In his book Value (s), Mark Carney discusses how commodification – adding economic value to an activity or service formerly without economic value – can erode social values and altruistic motivations (Carney, 2021). Social values and morals drive behaviors of those in a community. Why do we help our elderly neighbors when they need it? Why do we try our best to arrive on time for appointments? Why do we participate in population census surveys? Why do we clean up after ourselves to keep our community clean? These are behaviors that are morally driven rather than economically driven. But would your behavior change if you were paid to behave this way? Carney argues that “putting a price on every human activity erodes certain moral and civic goods”(2021). When a daycare was frustrated with the children’s parents’ tardiness, it implemented a late fee in an attempt to incentivize parents to arrive on time. Interestingly, the issue became worse! Parents were previously only motivated by moral values to arrive on time; however, by adding a price to being late, many parents no longer felt required to arrive on time since they were now accepting the cost for extended daycare service. Similar behavior is seen in the motivations to drive blood donations in society. In Canada, citizens are motivated to donate blood for altruistic purposes and the sense of obligation to benefit the community and those in need. In the USA, citizens are paid for blood donations and many are therefore only motivated by the payment in exchange for their blood (Carney, 2021). Americans can earn between $35 to $65 USD to donate blood (Pant et al., 2021).

Think of something nice that you’ve done for a friend or the community and consider if the motivation for your behavior was not moral, but rather for financial gain. It changes the context from doing a favor, or helping my community, to a financial transaction, or a job. Your friend no longer feels the same gratitude, and you don’t feel the satisfaction of helping a friend – they simply hired someone (i.e. you) to perform a job for them. I donate blood as a Canadian simply for the benefit of the community and because it makes me feel as if I’ve helped to contribute to someone in need. I know that if blood donation in Canada paid donors as it does in the USA, the commodification would diminish my sense of obligation to donate as a moral benefit. What I gained from this thought exercise is to think critically about what motivates our behaviors, and how the change in motivation can influence our actions and perspective.

References:

Carney, M. (2021). Value(s): Building a better world for all (Hardcover edition). Signal, an imprint of McClelland & Stewart.

Pant, S., Bagha, R., & McGill, S. (2021, December). Monetary Compensation, Donation Frequency, and Plasma Collected Per Donation [Text]. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK591049/table/t03/