Electromyographic activity of hand muscles in a motor coordination game: effect of incentive scheme and its relation with social capital |
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Authors: | Censolo Roberto Craighero Laila Ponti Giovanni Rizzo Leonzio Canto Rosario Fadiga Luciano |
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Institution: | University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. |
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Abstract: | BackgroundA 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 FindingsTwelve 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/SignificanceOur 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. |
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