that pay-for-performance plans resulted in lower well being in blue-collar workers, and this was especially evident for those who felt that their jobs were monotonous. However, in certain cases where the reward also conveys information about competence that will in turn reduce the negative effect. Gamification The term gamification refers to the application of game design elements to non-game contexts in order to drive participation, often with the goal of encouraging greater engagement with the non-game context by providing symbolic rewards such as points, badges, or virtual currency. However, a number of academics and other critics have expressed concern that these rewards may backfire via the overjustification effect. Drawing directly on self-determination theory, these critics of gamification express concerns that gamified contexts such as foursquare might provide expected rewards for activities that do not adequately meet self-determination theory's three innate needs for intrinsic motivation—relatedness, autonomy, and competence—and therefore reduce intrinsic interest in those activities. Crowdsourcing Websites that rely on user-generated content sometimes offer monetary rewards for contributions, but these may cause the contributors to succumb to the overjustification effect and stop contributing. For example, Amazon Mechanical Turk allows the creator of a task to offer a monetary reward, but a survey of 431 Mechanical Turk participants showed that they are driven more by intrinsic motivations than a desire for the usually meager monetary compensation. The overjustification effect was also considered in a study on how to maximize contributions when crowdsourcing creative endeavors. Volunteering Empirical evidence shows that expected financial rewards "crowd out" intrinsic motivation, while the size of the monetary reward simultaneously provides extrinsic motivation. If the size of the monetary reward is not large enough to compensate for the loss of intrinsic motivation, overall engagement can decline. A survey data-set revealed that small financial payments reduced volunteer hours among Swiss citizens, and that the median financial reward provided to these volunteers caused them to work less than volunteers who were not given any payment. Sports The overjustification effect has also been linked to professional sports. The performance of numerous athletes has diminished following the signing of a lucrative, multimillion-dollar contract. Some notable professional athletes whose performances have diminished following a large contract include Alex Rodriguez (MLB), Albert Pujols (MLB), Wayne Rooney (Premier League) and Albert Haynesworth (NFL). See also Attribution theory Candle problem Cognitive evaluation theory Motivation crowding theory Reinforcement Self-determination theory Self-perception Social psychology References Further reading Deci,