Dataset Information

Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A vast body of social and cognitive psychology studies in humans reports evidence that external rewards, typically monetary ones, undermine intrinsic motivation. These findings challenge the standard selfish-rationality assumption at the core of economic reasoning. In the present work we aimed at investigating whether the different modulation of a given monetary reward automatically and unconsciously affects effort and performance of participants involved in a game devoid of visual and verbal interaction and without any perspective-taking activity.

Methodology/principal findings

Twelve pairs of participants were submitted to a simple motor coordination game while recording the electromyographic activity of First Dorsal Interosseus (FDI), the muscle mainly involved in the task. EMG data show a clear effect of alternative rewards strategies on subjects' motor behavior. Moreover, participants' stock of relevant past social experiences, measured by a specifically designed questionnaire, was significantly correlated with EMG activity, showing that only low social capital subjects responded to monetary incentives consistently with a standard rationality prediction.

Conclusions/significance

Our findings show that the effect of extrinsic motivations on performance may arise outside social contexts involving complex cognitive processes due to conscious perspective-taking activity. More importantly, the peculiar performance of low social capital individuals, in agreement with standard economic reasoning, adds to the knowledge of the circumstances that makes the crowding out/in of intrinsic motivation likely to occur. This may help in improving the prediction and accuracy of economic models and reconcile this puzzling effect of external incentives with economic theory.

SUBMITTER: Censolo R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3064577 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital.

Censolo Roberto R Craighero Laila L Ponti Giovanni G Rizzo Leonzio L Canto Rosario R Fadiga Luciano L

PloS one 20110325 3

<h4>Background</h4>A vast body of social and cognitive psychology studies in humans reports evidence that external rewards, typically monetary ones, undermine intrinsic motivation. These findings challenge the standard selfish-rationality assumption at the core of economic reasoning. In the present work we aimed at investigating whether the different modulation of a given monetary reward automatically and unconsciously affects effort and performance of participants involved in a game devoid of v ...[more]

PMID: 21464986

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Dataset Information

Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital.

Background

Methodology/principal findings

Conclusions/significance

Publications

Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital.

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