Does It Pay to Play? Undermining Effects of Monetary Reward and Gamification in a Web-Based Task
Adults / lifelong learning Motivation and curiosity
Links to claims
Supports (1)
| Claim | Basis |
|---|---|
| C22 | Two preregistered online experiments (N = 441 and 1,105 adults): removing pay per correct answer lowered later free-choice attempts and performance (pooled d = .19 and .22). Per-correct pay, not pay for doing; adults; minutes later. |
Review state: first-pass draft, pending human review.
Source note
Syntes: Bitter, Wondra, McCrea, Darzi & Novak (2022) — removing pay or game features in a web task
Källa: Bitter, A. N.; Wondra, T.; McCrea, S. M.; Darzi, A.; Novak, V. D. (2022). Does It Pay to Play? Undermining Effects of Monetary Reward and Gamification in a Web-Based Task. Technology, Mind, and Behavior 3(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000056 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Verified content
- [full text] Two preregistered 2 × 2 between-participants online experiments with US MTurk adults (Study 1 N = 441, mean age 39.4; Study 2 N = 1,105, mean age 40.8) on a gamified location-memory (n-back) task; pay of 1, 2 or 3 cents per correct 1-, 2- or 3-back response; free-choice phase right after (up to nine more sequences).
- [full text] Removing pay vs pay never offered: Study 1 attempts d = 0.25 (p = .060), performance d = 0.36 (p = .009); Study 2 attempts d = .17 (p = .049), performance d = .16 (p = .057). Pooled over both studies: attempts d = .19 [.05, .34], performance d = .22 [.08, .36] (p. 52).
- [full text] Removing game features: pooled attempts d = .03 [−.11, .17], performance d = .13 [−.01, .28]; Study 2 performance d = .18 (p = .034). The predicted interaction (pay worse than gamification) was not significant in either study.
- [full text] Exploratory: the pay effect was mediated by extrinsic motivation, not reduced enjoyment.
Limits
- [assessment] Pay was per correct response (performance-contingent / per unit), not "simply for doing"; adults only; free choice measured minutes later in a paid crowd-work session; Study 1 had a non-preregistered exclusion (results unchanged per the authors).
Why it is in the library
Added 2026-10-30 (nightly attacks) as support in C22's Bounds: a large preregistered adult estimate near the bottom of C22's 0.2–0.4 SD range. Considered as a kill-condition test and not counted (contingency differs from the claim's).
Added 2026-10-30 by the project. [full text] = read in the full text (PDF supplied by Jonatan; private).
Metadata as recorded
- ID
- MOT-017
- Tier
- experiment
- Titel
- Does It Pay to Play? Undermining Effects of Monetary Reward and Gamification in a Web-Based Task
- Författare
- Alexandra N. Bitter; Trent Wondra; Sean M. McCrea; Ali Darzi; Vesna D. Novak
- År
- 2022
- Källa/DOI
- Technology, Mind, and Behavior 3(1), 39–56. DOI: 10.1037/tmb0000056
- URL
- https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000056
- Licens
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (stated on p. 39)
- Typ
- two preregistered online experiments (2 × 2 between-participants), MTurk adults
- Åldersgrupp
- vuxen-livslangt
- Teman
- motivation-och-nyfikenhet
- Hämtad
- 2026-10-29 (supplied by Jonatan); text extracted 2026-10-30
- Status
- in the library since 2026-10-30 (nightly attacks; C22 Bounds support). The PDF Jonatan supplied is filed privately in this folder; never published.
The original files (PDF or abstract) are kept in the project archive and are not published here.