Praise: Substitution versus Income Effects, Bryan Caplan
- Touchy-feely parents shower praise on their kids. "Great job!" "You're super smart!" "Wonderful." Old-school parents do the opposite. "You could have done better."
- I suspect, is emotional rather than strategic. Parents praise or withhold because that's what feels right to them.
- accordingly.The pro-praise story: Praise is a form of reward.
- The anti-praise story: Yes, praise is a form of reward. But the more rewards kids rack up , the more satisfied they feel. The more satisfied they feel, the less effort kids exert.Framed
- pro- and anti-praise debate boils down to the intermediate micro analysis of the substitution and income effects.
- Touchy-feel parents also typically avoid shaming their kids. Old-school parents, in contrast, shame freely.
- Here, then, old-school parents seem to rely on the substitution effect - the greater the cost of bad behavior, the smaller the quantity.
- Touchy-feely parents, in contrast, seem to tacitly appeal to the income effect: A shamed kid will act even worse because he has so little left to lose.
- Personally, my parenting style embraces the substitution effect in both directions.....That's definitely more consistent
continua
