Comments on: ‘Fat kids who don’t like to read’: Why “incentive”-based learning doesn’t work–online or off’

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 10:46:05 +0000

Great post, I see racial self-segregation all the time, and I want to investigate the issue more thoroughly.
I always find something new and interesting every time I come around here – thanks.

By: Mary Dombrowski

Mary Dombrowski — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 13:03:03 +0000

I’ve always fantasized about creating a game for children to teach them about environmental science and hazardous waste. When I say children, I mean about middle school age. The idea would be to emphasize the aspect of any earth science whereby ALL the sciences come to bear: chemistry, physics, biology, math. Plus, I think children love anything that involves death, potential mutation, and highly corrosive acid!!

By: Robert Nagle

Robert Nagle — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 20:34:54 +0000

You should check out the eye-opening (and highly entertaining) book, Influence by Robert Cialdini. Cialdini makes the point that small bribes do cause behavior change, but big bribes are less likely to. The reason? With smaller bribes, people successfully internalize the motivation, so that even when the bribe is removed, they are likely to adopt a habit permanently. Bigger bribes cause the people to focus on just the reward and ignore developing the internal motivation. I think I posted about this phenomenon before, but for the life of me, I can't find it.