Monetary Incentives Research Articles

Aberrant effort-based reward dynamics in anhedonia.

Anhedonia is a transdiagnostic symptom and associated with a spectrum of reward deficits among which the motivational dysfunction is poorly understood. Previous studies have established the abnormal cost-benefit trade-off as a contributor to motivational deficits in anhedonia and its relevant psychiatric diseases. However, it remains elusive how the anhedonic neural dynamics underlying reward processing are modulated by effort expenditure. Using an effort-based monetary incentive delay task, the current event-related potential study examined the neural dynamics underlying the effort-reward interplay in anhedonia using a nonclinical sample who scored high or low on an anhedonia questionnaire. We found that effort prospectively decreased reward effect on the contingent variation negativity and the target-P3 but retrospectively enhanced outcome effect on the feedback-P3 following effort expenditure. Compared to the low-anhedonia group, the high-anhedonia group displayed a diminished effort effect on the target-P3 during effort expenditure and an increased effort-enhancement effect for neutral trials during the feedback-P3 period following effort expenditure. Our findings suggest that anhedonia is associated with an inefficient control and motivation allocation along the efforted-based reward dynamics from effort preparation to effort production.

Would You Like to Trade Your Energy? A Comparative Survey Experiment on Energy Trading Platforms

As energy markets become more decentralised, energy trading platforms are emerging as useful tools to facilitate the coordination of energy consumption and generation, encouraging a more efficient use of renewable energy by residential producers and consumers. By exploring three different European countries, we study the effectiveness of both monetary and non-monetary incentives in fostering energy trade via trading platforms. We use an incentivized survey experiment to evaluate the drivers of consumers’ and prosumers’ willingness to participate in an energy trading platform. We find that the monetary incentive is not necessarily the main reason why people would choose to trade their energy, but other dimensions, such as environmental concerns and independence from the national grid, play an important role.

Cost-effectiveness of incentives for physical activity in coronary heart disease in Germany: pre-trial health economic model of a complex intervention following the new MRC framework

ObjectivesThe German Incentives for Physical Activity in Cardiac Patients trial is a three-arm, randomised controlled trial for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). Guidance for developing complex interventions recommends...

Energy efficiency practices: A case study analysis of innovative business models in buildings

Over the last two decades, the European Union has significantly improved its legal framework for building energy efficiency. New mandatory standards have led governments to adopt incentive measures that, in turn, encourage the growth of innovative entrepreneurial practices. This study analyzes emerging business models that capitalize on energy efficiency in the building industry. Thirty-seven energy efficiency projects − either retrofit or new construction, supported exclusively by innovative business models featuring the presence of an individual contractor − in five Central and Western European countries are considered. Data is collected on property characteristics, business environment, and energy efficiency measures. Using the Rough Set approach, the analysis identifies core attributes that associate or differentiate the case studies. They include building ownership, energy-related services to be provided to the users, and the duration for which the contractor must be involved. Additionally, other attributes − such as the types of retrofit work, investment costs, access to monetary incentives, and expected payback period − allow us to identify the cases representing best practices for each innovative model. There remain open questions concerning where the boundary between different business models lies and long-term economic self-sustainability, regardless of the availability of incentives.

Differentiating anticipatory and consummatory reward processing in problematic pornography use: An event-related potential analysis of reward dynamics

