Mixed signals
how incentives really work
- ISBN: 9780300255539
- Editorial: Yale University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2023
- Lugar de la edición: New Haven. Estados Unidos de Norteamérica
- Encuadernación: Cartoné
- Medidas: 24 cm
- Nº Pág.: 307
- Idiomas: Inglés
Incentives send powerful signals that aim to influence behavior. But often there is a conflict between what we say and what we do in response to these incentives. The result: mixed signals.
Consider the CEO who urges teamwork but designs incentives for individual success, who invites innovation but punishes failure, who emphasizes quality but pays for quantity. Employing real-world scenarios just like this to illustrate this everyday phenomenon, behavioral economist Uri Gneezy explains why incentives often fail and demonstrates how the right incentives can change behavior by aligning with signals for better results.
Drawing on behavioral economics, game theory, psychology, and fieldwork, Gneezy outlines how to be incentive smart, designing rewards that are simple and effective. He highlights how the right combination of economic and psychological incentives can encourage people to drive more fuel-efficient cars, be more innovative at work, and even get to the gym. “Incentives send a signal,” Gneezy writes, “and your objective is to make sure this signal is aligned with your goals.”
ONE: HOW SIGNALING WINS MARKETS
1. Credible Signals
2. How Toyota Won the Hybrid Car Market
3. It's Just Who I Am: Th e Value of Self-Signaling
TWO: AVOID MIXED SIGNALS
4. When More Is Less: Incentivizing Quantity at the Expense of Quality
5. Encouraging Innovation but Punishing Failure
6. Encouraging Long-Term Goals but Rewarding Short-Term Results
7. Encouraging Teamwork but Incentivizing Individual Success THREE: HOW INCENTIVES SHAPE THE STORY
8. Stakes and Mistakes
9. Mental Accounting: Choosing the Incentive's Currency
10. Regret as Incentives
11. Prosocial Incentives
12. Awards as Signals
FOUR: USE INCENTIVES TO IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
13. Are US Students Really So Bad?
14. Overhead Aversion: How Nonprofits Get a Bad Rap
15. "Pay to Quit" Strategy: Making Employees Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is
16. Bribing the Self: Cheating and Self-Signaling
FIVE: HOW INCENTIVES LEAD TO BEHAVIOR CHANGE 17. Creating Habits: Change Happens One Step at a Time . . . Literally
18. Breaking Habits: Kicking Bad Behaviors to the Curb
19. I Want It Now!
20. Removing Barriers
SIX: HELPING COMMUNITIES CHANGE HARMFUL CULTURAL PRACTICES
21. From Lion Killers to Lion Savers: Changing the Story
22. Insurance Fraud and Moral Hazard: The Maasai Edition
23. Changing the Warriors' Story
24. Changing the Economics of Female Genital Mutilation
SEVEN: NEGOTIATE YOUR SIGNALS: PUTTING INCENTIVES TO WORK AT THE NEGOTIATION TABLE
25. Anchoring and Adjustment
26. The Contrast Effect 27. Price Signals Quality
28. The Norm of Reciprocity
Conclusion: From Mixed Signals to Clear Signals
