In the American Experience, money is used as a reward for a task, and many people believe that the higher the pay, the more motivation a person will have to complete the task, and do it better. This is not true, and as a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite. Many studies have shown that adding more money restricts and narrows the thought process, making a job with a little bit of thinking to it much more difficult. This is very prominently shown in The Candle Problem, an experiment done by Sam Glucksberg. The more money, the better or quicker people feel they need to complete the job, so they rush and the outcome of the job can be significantly worse.
“As long as the task involved only MECHANICAL skill, bonuses work as they would be expected, the higher the pay the better the performance. But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward led to POORER performance”, revealed in the classic candle and thumbtack study by Karl Duncker.
http://www.workplacerewards.com/communication/the-secret-to-workplace-motivation-autonomy-mastery-purpose/
“As long as the task involved only MECHANICAL skill, bonuses work as they would be expected, the higher the pay the better the performance. But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward led to POORER performance”, revealed in the classic candle and thumbtack study by Karl Duncker.
http://www.workplacerewards.com/communication/the-secret-to-workplace-motivation-autonomy-mastery-purpose/