Money incentives' effectiveness pales in comparison to social pressure

From Mike Norman Economics:

"The study’s findings were striking in their similarity to [Soloman] Asch’s original results. In the non-incentivized group, the average error rate in the line judgment task was 33%, closely mirroring Asch’s findings. However, in the incentivized group, the error rate dropped to 25%. This suggests that while financial rewards can reduce the impact of group pressure, they do not eliminate it. [emphasis added]

“When we started the study, we could not imagine to be able to replicate the original findings as close as it turned out,” Franzen and Mader told PsyPost. “We thought Asch’s findings were overstated. We also believed that providing incentives for correct answers would wipe out the conformity effect. Both did not happen. The replication turned out to be very close to the original results and providing monetary incentives did not eliminate the effect of social pressure.”

The conclusion is also of interest to contrarianism.

Regarding what people should take away from the findings, the researchers remarked: “Here we like to cite Mark Twain, ‘Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.'”

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My observation of local political clubs aligns perfectly with the above. Such clubs are far more interested in social cohesion, rubbing their hands together as they huddle around some political bonfire ("Isn't Trump awful!" "Aren't those Democrats corrupt!") than in discussing public policy alternatives that might extinguish the fires.

It's essentially "My tribe is better than other tribes" ... which degenerates into a game called "Ain't it awful." It's the essence of inside-the-box thinking...or not thinking at all.

This is a shame not only because it means the public remains uninformed--they are too busy huddling with their homies--but because political inertia, not sensible thinking, rules the land. These are nice people, but, as Abe Lincoln said, good intentions are a second-rate virtue.

The insistence on adhering to one's own (and typically one's parents' own) ideology is a quasi-religious phenomenon. Persecuting heretics is part of that particular tendency. 

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A little bit of the consequences of tribal loyalty rather than clear thinking driving public policy:

1. Sacramento County just voted to postpone any climate mitigation actions for 15 years. (Meanwhile, a tree fell on my house, thanks to a powerful windstorm in early 2023...it was bad enough that my homeowners' policy was canceled. But hey, that global warming is a hoax.)

2. Sacramento County just paused it, but they previously voted to spend $1 billion to enlarge the jail. 

3. The Federal reserve says 40% of the US population can't handle a $400 emergency without selling something or borrowing.  Around 60% of wage earners live paycheck-to-paycheck. An estimated 65% of seniors only have Medicare and Social Security to fund their retirement. Congress is moving to consider reducing those social safety nets, though, and can get away with that because the tribes are at odds.