We've all heard the expression about the carrot and the stick when it comes to motivation. In short, by dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit's face, it's possible to motivate them to follow a ...

Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) refers to the imbalance between high-effort commitment and low-reward outcome, i.e., when one perceives he/she expends greater effort but gains disproportionately less ...

Employers continue to believe that performance-related cash bonuses, such as those offered to bankers, increase motivation, despite evidence showing they may decrease interest in their work. In a new ...

According to data collected by the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, American students continue to slide down the international rankings, failing to break the top 20 ...

Last week, my not-so-little brother celebrated his thirtieth birthday, and he proudly showed the gift he got from his girlfriend that morning — a shiny new guitar. Despite his reputation for ...

Struggling to finish that report for your boss? One way to increase your interest in a task is to add immediate rewards, rather than wait until the end to reward yourself, according to new Cornell ...

Mark, an intelligent and engaging 21-year-old, came to see me for a psychiatric consultation to try to figure out why he kept running into difficulty achieving his goals. He seemed only willing or ...

Plus, why common child-motivation strategies like bribes often fall short.

Our motivation to put effort into achieving a goal is controlled by a reward system wired in the brain. However, many neuropathological conditions impair the reward system, diminishing the will to ...

What’s the secret of motivation? Niklas Morberg, CC BY-NC Last semester I experimented with a new idea in my consumer behavior class. I gave pop quizzes on the assigned readings but with a little ...

All swimmers want to go faster, improve their stroke efficiency, and become the best version of themselves. However, these goals are little steps toward a greater common goal: to succeed in their ...