DFG Research Unit PSYCHOECONOMICS

TP 8: Motivational States and Incentives

Principal Investigator: Anja Achtziger


Research Team: Jonas Ludwig


Research on economic decision making has shown that increasing monetary incentives does not always improve decision-making performance (and sometimes even impairs it). We observed in previous research that different motivational states affect decision making, sometimes surprisingly more than increasing monetary incentives. This impact can go in opposite directions. While certain motivational states seem to lead to more rational behavior, others can result in strong deviations from rationality. Whether the influence of motivational states and monetary incentives on decision making is based on automatic or controlled processes is unclear. We will explore this question by manipulating different motivational states and comparing their effects on economic decision making. By testing the impact of motivational states and incentives on processes of economic decision making, we will investigate whether or not there are defaults that rely on automatic processes and are thus implemented immediately, quickly, unconsciously, and without much effort (Alós-Ferrer and Strack, 2014). Crucially, we will examine whether these defaults can be controlled by motivational states at all or whether they are too robust to be changed. If they can be influenced, the question will be whether controlled processes of decision making are absolutely necessary or whether some motivational states can trigger automatic processes interfering with the default mode. We also study gender effects in motivation.


Publications


Working Papers


HOME PsychoEconomics

Zeit, um zu entscheiden

Diese Webseite verwendet externe Medien, wie z.B. Karten und Videos, und externe Analysewerkzeuge, welche alle dazu genutzt werden können, Daten über Ihr Verhalten zu sammeln. Dabei werden auch Cookies gesetzt. Die Einwilligung zur Nutzung der Cookies & Erweiterungen können Sie jederzeit anpassen bzw. widerrufen.

Eine Erklärung zur Funktionsweise unserer Datenschutzeinstellungen und eine Übersicht zu den verwendeten Analyse-/Marketingwerkzeugen und externen Medien finden Sie in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.