Is it right to give incentives?

Mightythedj23

Mightythedj23

Well-Known Member
Is it morally right to give incentives to get people to do what you want? Lemme give you this real life example that happened to me yesterday;

In my math class, my teacher reminded us of the upcoming blood drive that's on friday (weather permitting) and said that they need at least like, 130 donors, because the weather has like, crippled their efforts to get more donations.

He went on to say that if he saw anyone's names of my class on the roster for the blood drive, hewould give us 10 bonus points towards an exam i think. whatever.

I mean, granted it is for a good cause and whatnot, and math is like, my weakest subject, so 10 points is like the fucking holy grail to me right now. But, Is it right to do that, like i asked?


I mean, if it gets people to do what you want them to, then i guess it's good, but also at the same time, at least for me, i feel it downplays/diminishes the true meaning/purpose of ding what they asked without the incentive; in this case, i would be donating blood only for the points, and not for the betterment/help of fellow people who could use my life liquid.


So, where do you stand t9k? Is it right to give incentives? What's your idea?
 
Donating blood is good but it has nothing to do with math. I guess it would be right to give extra points if you do a presentation on donating mathematically.

Would he give the bonus points to all students or just to you?
 
avroom said:
Donating blood is good but it has nothing to do with math. I guess it would be right to give extra points if you do a presentation on donating mathematically.

Would he give the bonus points to all students or just to you?
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anyone who's name was on the roster to donate, as long as they are in his class.
 
You could always be donating blood for the purpose that you desire to benefit others and to have an increase in grades. I guess my question is, which precedes that of initial, impulsive importance? Of course, the betterment of your fellow people, yes, but what if there was no correlation between the two in the first place where donating blood was an option in your school and it had totally nothing to do with your grades? Would you still have that same impulse to donate blood if it was just "out there" so-to-speak without any incentive behind it?
 
This was the same situation with my foreign language class.

My teacher said if we brought a soda for a fair the the language department was hosting, he would give us 5-10 extra points on a test or quiz plus a free ticket into the fair. I was the only one who actually brought something in.

When I think about that situation, in relation to what you are saying, people will still do as they please, with or without incentives.
 
avroom said:
He could give everyone some money out of private hands, but dealing with points isn't allowed. I mean you didn't do something good for his lessons, so why should you be rewarded.
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I don't think it's even legal to give a student money for doing something like that. But yes, with points is, IF it's not a grade as a whole (e.g. Do this for me and I will give you a free 100)
 
At our school, we CAN get free one hundreds, (as minor grades, of course), but we can do it.

I think it's entirely right to give incentives. Who cares what your motive was? I DON'T SEE THE BIG DEAL WITH MOTIVES! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

YOU GAVE THE BLOOD! (Or plan to right?) Who cares if you just did it for the 10 points? Your blood is going to be used to save someone's life. (Hopefully) REGUARDLESS of /why/ you did it.

I may just be a douche, that isn't ever concerned with doing the "right" thing, but your blood isn't going to be any more useful whether if you did it for the "right" reason, or if you did it for a cool t-shirt that we get here, OR for 10 points on a math test.

Your teacher, also did a good thing, by ensuring that there would be participants in the blood drive.

What's worse? No participants because they weren't doing it for the "right" reason, or all the participants that were doing it for 10 extra points.

It makes no difference to the life that the blood just saved.
 
Kris19642 said:
At our school, we CAN get free one hundreds, (as minor grades, of course), but we can do it.

I think it's entirely right to give incentives. Who cares what your motive was? I DON'T SEE THE BIG DEAL WITH MOTIVES! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

YOU GAVE THE BLOOD! (Or plan to right?) Who cares if you just did it for the 10 points? Your blood is going to be used to save someone's life. (Hopefully) REGUARDLESS of /why/ you did it.

I may just be a douche, that isn't ever concerned with doing the "right" thing, but your blood isn't going to be any more useful whether if you did it for the "right" reason, or if you did it for a cool t-shirt that we get here, OR for 10 points on a math test.

