Paper: Ariely, Kamenica & Prelec (2008)

'Man's Search for Meaning: the Case of Legos', JEBO, 2008.
== Summary ==
study how perceived meaning of a task affects labor supply. They do three experiments: 
=== 1. Introduction ===
=== 2. Experiment 1: the impact of meaning on labor supply ===
Ask MIT students to find 10 instances of two consecutive letters 's' on a page of seemingly random letters for $0.55, and repeatedly asked if they would do another page and decreasing pay by $0.05 each time. Three groups:
# acknowledged: write name on your work 
# ignored: anonymously, work is immediately combined into a large pile
# shredded: work would be shredded without looking at it
=== 3. Experiment 2: a replication and examination of the role of productivity ===
Ask male Harvard undergraduates to construct a Bionicle Lego, paying $2 for the first one, and again decreasing pay by $0.11 for each next one. Two conditions/groups: 
# meaningful: each completed Bionicle is placed on a desk, as they completed more they accumulate there
# sisyphus: only two boxes with Bionicle pieces, if one was completed the experimenter would disassemble it and put it back in the box.
=== 4. Conclusion ===