Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes

Alfie Kohn · 1993

A sweeping indictment of the carrot-and-stick approach to motivation, arguing that rewards—like punishments—fail to produce lasting change and actively undermine intrinsic motivation, quality, relationships, and the development of good values.

Drawing on hundreds of psychological studies, Alfie Kohn dismantles the deeply held belief that the best way to get people to do something is to reward them when they comply. From gold stars and grades in classrooms, to incentive plans and merit pay in workplaces, to praise and bribes in the home, Kohn shows that 'Do this and you'll get that' rests on the shaky foundations of pop behaviorism and reliably backfires. Rewards, he argues, are not the opposite of punishments but two sides of the same controlling coin: both secure temporary compliance while corroding the conditions—collaboration, meaningful content, and genuine choice—under which excellence, learning, and ethical behavior actually flourish. Provocative yet rigorously documented, the book challenges readers to abandon the seductive simplicity of behavioral manipulation and rethink how we manage employees, teach students, and raise children, replacing control with respect, problem-solving, and support for intrinsic motivation.

The model it argues

A causal model expressing how the use of extrinsic motivators (rewards, punishments, praise-as-reward) as design levers operates through perceived control and five mediating mechanisms to reduce intrinsic motivation, damage relationships, and ultimately impair performance, learning, lasting behavior change, and the development of good values. Conversely, conditions of collaboration, meaningful content, and choice support intrinsic motivation and positive outcomes.

Key ideas

Use of Extrinsic Motivators (Rewards/Punishments): The practice of making desired outcomes contingent on behavior—offering rewards (or threatening punishments) to control how people act, summarized as 'Do this and you'll get that.'
Perceived Control / Loss of Self-Determination: The subjective experience of being controlled or manipulated and the corresponding reduction in one's sense of autonomy and self-determination.
Punitive Experience of Rewards: The degree to which rewards are experienced as punitive—controlling and demoralizing especially when expected rewards are withheld or not obtained.
Quality of Relationships: The degree to which peer and authority relationships are characterized by trust, openness, cooperation, and help-seeking versus rivalry, flattery, and concealment.
Attention to Underlying Reasons: The degree to which interveners diagnose and address the root causes of a problem rather than manipulating surface behavior.
Risk-Taking and Creative Exploration: The tendency to take intellectual risks, choose challenging tasks, and explore open-endedly rather than minimizing effort to secure a reward.
Intrinsic Motivation: The desire to engage in an activity for its own sake because of the interest, satisfaction, or meaning it provides.
Collaboration (Condition for Authentic Motivation): A context in which people work cooperatively, sharing resources and support, forming a community rather than competing or working alone.