Extrinsic incentives bias

The extrinsic incentives bias is an attributional bias according to which people attribute relatively more to "extrinsic incentives" (such as monetary reward) than to "intrinsic incentives" (such as learning a new skill) when weighing the motives of others rather than themselves.

It is a counter-example to the fundamental attribution error as according to the extrinsic bias others are presumed to have situational motivations while oneself is seen as having dispositional motivations. This is the opposite of what the fundamental attribution error would predict. The term was first proposed by Chip Heath, citing earlier research by others in management science.^[1]

Example

In the simplest experiment Heath reported, MBA students were asked to rank the expected job motivations of Citibank customer service representatives. Their average ratings were as follows:

Amount of pay
Having job security
Quality of fringe benefits
Amount of praise from your supervisor
Doing something that makes you feel good about yourself
Developing skills and abilities
Accomplishing something worthwhile
Learning new things

Actual customer service representatives rank ordered their own motivations as follows:

Developing skills and abilities
Accomplishing something worthwhile
Learning new things
Quality of fringe benefits
Having job security
Doing something that makes you feel good about yourself
Amount of pay
Amount of praise from your supervisor

The order of the predicted and actual reported motivations was nearly reversed; in particular, pay was rated first by others but near last for respondents of themselves. Similar effects were observed when MBA students rated managers and their classmates.^[1]

Debiasing

Heath suggests trying to infer others' motivations as one would by inferring one's own motivations.^[1]

References

1 2 3 Heath, Chip (1999). "On the Social Psychology of Agency Relationships: Lay Theories of Motivation Overemphasize Extrinsic Incentives" (PDF). Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 78 (1): 25–62. doi:10.1006/obhd.1999.2826.

Biases

Lists of biases	General Memory

Cognitive biases	Acquiescence Anchoring Attentional Attribution Authority Automation Belief Blind spot Choice-supportive Confirmation Congruence Cultural Distinction Egocentric Emotional Extrinsic incentives Fading affect Correspondence Halo effect Hindsight Hostile attribution Impact In-group Negativity Normalcy Optimism Outcome Precision Pro-innovation Response Restraint Self-serving Social comparison Status quo Time-saving Trait ascription Zero-risk In animals

Statistical biases	Estimator Forecast Healthy user Information Lead time Length time Non-response Omitted-variable Participation Recall Sampling Selection Self-selection Social desirability Spectrum Survivorship Systematic error Systemic Verification Wet

Other biases	Academic Exponent Funding FUTON Inductive Infrastructure Inherent in education Media Net Publication Reporting White hat

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