Retrospective misattribution and task enjoyment

Abstract

This experiment involved elementary school students in a series of team competitions. In one half of the winning teams (comprising the PRIZE condition), the members received attractive prizes as tokens of their victory, though no promise of prizes had been made initially. In the remaining half of the winning teams (the NO-PRIZE condition) no prizes were distributed. As expected, Ss in PRIZE (vs the NO-PRIZE) condition tended to misattribute causality for having participated in the games to the prizes and consequently reproted less enjoyment of the games as such. Contrary to hypothesis, these tendencies did not amplify with time elapsing from the introduction of the prizes.