Problematic pornography use (PPU) is characterized by compulsive and uncontrolled pornography consumption due to a disordered reward processing system. Past studies have shown that reward involves multiple stages, but the connection between these specific stages and PPU remains unclear. In this research, an electrophysiological incentive delay task (IDT) was employed, using both erotic and monetary incentives as rewards, to decompose the distinct phases of both anticipatory and consummatory aspects of reward processing. ERP components linked to reward anticipation (cue-P3 and contingent negative variation, CNV), as well as reward feedback (reward positivity; RewP and feedback-P3; fb-P3), were investigated in a group of 31 individuals with PPU and 33 control participants. In contrast to the control group, who reacted faster to monetary cues, individuals with PPU responded more quickly to erotic cues. RT differences between erotic and monetary cues correlated with CNV amplitudes during anticipation, although no significant CNV differences across groups. In the consummatory phase, controls had higher RewP for large-monetary than large-erotic rewards, not seen in the PPU group. Conversely, the PPU group had increased fb-P3 for large-erotic over large-monetary rewards, a trend absents in controls. Our findings indicate an imbalanced sensitivity in PPU to erotic versus non-erotic rewards, evident in both the anticipatory and consummatory aspects of reward processing. This imbalance could lead to a preference for erotic rewards, possibly fostering addictive sexual behaviors.

أثر التحول الرقمي في تطوير أداء العاملين بالتطبيق على هيئة تقويم التعليم والتدريب في المملكة العربية السعودية

The study aims to demonstrate the impact of digital transformation in developing the performance of individuals working in the Education and Training Evaluation Commission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in a way that ensures the proper application of this modern digital technology, which helps improve operational efficiency within all departments and departments of the Education and Training Evaluation Commission, and from the results using the descriptive approach, the management used The questionnaire for a sample of 100 workers that the study found is that there is a positive impact on some dimensions of digital transformation: 1- There is a deficiency in the digital transformation process in the Education and Training Evaluation Authority and a weakness in the institutional structure necessary for the digital transformation process in the Education and Training Evaluation Authority. 2- There is a desire among the working cadres The company has to carry out digital transformation to facilitate business and help speed up the completion of tasks. Among the most important recommendations and proposals that the study concluded are the following: 1- The most important recommendation is to give employees with digital talent freedom of action as well as the ability to implement the necessary changes. The company should remain open in accepting failures as digital talents are created and experimented with. Digital talent prefers to work in an environment with a culture that allows and encourages creative thinking and flexibility. 2- Management should be developed within the company in which employees take the initiative in learning and developing their digital capabilities and are rewarded accordingly. This will motivate employees to develop their digital skills. A system of monetary and non-monetary incentives must be created for employees who proactively acquire the digital capabilities needed by the authority.

Disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake among rural hard-to-reach population and urban high-risk groups of Bangladesh.

Vaccination has been an indispensable step in controlling the coronavirus disease pandemic. In early 2021, Bangladesh launched a mass vaccination campaign to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate when doses were available and immunized millions in the country. Although deemed a success, disparities became conspicuous in vaccination coverage across population of different socioeconomic background. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess the vaccination coverage for three doses and detect disparities in uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among rural population of hard-to-reach areas and urban individuals belonging to the high-risk group -defined in our study as individuals from elusive population such as floating population/street dwellers, transgender, addicts and disabled population. We conducted household survey (n = 12,298) and survey with high risk group of people (2,520). The collected primary data were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis. Our findings show that coverage for the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination was high among respondents from both rural Hard-to-reach (HTR) (92.9%) and non-HTR (94.6%) areas. However, the coverage for subsequent doses was observed to reduce significantly, especially for third dose (52.2% and 56.4% for HTR and non-HTR, respectively). Vaccination coverage among urbanites of high-risk group was found to be critically low. Vaccine hesitancy was also found to be high among individuals of this group. It is essential that the individuals of urban high-risk group be prioritized. Individuals from this group could be provided incentives (transport for disabled, monetary incentive to transgenders; food and medicine for drug user and floating people) and vaccination centers could be established with flexible schedule (morning/afternoon/evening sessions) so that they receive vaccine at their convenient time. Community engagement can be used for both high-risk group and rural population to enhance the COVID-19 vaccination coverage and lower disparities in uptake of the vaccine doses nationwide.

HOW TO DEAL WITH INSUFFICIENT SAMPLE SIZE DUE TO NON-RESPONSE IN SURVEYS?

