Inducements

Inducements
By Brittney Martinelli
What caught my interest the most in Stone’s Eleventh chapter of “Public Policy” was her point on the emotional ties that evolve from the form of inducement used. There is no doubt that inducements, whether positive or negative, are very useful in the polis and in life but one of the major factors of the outcome of the inducement relies on what form is used. When it comes to negative inducements, even when the inducer gets the receiver to do what they what them to do or not do, the total effect may not always be the best for the receiver; therefore, in the long term, the inducement itself is not as effective.

When a punishment is threatened or carried out, the receiver of that punishment or threat of punishment feels automatic resentment toward the one (or force) giving it. This negative attitude creates hatred between the two groups or individuals that is often hard to overcome; such the violent behavior between police and criminals. This attitude also causes the receiver of the negative inducement to be more likely to repeat the wrong-doing. Good inducements however create feelings of loyalty and commitment. One that is given incentives either to do or not do certain things is more likely to learn from their mistakes in a positive manner and while doing so build ties with others. For example, when a small child says to another “I will let you play with my play dough if you let me play with your hot wheels”, they form a friendship and are likely to try this tactic on other children. Where as if the child had said “If you don’t let me play with your hot wheels, I’m going to eat all of your play dough”, the inducement would not only be most likely ineffective, but the two children will probably hate each other all through elementary school. Of
course if a reward is promised and then not given out, this theory back
fires.

There are certain cases were penalties are undeniably needed. Like Michael Moore said in response to one of my questions: punishments should be used to get people to not do what you do not want them to and rewards should be used to get people to do what you want them to do. There is no way around the fact that if there were only incentives in the world and punishments did not exist, our society would be chaotic. We simply cannot motivate murderers, rapists or thieves to stop their crimes by offering them money or other valuables. My point in this post is that penalties are absolutely essential for major offenses but, for the situations where there is a
choice between using positive or negative inducements, positive inducements are longer lasting and better for our society as a whole.