″… in general, the perception of an activity as a means to some extrinsic goal can undermine intrinsic motivation and, as demonstrated here, creativity.”
I am skeptical about the applicability of those sorts of psych experiments to general life. Sure, it takes someone two minutes instead of one to solve a puzzle when they’re stressed out by it. But the sort of problems these prizes are used for are typically problems that take much more than two minutes to think about. If prizes buy you the attention of people, then they can be very worthwhile.
It seems to me that the creativity stopping effect is greater when the money is too high. Then the attention is focused on getting the money rather than the problem itself. For example offering me $1,000,000 would paralyze me, and I would also think that too many people will jump at the opportunity, so I don’t have a chance.
If the amount offered is less than the work is worth (less that the effort spent, multiplied by the chance of victory), it should be good with regard to the intrinsic motivation. The money will help to overcome akrasia, but seeing that rationally it is not enough, will just strengthen the intinsic motivation by the power of rationalization.
Also, offering money is a signal: “we need the solution, and we will look at all proposals carefully”. This may be important for someone who is not a recognized expert in the field—it says that so far the experts did not provide the solution, and that their contribution will not be ignored just because it comes from outside of the field. This increases the percieved probability of success.
There is also the issue of extrinsic incentives vs intrinsic motivation, however.
Relevant keywords (google scholar): extrinsic motivation intrinsic motivation creativity
I am skeptical about the applicability of those sorts of psych experiments to general life. Sure, it takes someone two minutes instead of one to solve a puzzle when they’re stressed out by it. But the sort of problems these prizes are used for are typically problems that take much more than two minutes to think about. If prizes buy you the attention of people, then they can be very worthwhile.
It seems to me that the creativity stopping effect is greater when the money is too high. Then the attention is focused on getting the money rather than the problem itself. For example offering me $1,000,000 would paralyze me, and I would also think that too many people will jump at the opportunity, so I don’t have a chance.
If the amount offered is less than the work is worth (less that the effort spent, multiplied by the chance of victory), it should be good with regard to the intrinsic motivation. The money will help to overcome akrasia, but seeing that rationally it is not enough, will just strengthen the intinsic motivation by the power of rationalization.
Also, offering money is a signal: “we need the solution, and we will look at all proposals carefully”. This may be important for someone who is not a recognized expert in the field—it says that so far the experts did not provide the solution, and that their contribution will not be ignored just because it comes from outside of the field. This increases the percieved probability of success.