Your teacher, also did a good thing, by ensuring that there would be participants in the blood drive.

What's worse? No participants because they weren't doing it for the "right" reason, or all the participants that were doing it for 10 extra points.

It makes no difference to the life that the blood just saved.
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So by what you said, it doesn't matter what the original thing was, as long as the incentive is good?
 
Mightythedj23 said:
So by what you said, it doesn't matter what the original thing was, as long as the incentive is good?
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So long as the incentive is good, and the objective positive, yes.

No, I will not rob a bank and rape 3 women for a cool T-shirt that says: "HEY, I'M A VIRGINITY THIEF."

(bubumbading)


Edit(to clarify): There are no negatives to this, so what's the issue?
 
Incentives like this are a double edged sword though, I mean it's good and all to do this, but there are sometimes limiting factors for some people that would make it impossible for them to do it. Let's say you have sickle cell or some other disease that will prevent you from donating, yes you don't need to disclose this to the teacher, but because you can't donate you won't be able to get the points/feel goods of donating blood.

Course the other side of this is having incentives just sweetens that gratification of donating blood so that others will have the necessity that they require.

Honestly I'm at an impasse for this.

!. Let kids donate on their own accord, and give them bonus points without dangling it in front of them like a carrot.

2. Hint at "oh the blood drive is going on, try to donate/help out anyway you can :)."

3. Don't make a spectacle of the whole event, people's lives depend on these drives.
 
It is more right to give incentives then you could possibly believe.

First off (and most importantly) in the situation you mentioned incentives are perfect. The first and foremost goal of a blood drive is to stock up on blood in order to save lives. Not inspire people to help others, not to make people care. It is to save lives. It sounds like your teacher believes this quite a bit if he is offering extra credit. Does this apply to the math class specifically? No, but you'll find as you grow older that children love to focus on the specifics and ignore the bigger picture, so I can tell you from experience that the fact that the extra credit in a class that has nothing to do with donating blood doesn't matter. We could go into how teachers are allowed to give so much extra credit a semester, or how little the extra credit could mean in a system based on standardized scores, no child left behind, and bell curves but let's stay away from that so that we can keep on topic. Also, I could sit here and explain the bigger picture all day but you have to learn to see it through experience, so it will get no one anywhere.

Now, back to the topic at hand. Giving incentives is a great way to get people involved on many levels. Sometimes an important situation comes up that people NEED to get involved in. However, that may not be something people really care about. Well, the point of the situation isn't necessarily to get people to care, just to get them involved to help facilitate it. Then, we have situations where you want to get people to want to help. Incentives are a great way to draw people's attention and get them through that door. You know that looking through the window doesn't show much about what is inside, but you do know if you can get them inside, they will have a chance to see everything. Sometimes incentives are the gateway drug to caring :)
Another situation might involve something a little less important. Maybe you want help to solve a more personal problem that doesn't concern others on the same level. It isn't necessarily a bad problem that you need to seek help for, but something you just want to get some help with. Like help building something. Well, you offer an incentive (i.e. money) to get someone that is unaffected by the situation to help. You leave with your house built, they leave with money to spend on the things they want. This is called capitalism, and while the system can be great, it can also be bad. everyone knows what I am talking about.

Yeah, in a perfect world it would be nice to not have to offer incentives because everyone cares about everyone. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and some people need motivation. Incentives is not a bad way to get others involved.
 
Casey said:
It is more right to give incentives then you could possibly believe.

