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Electromyographic Activity of Hand Muscles in a Motor Coordination Game: Effect of Incentive Scheme and Its Relation with Social Capital

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  • Roberto Censolo
  • Laila Craighero
  • Giovanni Ponti
  • Leonzio Rizzo
  • Rosario Canto
  • Luciano Fadiga

Abstract

Background: A vast body of social and cognitive psychology studies in humans reports evidence that external rewards, typically monetary ones, undermine intrinsic motivation. These findings challenge the standard selfish-rationality assumption at the core of economic reasoning. In the present work we aimed at investigating whether the different modulation of a given monetary reward automatically and unconsciously affects effort and performance of participants involved in a game devoid of visual and verbal interaction and without any perspective-taking activity. Methodology/Principal Findings: Twelve pairs of participants were submitted to a simple motor coordination game while recording the electromyographic activity of First Dorsal Interosseus (FDI), the muscle mainly involved in the task. EMG data show a clear effect of alternative rewards strategies on subjects' motor behavior. Moreover, participants' stock of relevant past social experiences, measured by a specifically designed questionnaire, was significantly correlated with EMG activity, showing that only low social capital subjects responded to monetary incentives consistently with a standard rationality prediction. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings show that the effect of extrinsic motivations on performance may arise outside social contexts involving complex cognitive processes due to conscious perspective-taking activity. More importantly, the peculiar performance of low social capital individuals, in agreement with standard economic reasoning, adds to the knowledge of the circumstances that makes the crowding out/in of intrinsic motivation likely to occur. This may help in improving the prediction and accuracy of economic models and reconcile this puzzling effect of external incentives with economic theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Censolo & Laila Craighero & Giovanni Ponti & Leonzio Rizzo & Rosario Canto & Luciano Fadiga, 2011. "Electromyographic Activity of Hand Muscles in a Motor Coordination Game: Effect of Incentive Scheme and Its Relation with Social Capital," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-9, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0017372
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017372
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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