In a study of intrinsic motivation, the instructions to subjects varied the order of presentation of the reward and the choice to participate in a laboratory game. As predicted, the instructions offering subjects the reward prior to the choice to participate led to less intrinsic motivation than when the instructions offered the choice first and the reward second. The results suggest that offering a reward first increases the saliency of the controlling aspect of the reward, encouraging external attributions for participation. The contradictory findings of previous studies are reinterpreted in light of these results.
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