Crowding Out

Crowding out refers to the phenomena that within peer production projects in particular, and volunteering in general, paying those volunteers actually diminishes their motivation and might destroy the dynamic of peer production projects.

More generally, see our entry on Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation, extrensic motivation will crowd out intrinsic motivation.

It may also refer to the related issue that giving power to experts may weaken the motivation on non-experts.

See also this very interesting study on Incentives for Participation