Pitfalls Associated With the Use of Financial Incentives (and Other Complex Manipulations) in Human Social Research
Title:
Pitfalls Associated With the Use of Financial Incentives (and Other Complex Manipulations) in Human Social Research
Author:
Crano, William D.
Appeared in:
Basic and applied social psychology
Paging:
Volume 12 (1991) nr. 4 pages 369-390
Year:
1991-12-01
Contents:
The use of financial incentives to induce desired behaviors is common in many contexts, including experimental ones. In the absence of specific, theory-based hypotheses to the contrary, treatments involving such incentives are based on four assumptions: linkage, valence, neutrality, and process identity. Linkage assumes a positive association between incentive-related attitudes and performance; valence refers to the necessity that a specific incentive (treatment) have the same value for all who receive it; neutrality assumes that variations in incentive carry no excess information, that is, foster no differential attributions about the nature of the induced behaviors; and process identity assumes that the use of different incentives has no effect on the fundamental cause-effect relationships of the phenomenon under study—the incentive merely strengthens (or attenuates) the critical relationship. When these assumptions are violated, interpretability of ensuing results is compromised. Problems involved with the use of financial incentives in social research contexts are discussed, and solutions proposed.
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