First off (and most importantly) in the situation you mentioned incentives are perfect. The first and foremost goal of a blood drive is to stock up on blood in order to save lives. Not inspire people to help others, not to make people care. It is to save lives. It sounds like your teacher believes this quite a bit if he is offering extra credit. Does this apply to the math class specifically? No, but you'll find as you grow older that children love to focus on the specifics and ignore the bigger picture, so I can tell you from experience that the fact that the extra credit in a class that has nothing to do with donating blood doesn't matter. We could go into how teachers are allowed to give so much extra credit a semester, or how little the extra credit could mean in a system based on standardized scores, no child left behind, and bell curves but let's stay away from that so that we can keep on topic. Also, I could sit here and explain the bigger picture all day but you have to learn to see it through experience, so it will get no one anywhere.

Now, back to the topic at hand. Giving incentives is a great way to get people involved on many levels. Sometimes an important situation comes up that people NEED to get involved in. However, that may not be something people really care about. Well, the point of the situation isn't necessarily to get people to care, just to get them involved to help facilitate it. Then, we have situations where you want to get people to want to help. Incentives are a great way to draw people's attention and get them through that door. You know that looking through the window doesn't show much about what is inside, but you do know if you can get them inside, they will have a chance to see everything. Sometimes incentives are the gateway drug to caring :)
Another situation might involve something a little less important. Maybe you want help to solve a more personal problem that doesn't concern others on the same level. It isn't necessarily a bad problem that you need to seek help for, but something you just want to get some help with. Like help building something. Well, you offer an incentive (i.e. money) to get someone that is unaffected by the situation to help. You leave with your house built, they leave with money to spend on the things they want. This is called capitalism, and while the system can be great, it can also be bad. everyone knows what I am talking about.

Yeah, in a perfect world it would be nice to not have to offer incentives because everyone cares about everyone. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and some people need motivation. Incentives is not a bad way to get others involved.
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I really am at a loss at this, 10 points extra credit to donate blood. Feel like the integrity of the blood drive is pretty much shit if that's what needed to motivate kids to donate. Later on down the line of life I'll enjoy it when I'm broken down on the side of the road and some kid comes up saying "I'll help ya mister with your car, but you better suck my dick." And by that I mean people declaring what their incentive is for helping and not just helping with/without the reward incentive. Which would be for that example "I'll help ya mister with your car. *fixes car* here's a $20 for the trouble. *or* thank you for the help young man 'smiles'."

Again also with the people who are limited in capability and wish to help (whether it's disease or even something like the flu where they can't donate at the time) only to not be able to and miss out on something they believe in, it's not a "oh well, sucks for them" type of situation if they are barely passing.

tl:dr Morale incentives > monetary/material incentives.
 
Bored said:
I really am at a loss at this, 10 points extra credit to donate blood. Feel like the integrity of the blood drive is pretty much shit if that's what needed to motivate kids to donate. Later on down the line of life I'll enjoy it when I'm broken down on the side of the road and some kid comes up saying "I'll help ya mister with your car, but you better suck my dick." And by that I mean people declaring what their incentive is for helping and not just helping with/without the reward incentive. Which would be for that example "I'll help ya mister with your car. *fixes car* here's a $20 for the trouble. *or* thank you for the help young man 'smiles'."

Again also with the people who are limited in capability and wish to help (whether it's disease or even something like the flu where they can't donate at the time) only to not be able to and miss out on something they believe in, it's not a "oh well, sucks for them" type of situation if they are barely passing.

tl:dr Morale incentives > monetary/material incentives.
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See, that's the thing though. In this specific case, the goal wasn't to motivate children to help others, it was to get people into the blood drive to donate so that lives could be saved. I am sure if a student wasn't able to give blood due to medical reasons, it could be discussed with the teacher in private and a compromise could be met. In this specific case. Also, the integrity of the blood drive has nothing to do with this. The whole point is to increase the local supply of blood in order to save lives.

Now, are morale incentives better than material incentives? In a perfect world, hell yes. But in this world, they are a driving force in getting people involved, especially in situations where there isn't much morale incentive. Not to mention, while morale incentive should be better, not all people have experienced the world in a way that they understand this yet. Material incentives are a good way to involve people who haven't matured in a social morality mindset, and it introduces them to situations where they help others and can begin to understand the reach of that. Not all situations are perfect, but for the most part material incentives are a good way to go.
 
Tai_K_Yagami said:
You could always be donating blood for the purpose that you desire to benefit others and to have an increase in grades. I guess my question is, which precedes that of initial, impulsive importance? Of course, the betterment of your fellow people, yes, but what if there was no correlation between the two in the first place where donating blood was an option in your school and it had totally nothing to do with your grades? Would you still have that same impulse to donate blood if it was just "out there" so-to-speak without any incentive behind it?
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Specifically on giving blood, me and friends did it because you got a free chicken sandwich.
So in this case, the incentive isn't nearly on the same level as the action. Giving blood saves lives, whereas I could buy a chicken sandwich for $1.50.
Another good example of this is Kickstarter/Indiegogo/any Crowdfunding site. $50 for a bracelet? Of course I wouldn't buy that same bracelet for $50, but thinking of what my money is going to gives it a bit more value.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that incentives often work even when they're not proportional to the action they're being rewarded for. So they often work and are beneficial at this level. People don't like to do something good for nothing, and it's often hard to realize how much good you're doing from the outside, so a small incentive often compels people to do something good they normally wouldn't.
 
Mightythedj23 said:
Is it morally right to give incentives to get people to do what you want? Lemme give you this real life example that happened to me yesterday;

In my math class, my teacher reminded us of the upcoming blood drive that's on friday (weather permitting) and said that they need at least like, 130 donors, because the weather has like, crippled their efforts to get more donations.

He went on to say that if he saw anyone's names of my class on the roster for the blood drive, hewould give us 10 bonus points towards an exam i think. whatever.

I mean, granted it is for a good cause and whatnot, and math is like, my weakest subject, so 10 points is like the fucking holy grail to me right now. But, Is it right to do that, like i asked?


I mean, if it gets people to do what you want them to, then i guess it's good, but also at the same time, at least for me, i feel it downplays/diminishes the true meaning/purpose of ding what they asked without the incentive; in this case, i would be donating blood only for the points, and not for the betterment/help of fellow people who could use my life liquid.


So, where do you stand t9k? Is it right to give incentives? What's your idea?
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In your circumstance, the answer is yes and no. It's right because the blood is saving lives, regardless of the reason of donation or motivation. At the same time, though, it's wrong because the teacher is giving points for something that is unrelated to what he is teaching. To be fair, though, I wouldn't consider it a big deal at all since it's high school.

As for incentives in general, it all really comes down to what the person wants you to do and why.
 
Vorsprung said:
Fuck morality

That's free marks

Benefit the world with your sugary teenage blood and succeed at school at the same time

There's nothing wrong with this, really
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Not saying there's anything wrong with giving incentives. Just it could've been done a bit better. I mean which sounds more intriguing:

"Any students that I see on the roster for the blood drive will receive 10 bonus points on their next exam."

or

"Be sure to donate at the blood drive, I'll be doing something special for those who participate."

It's the outright naming the incentive that pretty much puts a value on the blood drive that may persuade some people because they'll be like "Hell ya bonus points" while others might be like "Pshhh 10 points like that's even worth it." Hell most of our teachers persuaded us with the fact ya get out of class and free juice/snacks after giving blood.

Ugh I'm probably not really wording this in the best of light to the situation.

Incentives = People expect rewards for helping people.

And don't bring up this "In a perfect world" nonsense, it doesn't have to be a perfect world for people to learn the value of humanitarianism with/without material rewards. Hell even infants can learn the value of sharing.
 
Bored said:
Hell most of our teachers persuaded us with the fact ya get out of class and free juice/snacks after giving blood.
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I would draw the line at exam points, because then all of a sudden someone with actual talent who didn't donate blood might end up with a lower score than someone who did. And who knows, it might have an effect on one's future. Free food after donating blood, no problem there.
 
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