amplitude toward intrinsic success failure divergence was prominently reduced once the extrinsic reward was imposed beforehand. However, such a difference was not observed in the control group, in which no extrinsic reward was provided throughout the experiment. Furthermore, such a pattern was not observed for P300 amplitude. Therefore, the current results indicate that extrinsic reward demotivates the intrinsic response of individuals toward success–failure outcome, which was reflected in the corresponding reduced motivational-related differentiated feedback-related negativity, but not in amplitude of P300. (Ma, Q., Jin, J., Meng, L., & Shen, Q. , 2014)"
“The electrophysiological data showed that the differentiated feedback-related negativity amplitude toward intrinsic success failure divergence was prominently reduced once the extrinsic reward was imposed beforehand. However, such a difference was not observed in the control group, in which no extrinsic reward was provided throughout the experiment. Furthermore, such a pattern was not observed for P300 amplitude. Therefore, the current results indicate that extrinsic reward demotivates the intrinsic response of individuals toward success–failure outcome, which was reflected in the corresponding reduced motivational-related differentiated feedback-related negativity, but not in amplitude of P300. (Ma, Q., Jin, J., Meng, L., & Shen, Q. , 2014)"