Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital.
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...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3064577?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1830490090300768256 |
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| author | Roberto Censolo Laila Craighero Giovanni Ponti Leonzio Rizzo Rosario Canto Luciano Fadiga |
| author_facet | Roberto Censolo Laila Craighero Giovanni Ponti Leonzio Rizzo Rosario Canto Luciano Fadiga |
| author_sort | Roberto Censolo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T19:48:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5c4354ca4c7d44fd937f3146949b1a6d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T19:48:15Z |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-5c4354ca4c7d44fd937f3146949b1a6d2022-12-21T18:52:16ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-0163e1737210.1371/journal.pone.0017372Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital.Roberto CensoloLaila CraigheroGiovanni PontiLeonzio RizzoRosario CantoLuciano FadigaBACKGROUND: 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.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3064577?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Roberto Censolo Laila Craighero Giovanni Ponti Leonzio Rizzo Rosario Canto Luciano Fadiga Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital. PLoS ONE |
| title | Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital. |
| title_full | Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital. |
| title_fullStr | Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital. |
| title_short | Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital. |
| title_sort | electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3064577?pdf=render |
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