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Money is a motivator. Everybody knows that.

But you wouldn't hand your mother-in-law a fist full of twenty dollar bills after she cooked you a nice meal. That's not why she did it.

There are relationships — social, familial, romantic — where money can ruin the moment.

Dan Ariely's new book "Payoff: The Hidden Logic that Shakes Our Motivations" looks at what motivators work when — and why.

Money doesn't work for social relationships, Ariely explained, because those are focused on the long term. The introduction of payment makes it more "tit-for-tat in the short term," Ariely told MPR News host Kerri Miller.

This carries over into your job. You do your job do get the paycheck, perhaps, but there's also "a lot of discretionary effort," Ariely explained. You decide how hard you will work: if you'll eke out the bare minimum or go above and beyond. What are the motivators driving that behavior?

"Payoff" digs into less obvious factors driving our behavior.

For the full conversation with Dan Ariely on "Payoff," use the audio player above.

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There are some clear motivators in life: money, love, revenge. But there's more to motivation than these obvious factors, according to a new book from Dan Ariely.

Psychologist Dan Ariely explained what actually motivates us from the kindergarten classroom to the boardroom. His new book is "Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations."

'Payoff': What we don't understand about motivation

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