Arbeitspapier
Working Too Much for Too Little: Stochastic Rewards Cause Work Addiction
People are generally assumed to shy away from activities generating stochastic rewards, thus requiring extra compensation for handling any additional risk. In contrast with this view, neuroscience research with animals has shown that stochastic rewards may act as a powerful motivator. Applying these ideas to the study of work addiction in humans, and using a new experimental paradigm, we demonstrate how stochastic rewards may lead people to continue working on a repetitive and effortful task even after monetary compensation becomes saliently negligible. In line with our hypotheses, we show that persistence on the work task is especially pronounced when the entropy of stochastic rewards is high, which is also when the work task generates more stress to participants. We discuss the economic and managerial implications of our findings.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 12992
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior
Neuroeconomics
Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
Personnel Economics: Labor Management
- Subject
-
incentives
work addiction
occupational health
experiments
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Corgnet, Brice
Gächter, Simon
González, Roberto Hernán
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
- (where)
-
Bonn
- (when)
-
2020
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET
Data provider
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ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Corgnet, Brice
- Gächter, Simon
- González, Roberto Hernán
- Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2020
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