Summary, Analysis & Review of Dan Ariely's Payoff [antikvár]

Overview Payoff hy Dan Ariely is a companion to the author's well-known TED talks, which focus on research that illuminates the role of reward and effort in motivation. Ariely examined his own motivations for helping a woman whose teenaged boys were badly burned, a medical trauma he experienced himself when he was approximately the boys' age. He realized that he helped the woman because of the meaning behind his actions. Human motivation is influenced by numerous factors including the use of meaning to counteract the feeling of helplessness. Motivation is eliminated when people realize that their work has no meaning. This is a common scenario in corporations where the explanation of the meaning behind certain projects is viewed as a waste of time rather than as an investment in motivation. When work has meaning, people are productive, and they are especially productive when they are doing something they enjoy. However, when work is meaningless, people are unproductive even when they enjoy the work they do.