ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a dimension where external factors can be highly effective in shaping behaviors, focuses on rewards, and on the role that separate advantages, which could derive from performing an activity, might exert on motivation and behaviors. The key aspect of rewards is their capability to affect motivation to adopt a specific behavior, and monetary and praise incentives indeed push different motivational buttons at an individual level. An important aspect that bears relevant implications for research in the domain of sustainability is the role of rewards in affecting intrinsic motivation. The informational and the control aspects of rewards emerge as the key-factors in affecting intrinsic motivation. Policy-makers and businesses typically resort to extrinsic rewards such as monetary inducements and praise messages as to incentivize people to adopt sustainable behaviors. As a consequence businesses and policy-makers often have to encourage people with extra inducements to offset these negative aspects.
