Working Too Much for Too Little: Stochastic Rewards Cause Work Addiction

Brice Corgnet, Simon Gaechter () and Roberto Hernán González ()
Additional contact information
Simon Gaechter: Nottingham University
Roberto Hernán González: Burgundy School of Business, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Simon Gächter

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Incentives; Work Addiction; Occupational Health; Experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D87 D91 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hea
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/297/

Related works:
Working Paper: Working too much for too little: stochastic rewards cause work addiction (2020)
Working Paper: Working too much for too little: stochastic rewards cause work addiction (2020)
Working Paper: Working Too Much for Too Little: Stochastic Rewards Cause Work Addiction (2020)
Working Paper: Working Too Much for Too Little: Stochastic Rewards Cause Work Addiction (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:20-04

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Megan Luetje ().