View article

The current research investigates the conditions under which people are attracted to performance incentives. We propose that financial deprivation – the state of having less – is a key factor in determining individuals’ preferences for how they want to be rewarded. That is, individuals with lower levels of resources would show stronger aversion and experience less satisfaction with performance incentives compared to those with higher levels of resources. Results from three experiments and archival analysis of one large dataset provide support for this prediction. Participants with a lower subjective level of income expected working under performance incentives to be more stressful and less satisfying than those with a higher subjective level of income (Studies 1 – 3). A longitudinal analysis with archival data (BHPS) replicated the finding (Study 4; N = 21,788). While performance incentives are believed to constitute a …