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Article
| Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
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January 1986
Social Influences on Creativity: The Effects of Contracted-For Reward
by
T. M. Amabile, B. A. Hennessey and B. S. Grossman
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Abstract
Three studies, with 195 5–11 yr olds and 60 female undergraduates, tested the hypothesis that explicitly contracting to do an activity in order to receive a reward would have negative effects on creativity, but receiving no reward or only a noncontracted-for reward would have no such negative effects. Children performed story-telling and collage-making tasks and were rewarded with an activity, while undergraduates performed the collage-making task and were paid or not paid for their participation. All 3 studies supported the hypothesis. This support appeared to be strong and generalizable across different S populations, reward types, reward presentations, and creativity tasks. Possible mechanisms for the phenomenon are discussed in terms of choice, intrinsic motivation, and the labeling of the task.
Keywords: Social Psychology;
Creativity;
Motivation and Incentives;
Situation or Environment;