Praise, Rewards and the Overjustification Trap

In 1973, researchers gave nursery children felt-tip pens. Some were promised a certificate for drawing; others simply drew. Two weeks later, the children who had been rewarded drew less in free play than those who had not. Fifty years on, that small study still explains one of parenting’s hardest puzzles: why paying for enthusiasm so often cancels it.

The overjustification effect

Lepper, Greene and Nisbett’s experiment demonstrated what became known as overjustification: reward an activity a child already enjoys, and the reward can displace the enjoyment as the reason for doing it — remove the reward and the activity goes with it. Deci’s earlier work (1971) had found the same with adults, and Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory explains the mechanism: expected, contingent rewards shift the felt cause of behaviour from “I choose this” to “I am paid for this”, and autonomy is the taproot of intrinsic motivation.

The boundaries that matter

The effect has conditions, and they are practical. It strikes activities with existing intrinsic interest — rewarding a loathed chore risks little. Expected contingent rewards do the damage; unexpected recognition after the fact carries little cost. And verbal praise operates differently from tangible reward — informational praise that names competence tends to support motivation, while controlling praise (“good boy for doing what I wanted”) behaves like payment. Mueller and Dweck’s work adds the final refinement: even good praise should land on process, not person.

What this means at home and school

Never install a payment system on a passion — reading money, per-goal bonuses for the football lover — because it quietly renegotiates why the child does the thing. Reserve tangible rewards for genuinely uninteresting drudgery, if used at all. Recognise after the fact, specifically and occasionally. And when motivation flags, reach for the levers that build rather than rent engagement: choice, purpose, visible progress and the right level of challenge.

Our merits system was designed on exactly these lines — recognition for effort and growth, never payment for performance: see the Talent Framework.

References

Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(1), 129–137.
Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. JPSP, 18(1), 105–115.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.