An experimental study on responsibility as a motivating factor

This study investigates the motivational effects of responsibility, as a prosocial incentive to put effort, compared to only material incentives. In a field experiment on elementary school students, participants were randomly assigned to one of three incentive schemes while completing a simple cognitive task: a material incentive group earning one point per correct answer, a higher-reward material incentive group earning two points per correct answer, and a responsibility group earning one point for themselves and one for an unknown peer per correct answer. The study examines performance differences across treatments, focusing on gender and ability as factors of heterogeneity. Results show that elementary school students' performance is on average insensitive to both material and prosocial incentives. However, girls and boys' effort response to responsibility is different, with responsibility motivating boys more positively than girls. We also analyze the links between altruism and the response to treatments.