Yes, Pizza Is Key to Productivity

BY DEVRA FERST - image from Tasting Table

A new study proves every pie lover's suspicions to be true

Calling all bosses: Put down the Amex gift cards. If you really want to motivate your team, turns out pizza is the way to go, New York Magazine reports. Dan Ariely, an Israeli researcher, conducted a productivity test for his book, Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations, offering cash, compliments and pizza as the various reward options. The team then tracked the output of the workers, in this case, by how many computer chips they produced.  

Workers who received the cash bonus ($30) produced only 4.9 percent more chips than the control group, while those who were rewarded with pizza upped their work by 6.7 percent and those who got a compliment by 6.6 percent.

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Over the course of the week, a compliment actually was the most effective motivator, but we’ll take a square of Hawaiian pie over a “great job” any day.