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Essay / The Effect of Extrinsic Reward on Helping Behavior
The main area of study will focus on whether intrinsic motivation and extrinsic reward will have effects on helping behavior. Intrinsic motivation is defined as the motivation to engage in an activity is based on self-interest. (Dysvik and Kuvaas, 2013) Extrinsic motivation is defined as engaging in an activity is based on obtaining some sort of ideal reward and consequences. (Dysvik and Kuvaas, 2013) Do people genuinely help others because of their good nature and personal growth? Or is it because of the presence of a reward? Does extrinsic reward increase willingness to help? In the academic community, there has been a long debate for almost 40 years about the detrimental effects of extrinsic reward on intrinsic motivation towards an activity. (Urdan, 2003) On the one hand, researchers believe that the presence of an extrinsic reward reduces intrinsic motivation because it devalues the original interest of the activity. (Urdan, 2003) For example, if you love mathematics and always practice it, that is intrinsic motivation; because you like it. However, if your parents decide to give you $20 every time you practice it, this can lead to a problem called the justification effect. This means that when both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation behind the activity are high, people consider that they are doing it for an extrinsic reward. (Tang et al, 2008) So, you may not think you enjoy practicing math, but rather you think you do it for $20. Because the extrinsic reward can be very tempting, people may forget the original reason they are doing the activity. So let's say next time you're practicing math but your parents have decided not to give you any more money. You might not know if you really like math or just because...... middle of article ......r, another study conducted by Wade (2008) to examine extrinsic motivation on the student's mark over a period of 2 years. . The results suggest that when students receive a paid reward, they perform better on tests. Indeed, when students care about performance and reward, they will devote more effort to the task; and if he succeeds, it will increase their confidence. (Wade, 2008) Therefore, extrinsic motivation is not always a negative element in decreasing people's initial interest/motivation towards an activity. This study aims to extend the field of research to everyday helping behaviors. The study aims to examine whether a given extrinsic motivation will increase helping behavior? Or, the probability of helping will remain the same even if there is no reward. The hypothesis is that the presence of an extrinsic reward will increase people's willingness to help others..