[Wikimedia-l] compromise?

[James Salsman]

Pine wrote:
>...
> I think Erik addressed your question about pay in a way that is very
> reasonable and I would ask you to re-read his comments

Thank you very much for asking me to do this. I overlooked the video
mentioned in Erik's comments and I see now that it may be the root of
the problems with neglecting pay.

Erik Moeller wrote:
>...
> But the main thing, to keep people motivated, in my experience is not
> money....
> This video summarizing some of the related research is worth a watch:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

That video reports on two studies that found "higher incentives led to
worse performance," and claims that, "this has been replicated over
and over and over again." That is very misleading at best. The
following peer reviewed sources (the first of which are WP:SECONDARY
literature reviews) all indicate that while a few such studies
appeared in some popular press books, the vast bulk of the scientific
research does not agree with those isolated conclusions. In fact,
higher pay is almost always found to be a stronger motivator except in
those few anomalous studies highlighted in that video:

Fang, M.; Gerhart, B. (2011) "Does pay for performance diminish
intrinsic interest?" International Journal of Human Resource
Management: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2011.561227

Reitman, D. (1998) "The real and imagined harmful effects of rewards:
implications for clinical practice" Journal of Behavior Therapy and
Experimental Psychiatry 29(2):101-13 PMID 9762587:
http://carmine.se.edu/cvonbergen/The_real_and_imagined_harmful%20effects%20of%20rewards.pdf
(Note this is a WP:MEDRS secondary source.)

Cameron, J.; Pierce, W.D. (1994) "Reinforcement, Reward, and Intrinsic
Motivation: A Meta-Analysis" Review of Educational Research
64(3):363-423: http://rer.sagepub.com/content/64/3/363.short
(WP:SECONDARY meta-analysis of 96 experimental studies.)

Eisenberger, R. et al. (1999) "Does pay for performance increase or
decrease perceived self-determination and intrinsic motivation?"
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77(5):1026-40:
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1999-01257-010

Fiorillo, D. (2011) "Do monetary rewards crowd out intrinsic
motivations of volunteers? Some empirical evidence for Italian
volunteers" Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics Economics
82(2):139-65: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8292.2011.00434.x/abstract

Thompson, G.D., et al. (2010) "Does Paying Referees Expedite Reviews?
Results of a Natural Experiment" Economic Journal 76(3):678-92:
http://journal.southerneconomic.org/doi/abs/10.4284/sej.2010.76.3.678

Pine wrote:
>
>... I suggest that the IRC meeting may be a better forum than
> this mailing list for you to ask further questions.

I promised Gayle when she agreed to hold an office hour that I would
submit my questions weeks in advance so that there would be no
surprises, and I have done so. I don't want to reiterate any of them
until then, but if people continue to post what I believe are
mathematical or similar mistakes, I will certainly address those.