Experiments — the fun and frivolous kind

Why we do what we do?
The interesting ways we try to motivate ourselves.

From putting the exercise gear somewhere we can see it — maybe even trip over it.
And hoping that’s the incentive needed to get us started on the way to being fit.

To breaking the chocolate bar in smaller pieces and hoping we’ll stop eating half of it; before noon.
(I’m not the only one doing that, am I?!)

Studies show that incentives fail to achieve desired results.
And sometime incentives can even backfire says Uri Gneezy, behavioral economist at UCSD

He cites a daycare study where a small fee designed to reduce parents’ tardiness in picking up their kids had the opposite effect.
Interestingly MORE parents were late picking up their children.
The late pickups doubled and it remained at that level until the fee was removed.

Before the fee parents would rush to get at the daycare in time.
(Out of courtesy to the daycare workers.)
The fee created a behavioral shift from social to economic.

Well, I’ve decided to run my own experiment here.
Flipper was told, in no uncertain terms, that her window viewing privileges will be suspended should she continue on grabbing the blinds.
I even provided an incentive: an almond.
(We were out of pizza.)
You can see how that worked out : )

Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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