Motivating performance and endurance: an online experiment

Performance pay contracts are commonly used to increase workers’ effort. While many workers thrive in a competitive environment, feeling motivated and thrilled by the challenge, evidence from lab experiments and field data show that some groups, in particular women and disadvantaged individuals, often perform worse in competitive environments. Another approach to motivate workers is to induce meaning to the work by appealing to the worker’s intrinsic motives. While there is evidence on the effectiveness of appreciation for increased performance, the opposite is also common: negative feedback and incivility. Using an online experimental design, we compare three approaches to motivating workers: a bonus for high performance, positive feedback, and negative feedback. Crucially, we examine
not only the intensive margin (performance in the short run) but also the extensive margin (how long participants choose to perform). This allows us to assess the effect of these approaches to overall performance.