National Lottery

Such examples demonstrate one of the conditions under which reinforcement of this sort works best, that is, the expenditure of a little additional investment on the part of the individual with the potential for a large payoff. Football pools and national lotteries make use of this principle, and it also underlies the use of the prize draws widely used as a marketing technique. Managers sometimes raise (quite legitimate) objections to such schemes on the basis that they involve paying workers extra to do what they are already paid to do (i.e. come to work), but sticking to your principles may have a cost - in this case continued high levels of absenteeism while these well-proven behavioural techniques could solve the problem. 

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Robert A. Welch Foundation (US), the National Science Foundation (US), the Petroleum Research Fund (U.S.), the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (NZ), the New Zealand Lotteries Board, and the University of Canterbury (NZ). 

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