Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24001245›Full record

ReviewHealth psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association2013

When do financial incentives reduce intrinsic motivation? comparing behaviors studied in psychological and economic literatures.

Marianne Promberger, Theresa M Marteau

Erratum issuedAbstract readComparative StudyReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 103 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
103citing papers in PubMed, 10 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

103 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Enhancing Weight Loss Programs: A Meta-Analysis of Financial Incentives and Behavior Change Techniques.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Financial Incentives for Substance Abstinence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025
    Pooled it
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  7. Competitions for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019
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  10. Incentivizing blood donation: systematic review and meta-analysis to test Titmuss' hypotheses.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2013
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  17. Which Components of a Smartphone Walking App Help Users to Reach Personalized Step Goals? Results From an Optimization Trial.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2020
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43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

  • Erratum issued
5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Marianne PrombergerCentre for the Study of Incentives in Health and Department of Psychology, King’s College London, United Kingdom. marianne.promberger@kcl.ac.uk
Theresa M Marteau

Funding

Wellcome Trust 086031
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo review existing evidence on the potential of incentives to undermine or "crowd out" intrinsic motivation, in order to establish whether and when it predicts financial incentives to crowd out motivation for health-related behaviors.

methodWe conducted a conceptual analysis to compare definitions and operationalizations of the effect, and reviewed existing evidence to identify potential moderators of the effect.

resultsIn the psychological literature, we find strong evidence for an undermining effect of tangible rewards on intrinsic motivation for simple tasks when motivation manifest in behavior is initially high. In the economic literature, evidence for undermining effects exists for a broader variety of behaviors, in settings that involve a conflict of interest between parties. By contrast, for health related behaviors, baseline levels of incentivized behaviors are usually low, and only a subset involve an interpersonal conflict of interest. Correspondingly, we find no evidence for crowding out of incentivized health behaviors.

conclusionThe existing evidence does not warrant a priori predictions that an undermining effect would be found for health-related behaviors. Health-related behaviors and incentives schemes differ greatly in moderating characteristics, which should be the focus of future research.

Indexed as

Health BehaviorMotivationEconomics, BehavioralHumansPsychological Theory

Identifiers

PMID24001245
PMCPMC3906839

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.