Surveys have become indispensable approach for gathering input from diverse people in several fields, including social research, marketing, healthcare, and public opinion polls. However, non-response in surveys is a complex issue that is impacted by a variety of factors. The aim of this study is to enhance approaches to dealing with insufficient sample size resulting from non-response in surveys. This study revealed that there are several approaches in dealing with insufficient sample size due to non-response in surveys, namely: (a) resizing the population by dividing into specific category; (b) ethical and practical constraints as justification; (c) using different sampling techniques in determining sample size; and (d) repositioning the sample of a pilot study and real study. Conclusively, the proposed approaches in this study for addressing non-response and insufficient sample sizes in surveys are anticipated to significantly influence novel methodologies in sampling techniques across a variety of populations. Additional investigation is required to assess the efficacy of several approaches in augmenting the rate of response, including reminders, follow-ups, monetary or non-monetary incentives, and utilisation of online platforms for responding.

Validation of cardiac image-derived input functions for functional PET quantification

PurposeFunctional PET (fPET) is a novel technique for studying dynamic changes in brain metabolism and neurotransmitter signaling. Accurate quantification of fPET relies on measuring the arterial input function (AIF), traditionally achieved through invasive arterial blood sampling. While non-invasive image-derived input functions (IDIF) offer an alternative, they suffer from limited spatial resolution and field of view. To overcome these issues, we developed and validated a scan protocol for brain fPET utilizing cardiac IDIF, aiming to mitigate known IDIF limitations.MethodsTwenty healthy individuals underwent fPET/MR scans using [18F]FDG or 6-[18F]FDOPA, utilizing bed motion shuttling to capture cardiac IDIF and brain task-induced changes. Arterial and venous blood sampling was used to validate IDIFs. Participants performed a monetary incentive delay task. IDIFs from various blood pools and composites estimated from a linear fit over all IDIF blood pools (3VOI) and further supplemented with venous blood samples (3VOIVB) were compared to the AIF. Quantitative task-specific images from both tracers were compared to assess the performance of each input function to the gold standard.ResultsFor both radiotracer cohorts, moderate to high agreement (r: 0.60–0.89) between IDIFs and AIF for both radiotracer cohorts was observed, with further improvement (r: 0.87–0.93) for composite IDIFs (3VOI and 3VOIVB). Both methods showed equivalent quantitative values and high agreement (r: 0.975–0.998) with AIF-derived measurements.ConclusionOur proposed protocol enables accurate non-invasive estimation of the input function with full quantification of task-specific changes, addressing the limitations of IDIF for brain imaging by sampling larger blood pools over the thorax. These advancements increase applicability to any PET scanner and clinical research setting by reducing experimental complexity and increasing patient comfort.

Challenges in the quantification of household food waste: the need for consistent methodologies

Purpose The purpose of this short communication is to shed light on the accuracy of quantification methods of household food waste (HFW).Design/methodology/approach Thirty-seven recently published studies in HFW were surveyed for this commentary. Exemplary methods and findings of these studies were compared.Findings It is challenging to draw conclusions on the amount of the HFW per person/town/country due to the inconsistent and heterogeneous methodologies used. We recommend using direct measurements or triangulation of methods to help ensure valid findings. Governments should incentivize consumers to deliver their food waste to designated locations where weights could accurately be assessed. Monetary or tax incentives could help stimulate an accurate accounting of waste and encourage reductions. Food waste measurements should be consistently reported as kg/person/week.Social implications Food and water security must be provided for all. It is estimated that one-third of edible food for humans is currently lost or wasted globally. According to the World Food Program (WFP), this is about 1.3 billion tons of food per year and at the same time this wasted food could be sufficient to feed two billion people.Originality/value The aim of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature about the magnitude and significance of HFW and its impact on the environment and social welfare. Currently, there are no generally accepted uniform methods of food waste quantification at the household level. This original communication brings the importance and challenges of the quantification of HFW to light.

