perverse incentives

I learned something, and I thought I’d share it with the world.

You know how many coaches, bosses, parents, etc. think it is a good idea to yell at people to motivate them? Here's the classic angry coach clip:

This always bugs me, because I think its bad to yell at people (meanness is part of my moral calculation, even if there is room for calling people brood of vipers and white washed tombs, biblically speaking, and even if I have been known to practice a touch of sarcasm myself). 

Also, it is questionable behavior because there is some pretty good social science evidence from a number of fields that yelling doesn’t work-that praise is a better motivator. I’m most versed in the theory in regards to children, I understand it is pretty true everywhere. 

So why do so many people think yelling is good idea? Well, here is one theory: 

http://dberri.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/a-comment-on-coaching-and-learning/

To summarize:

the writer, Daniel Kahneman was training flight instructors, and one defended his behavior like this:

He said, “On many occasions I have praised flight cadets for clean execution of some aerobatic maneuver, and in general when they try it again, they do worse. On the other hand, I have often screamed at cadets for bad execution, and in general they do better the next time. So please don’t tell us that reinforcement works and punishment does not, because the opposite is the case.”

Daniel thought fast:

I immediately arranged a demonstration in which each participant tossed two coins at a target behind his back, without any feedback. We measured the distances from the target and could see that those who had done best the first time had mostly deteriorated on their second try, and vice versa. 

In short: whatever you do to motivate someone, if they are performing badly, they'll likely do better next time. If they perform well, they're equally likely to perform worse next time.  Thus, with any reasonably motivated group of people, they will do better every time you yell at them, and they will do worse every time you praise them, because you praise when they succeed and yell when they fail. But if you switched your management behavior, yelling at them when they succeeded or praised them when they failed, the same phenomenon would occur in reverse.  If you actually want to improve their performance the most (not to mention be a better person) then you will use a positive reinforcement technique rather than a punitive one.

Sadly understanding of how to motivate people is so deeply ingrained that its going to be really hard to break coaches, teachers, and managers of this practice.

So, just so you know, you’re great- I’m impressed with the work you’re doing, and the way that you've improved over time, and I’m glad that you’re trying hard, even when you make mistakes.