There is a classic story in psychology: An old man is annoyed by neighborhood children playing loudly on his lawn. To get rid of them, he tries a paradoxical strategy. He tells them, “I love your games! I’ll pay you each $5 to come back and play tomorrow.” The kids are thrilled and play for hours. The next day, he says, “I’m running low on cash, I can only pay you $1 today.” The kids are disappointed but still play. On the third day, he says, “I can’t pay you anything today.” The kids reply, “You think we’d play for free? Forget it!” and they never return.

​He successfully destroyed their intrinsic motivation (playing for fun) by replacing it with extrinsic motivation (playing for money).

​In psychology, this is known as the Overjustification Effect.

​In the corporate world, we do this every day. We take the few remaining things employees actually enjoy doing—mentoring a junior, organizing a social event, identifying a safety risk—and we slap a “point value” on it. We think we are rewarding the behavior, but we are actually commoditizing it.

​Here is how the Overjustification Effect turns your most passionate employees into coin-operated mercenaries.

​The Psychology: Rewiring the “Why”

​The human brain constantly categorizes activities. Some are “Labor” (things we do for reward) and some are “Leisure/Passion” (things we do for satisfaction).

​When you attach a badge, a bonus, or a leaderboard point to a passion activity, the brain re-categorizes it.

​In Octalysis terms, you are shifting the motivation from Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity) and Core Drive 1 (Epic Meaning) over to Core Drive 4 (Ownership & Possession).

​The first time an employee receives 500 points for “Helping a Colleague,” they feel validated. But subconsciously, the narrative shifts from “I helped him because I am a helpful person” to “I helped him because it was worth 500 points.”

​Once that mental switch flips, it is nearly impossible to flip back. If you ever stop the points, or if the employee decides the points aren’t worth the effort, the behavior stops. You have successfully extinguished the natural spark of citizenship.

​The Culture: The “Coin-Operated” Workforce

​When the Overjustification Effect bleeds into the wider culture, you create a transactional workplace.

​In a healthy culture, “Organizational Citizenship Behaviors” (OCBs)—like cleaning up a mess you didn’t make or staying late to help a struggling peer—are fueled by social norms and shared purpose.

​In a gamified culture suffering from overjustification, these behaviors become menu items. The culture becomes: “No points, no action.”

​”Will I get a badge for fixing that error?”

“Is there a spot bonus for attending the town hall?”

​If the answer is no, the employee walks away. You haven’t increased engagement; you have merely created a mercenary culture where every act of kindness has a price tag. You destroy the organic social fabric of the team and replace it with a marketplace.

​The Cheating: The Minimum Viable Effort

​When you replace passion with points, the goal shifts. The goal is no longer “do a good job”; the goal is “get the reward.”

​This leads to a specific type of cheating: The Hollow Victory.

​Let’s say you gamify “Mentorship.” You give senior staff points for every session they have with a junior.

• ​Before Gamification: A senior engineer spends 2 hours explaining a complex concept because they care about the junior’s growth.
• ​After Gamification: The senior engineer schedules four 15-minute sessions, talks about the weather, signs the “Mentorship Log,” and claims the points.

​Technically, they followed the rules. They didn’t break the system. But they cheated the intent. They provided the minimum viable effort required to trigger the reward mechanism. The soul of the activity—the actual transfer of knowledge—is lost, sacrificed on the altar of efficiency.

​Conclusion: Protect the Flame, Don’t Sell It

​The lesson for managers and gamification designers is simple: Be careful what you measure.

​Gamification is excellent for “boring” tasks—filling out timesheets, compliance training, filing expenses. These are low-intrinsic motivation tasks. Adding points makes them bearable.

​But for high-intrinsic tasks—mentoring, innovation, cultural leadership—keep your badges and points away. These flames need oxygen (autonomy and recognition), not fuel (points). If you try to buy passion, you will only end up selling it out.