Carbon Generalized System of Preferences (CGSP) programs: Key design dimensions and attitudes of potential participants

The Carbon Generalized System of Preferences (CGSP) is a tool that employs monetary or non-monetary incentives to promote sustainable behaviors. While CGSP pilot programs have been initiated, its main design dimensions and people’s preferences for these dimensions remain unexplored. This study developed a two-stage framework to summarize key components of the CGSP’s design and delve into participants’ preferences for various CGSP designs. Our findings indicate that individuals aged over 30, with comparatively higher incomes, and living within smaller households, tend to exhibit tendencies towards high-emission travel. Regarding interviewees’ preferences for the key design dimensions of the CGSP, a unanimous consensus emerges that the government should play a leading role in CGSP development. While divergences exist, most interviewees lean towards CGSP programs being voluntary in nature, city-level in scope, and possessing mid-term billing cycles (monthly to semi-annually). Attitudes towards monetary incentives display significant variation among interviewees, with those working in the transportation industry generally exhibiting a greater affinity for non-monetary incentives. The majority of interviewees express comfort with personal information collection for the CGSP, particularly among potential low-emission travelers. This study provides valuable insights for designing and promoting CGSP mechanisms.

Early and late contingent negative variation (CNV) reflect different aspects of deficits in schizophrenia.

Abnormal reward processing and psychomotor slowing are well-known in schizophrenia (SZ). As a slow frontocentral potential, contingent negative variation (CNV) is associated with anticipatory attention, motivation and motor planning. The present study aims to evaluate the early and late amplitude and latencies of CNV in patients with SZ compared to healthy controls during a reward processing task and to show its association with clinical symptoms. We recruited 21 patients with SZ and 22 healthy controls to compare early and late CNV amplitude and latency values during a Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) Task between groups. Patients' symptom severity, levels of negative symptoms and depressive symptoms were assessed. Clinical features of the patients were further examined for their relation with CNV components. In conclusion, we found decreased early CNV amplitudes in SZ during the reward condition. They also displayed diminished and shortened late CNV responses for incentive cues, specifically at the central location. Furthermore, early CNV amplitudes exhibited a significant correlation with positive symptoms. Both CNV latencies were linked with medication dosage and the behavioural outcomes of the MID task. We revealed that early and late CNV exhibit different functions in neurophysiology and correspond to various facets of the deficits observed in patients. Our findings also emphasized that slow cortical potentials are indicative of deficient motivational processes as well as impaired reaction preparation in SZ. To gain a deeper understanding of the cognitive and motor impairments associated with psychosis, future studies must compare the effects of CNV in the early and late phases.

Amplification of positivity for depression and anxiety: Neural prediction of treatment response

Psychosocial treatments targeting the positive valence system (PVS) in depression and anxiety demonstrate efficacy in enhancing positive affect (PA), but response to treatment varies. We examined whether individual differences in neural activation to positive and negative valence incentive cues underlies differences in benefitting from a PVS-targeted treatment. Individuals with clinically elevated depression and/or anxiety (N = 88, ages 18 to 55) participated in one of two randomized, waitlist-controlled trials of Amplification of Positivity (AMP; NCT02330627, NCT03196544), a cognitive and behavioral intervention targeting the PVS. Participants completed a monetary incentive delay (MID) task during fMRI acquisition at baseline measuring neural activation to the possibility of gaining or losing money. Change in PA from before to after treatment was assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. No significant associations were observed between baseline neural activation during gain anticipation and AMP-related changes in PA in regions of interest (striatum and insula) or whole-brain analyses. However, higher baseline striatal and insula activation during loss anticipation was associated with greater increases in PA post-AMP. This study provides preliminary evidence suggesting neural reactivity to negative valence cues may inform who stands to benefit most from treatments targeting the PVS.

