Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes
Alfie Kohn
Jul 2017 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Alfie Kohn
5.0star
4 reviewsreport
headphones
Audiobook
13 hr 9 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
Want a 1 hr 23 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
Our basic strategy for raising children, teaching students, and managing workers can be summed up in six words: Do this, and you'll get that. We dangle goodies (from candy bars to sales commissions) in front of people in the same way that we train the family pet.
Unfortunately, attempts to manipulate people with incentives ultimately fail and even do lasting harm. Drawing from hundreds of studies, Kohn demonstrates that people actually do inferior work when they are enticed with money, grades, or other rewards. What's more, they tend to lose interest in whatever they have been manipulated with rewards to do.
Over the years, this groundbreaking book has persuaded countless parents, teachers, and managers that rewards and punishments are actually two sides of the same coin, and it's a coin that doesn't buy very much. Kohn explains what it means to work with people instead of doing things to them—at home, at school, and at work. Seasoned with humor—and containing new studies and stories in an Afterword written for the book's revised edition—Punished by Rewards presents an argument unsettling to hear but impossible to dismiss.
Unfortunately, attempts to manipulate people with incentives ultimately fail and even do lasting harm. Drawing from hundreds of studies, Kohn demonstrates that people actually do inferior work when they are enticed with money, grades, or other rewards. What's more, they tend to lose interest in whatever they have been manipulated with rewards to do.
Over the years, this groundbreaking book has persuaded countless parents, teachers, and managers that rewards and punishments are actually two sides of the same coin, and it's a coin that doesn't buy very much. Kohn explains what it means to work with people instead of doing things to them—at home, at school, and at work. Seasoned with humor—and containing new studies and stories in an Afterword written for the book's revised edition—Punished by Rewards presents an argument unsettling to hear but impossible to dismiss.
Ratings and reviews
5.0
4 reviews
About the author
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. He is the author of fourteen books, including Unconditional Parenting and The Myth of the Spoiled Child (both available as Tantor audiobooks), and scores of articles. He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at alfiekohn.org.
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
