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The Addictive Nature of Rewards
Topic: How rewards may create addiction
Researchers: Anton Suvorov, Assistant Professor at the New Economic School, Russia
Year: 2003
Formal Reference: Anton Suvorov, “Addiction to Rewards”, October 2003
Main Conclusion: Rewards are addictive: once offered a bonus, the subject keeps demanding it whenever he is expected to exert effort.
Details
A theoretical model, using complicated equations that test a variety of scenarios between a motivator and a subject (principal and agent, in the words of this paper), asserting that by offering reward the motivator signal to the subject that a task is undesirable. This initial signal forces the motivator into a path of continuous rewards – a path which is difficult to depart from.