When ‘fear factors’ motivate people to adopt electric vehicles in India: An empirical investigation of the protection motivation theory

Climatic extremes have caused immense harm around the world. Its harm in terms of the proportion of people and regions affected continues to increase every single day. Due to people's psychological distance from such climatic threats, active initiatives are not undertaken for mitigation of its source. Rather, localized short-term solutions are marking a new status-quo. This study examines if fear can be used as a motivator to nudge people away from the psychological distance and motivate them to adopt electric vehicles (EVs). While subsidies and tax rebates are popularly adopted means to boost demand and supply of EVs, monetary incentives are costly to sustain for developing nations, amidst their diverse priorities. Instead, use of motivators like ‘fear’ is cheap, yet not much explored. Using the protection motivation theory, the study interviews 1112 Indian individuals, to examine if fear can nudge EV adoption. Using structural equation modeling and mediation analysis, the study finds that the expectation of personal harm from climatic threats can nudge one to actively mitigate the source of threat. Various aspects of threat and the associated coping processes that need to be triggered sequentially to nudge the formation of a pro-environmental intention to adopt EVs are also outlined.

Publishing in premier journals with high impact factor and Q1 journals: Dos and Don'ts

AbstractThe evolving landscape of the academic world has ushered in a plethora of challenges and opportunities for researchers. While there are undoubtedly monetary incentives and fringe benefits for those who actively engage in publishing, the journey toward acceptance by a premier journal is often arduous and time‐consuming. Considering this context, this paper endeavors to dissect prevailing trends, elucidate the reasons behind manuscript rejections, and furnish a compendium of strategies and insights aimed at augmenting the likelihood of acceptance while mitigating the probability of rejection.

Comparing the effects of non-monetary incentives and monetary incentives on prosocial behavior

The crowding-out effects predict that offering monetary incentives to complete a task might negatively affect task performance because the monetary rewards crowd out non-monetary sources of value that people derive from task completion. In this study, we revisit a well-known field experiment by Gneezy and Rustichini (2000) that provides evidence for crowding-out effects in the context of prosocial behavior. We test the robustness of these effects using a larger sample and adjust the experiment's design to better elucidate the role of non-monetary incentives in prosocial behavior. Specifically, we assigned 245 pairs of high school students to different incentives for collecting donations for charity: low monetary incentives (1 % of total donations collected), high monetary incentives (10 % of total donations collected), non-monetary incentives (enhanced task importance and public recognition), or no external incentives. We made it explicit to the students that the monetary incentives were funded by the researchers, not the charities. In line with crowding-out effects and Gneezy and Rustichini's (2000) findings, our results show that low monetary incentives elicit lower performance (collected donations) compared with the absence of external incentives. Importantly, non-monetary incentives elicit higher performance compared with either monetary incentives or the absence of external incentives.

Determinants of willingness to donate data from social media platforms

ABSTRACT Social media data donation through data download packages (DDPs) is a promising new way of collecting individual-level digital trace data with informed consent. Nevertheless, given the novelty of this approach, little is known about whether and how people would share their data with researchers, although this could seriously affect selection bias and thus, the outer validity of the results. To study the determinants of data-sharing and help future data donation studies with detecting the conditions, under which the willingness is the highest, we pre-registered two vignette experiments and embedded them in two online surveys conducted in Hungary and the US. In hypothetical requests for donating social media data via DDPs, we manipulated the amount of the monetary incentives (1), the presence or lack of non-monetary incentives (2), the number of requested platforms (3), the estimated upload/download time (4), and the type of requested data (5). The results revealed that data-sharing attitude is strongly subject to the parameters of the actual study, how the request is framed, and some respondent characteristics. Monetary incentives increased willingness to participate in both countries, while other effects were not consistent between the two countries.

Adaptive coding of reward in schizophrenia, its change over time and relationship to apathy.

