The result is surprising to me, so, like you, I looked to see if there were any theories that required less buy-in from me (in an attempt to minimize complexity).
Do these studies make sure that the actions are desirable? I can easily fit the data into a model in which people consider “work” to be a separate category of action in their head which they neither enjoy nor question.
In the sign example, a large sign could be reputational cost, or a future work to make your yard look as nice as it did, while a small and then large sign is two chances to enjoy supporting a cause. In the payment study, it could be true that people who were paid larger sums went into job-mode and performed services for money, while people paid a lesser amount looked to see if the action was actually enjoyable or not and learned they did.
This could easily be shown to be false if any of these studies pay varied sum for something very unpleasant, with the group that received the lesser amount reporting higher satisfaction.
The result is surprising to me, so, like you, I looked to see if there were any theories that required less buy-in from me (in an attempt to minimize complexity).
Do these studies make sure that the actions are desirable? I can easily fit the data into a model in which people consider “work” to be a separate category of action in their head which they neither enjoy nor question.
In the sign example, a large sign could be reputational cost, or a future work to make your yard look as nice as it did, while a small and then large sign is two chances to enjoy supporting a cause. In the payment study, it could be true that people who were paid larger sums went into job-mode and performed services for money, while people paid a lesser amount looked to see if the action was actually enjoyable or not and learned they did.
This could easily be shown to be false if any of these studies pay varied sum for something very unpleasant, with the group that received the lesser amount reporting higher satisfaction.