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Each week on Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, explore different aspects of human behavior and the brain.

What's Wrong With Rewarding Mediocrity?

Kids these days typically get a trophy for participation in most events. Some argue that the practice ultimately serves as a disincentive for a child to compete. Others ask, if your kid is smiling, what more do you want?

In this week's edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke look into the system of reward and evaluate what we are rewarding and why.

It's totally understandable that you want to keep your kids from the feeling of disappointment. 

What some forget is that the feeling of disappointment gives some the needed push to do better, to practice more, and to improve your skills. No matter whether or not you have a trophy now, using the energy you felt from that disappointing experience, made you the person you are today.

Dr. Duke points out, that kids are really savvy when it comes to the work they do and the reward they recieve. If they don't feel they really worked at something, they might call your bluff pretty quickly.

There are valuable lessons we learned from our losses and our failures throughout life, allowing our kids to learn from their's isn't such a bad thing. 

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