Can a fine for swearing make it more likely people will swear?
As this Bud Light Beer ad shows, incentives can backfire.
The behaviour we want to eliminate instead becomes more prevalent.
In this case, βfreeβ beers turned a small penalty into a larger reward.
So do incentives usually impact behaviour?
Yes. But not always in the way that was intended.
Famously, when a bounty was offered in India for dead cobras, it resulted in more snakes, not fewer. People started breeding them to collect the reward.
The same in Vietnam with rats and feral pigs in the US.
Itβs not just rewards, of course.
Penalties can also backfire.
When a childcare centre introduced a fine for late pick-ups, for example, more parents were late!
The late fee turned lateness into a transaction. Parents saw it as a service they could pay for, expunging any guilt they may otherwise have felt.
Incentives are often seen as a simple solution β just offer your customers a discount or give staff a bonus, or penalise them for being late to pay or turn up β but if youβre not careful, you may encourage the very behaviour you seek to eradicate.
Next time youβre trying to influence behaviour, try this.
Rather than reaching for rewards or penalties, which change the calculus of a behaviour, change the context instead.
Make the desired behaviour easier, more visible or more normal to do, and the undesirable behaviour more difficult.
Ref: Gneezy, Uri, and Aldo Rustichini. βA Fine Is a Price.β The Journal of Legal Studies 29, no. 1 (2000): 1β17. https://doi.org/10.1086/468061.
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