Can Monetary Incentives Improve Decision Making?

Multiple studies of risky decision making have utilized monetary compensation for their participants. In most, participants are told at the start of the study that they will receive money or a gift card for their participation. There is currently no previous research into whether knowledge of a monetary incentive influences decision making on tasks that involve monetary rewards. However, if participants are told they will receive a portion of the monetary outcome from the task, and thus their compensation is linked to task performance, decision making is then affected. The present study sought to examine whether knowledge of a monetary incentive affects performance on decision making tasks. One hundred nine college student participants (26 males, ages 18-20) were recruited. During informed consent, 47 participants were told they would receive course credit and $10 for their participation, and the remaining participants were told about the course credit only. Participants then completed a series of computerized decision making tasks. Results indicated no between group differences on the decision making tasks. However, some significant correlations were found between the tasks themselves. Implications for decision making research are discussed.The OSU Newark student research grantNo embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog