The Wrong Way To Get People To Do The Right Thing By Alfie Kohn

In the article, "The Wrong Way to Get People to Do the Right Thing," author Alfie Kohn describes how humans do kind things in their own self-interest. Kohn states that using "rewards, and invocations of self-interest, to promote generosity creates a powerful, self-reproducing framework" that explains widespread selfishness too well. While society has taught selflessness in giving, Kohn uses a variety of examples and studies to successfully persuade the reader that when a reward is involved, humans become selfish.

Kohn begins his argument with a series of examples from fairy tales to religious traditions and how they demonstrate the idea of self-enlightenment when doing kind things for others. Specifically, he describes a charity advertisement

He stays quite general with a wide variety of examples that convince the reader that he has done extensive research to defend his claim. For example, Kohn uses a list of different studies, from children and women, to adults and blood donors, showing the effects of how people think of themselves when getting a reward for doing a specific act versus when there is no reward. The results from these studies show that people who were not initially offered a reward were more likely to continue participating in surveys than those who were originally offered a reward for the first survey and not for later surveys. This shows that people who were offered a reward made a connection between acting generously and being compensated for their deeds, supporting Kohn's point. These examples relate to the reader as they consider what they would have done in a similar situation which sways the reader's opinion on the subject. Personally, I was persuaded by Kohn's essay by relating to his examples. I understand that people get conditioned to expecting certain reactions from people, and once learning to expect praises and rewards, it is hard to continue doing kind things without