Adaptive coding of reward is the process by which neurons adapt their response to the context of available compensations. Higher rewards lead to a stronger brain response, but the increase of the response depends on the range of available rewards. A steeper increase is observed in a narrow range and a more gradual slope in a wider range. In schizophrenia, adaptive coding appears to be affected in different domains, especially in the reward domain. Here, we tested adaptive coding of reward in a large group of patients with schizophrenia (n = 86) and control subjects (n = 66). We assessed: (i) the association between adaptive coding deficits and symptoms; (ii) the longitudinal stability of deficits (the same task was performed 3 months apart); and (iii) the stability of results between two experimental sites. We used functional MRI and the monetary incentive delay task to assess adaptation of participants to two different reward ranges: a narrow range and a wide range. We used a region-of-interest analysis to evaluate adaptation within striatal and visual regions. Patients and control subjects underwent a full demographic and clinical assessment. We found reduced adaptive coding in patients, with a decreased slope in the narrow reward range with respect to that of control participants, in striatal but not visual regions. This pattern was observed at both research sites. Upon retesting, patients increased their narrow-range slopes, showing improved adaptive coding, whereas control subjects slightly reduced them. At retesting, patients with overly steep slopes in the narrow range also showed higher levels of negative symptoms. Our data confirm deficits in reward adaptation in schizophrenia and reveal an effect of practice in patients, leading to improvement, with steeper slopes upon retesting. However, in some patients, an excessively steep slope may result in poor discriminability of larger rewards, owing to early saturation of the brain response. Together, the loss of precision of reward representation in new (first exposure, underadaptation) and more familiar (retest, overadaptation) situations might contribute to the multiple motivational symptoms in schizophrenia.

Diminished differentiation of rewards in individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis.

Reward processing is impaired in people with schizophrenia, which may begin in the clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis period. The Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task has been important in understanding the neural correlates of reward processing deficits in various psychiatric disorders. Previous research has found that CHR individuals have an imprecise mental representation of rewards, which leads to a diminished differentiation between rewards, though this has not been observed behaviorally. A total of 19 CHR individuals and 20 controls were given a novel variant of the MID task, designed to examine how modulating reward context may impact responses to reward cues, a process often referred to as "adaptive coding." Both groups appeared to update their behavior in response to the rewards available in this adaptive task. However, when compared to controls who showed a more graded decrease in response time to increasing reward contexts, CHR individuals appeared to have a sharp decrease in response time in the low reward context that is nearly stable across higher reward contexts. This is largely driven by the exponential component of the response time distribution, which is often interpreted to be more cognitively or effortfully influenced. Response times are related to negative symptoms, but not positive symptoms, disorganized symptoms, or estimated intelligence. Although an adaptive coding effect was not observed, these results provide novel insight into the reward processing mechanisms and volitional processes in the CHR population, as this was the first study to observe the diminished differentiation of rewards behaviorally.

Motivation and emotional distraction interact and affect executive functions

Previous research on cool-hot executive function (EF) interactions has examined the effects of motivation and emotional distraction on cool EF separately, focusing on one EF component at a time. Although both incentives and emotional distractors have been shown to modulate attention, how they interact and affect cool EF processes is still unclear. Here, we used an experimental paradigm that manipulated updating, inhibition, and shifting demands to determine the interactions of motivation and emotional distraction in the context of cool EF. Forty-five young adults (16 males, 29 females) completed the go/no-go (inhibition), two-back (updating), and task-switching (shifting) tasks. Monetary incentives were implemented to manipulate motivation, and task-irrelevant threatening or neutral faces were presented before the target stimulus to manipulate emotional distraction. We found that incentives significantly improved no-go accuracy, two-back accuracy, and reaction time (RT) switch cost. While emotional distractors had no significant effects on overall task performance, they abolished the incentive effects on no-go accuracy and RT switch cost. Altogether, these findings suggest that motivation and emotional distraction interact in the context of cool EF. Specifically, transient emotional distraction disrupts the upregulation of control activated by incentives. The present investigation has advanced knowledge about the relationship between cool and hot EF and highlights the importance of considering motivation–emotion interactions for a fuller understanding of control.