Constraining and enabling actually refer to adjusting the mechanics underlying the choice; a person in solitary confinement gives up stealing not because of the penalty, but because it is really hard! Enabling would mean that he generally doesn’t steal because people give him food if he asks for it. It is about interfering with the possibilities in the choice itself, and requires you to dig under the person you are dealing with and change the ground he works on, easiest in online situations like MMORPGS or forums, but sometimes possible in heavily constructed social situations too.

But beware of hacking; if the prisoner escapes, then the lack of penalty becomes a problem. In the same way, people can dig under your finely constructed economic system with their own black market. Succeeding at enabling requires you to be more in tune with the structure of the world than those you seek to regulate.

I like the idea of the carroty stick! I think I’d say that while a stick fits well with constraining, the carrot would be better for motivating than enabling. I don’t know where enabling would fit in the donkey-control framework!

But these are only ideas. Enabling / motivating / constraining might not be the best way to split it up anyway. Chris Vanstone (formerly of the Design Council’s RED) used the scheme “stick, carrot, speedometer” which I tried to explore a bit in this post a couple of years ago, though my thinking’s evolved a bit since then.

Enabling = Carrot
Constraining = Stick
Motivating = Carroty stick

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If this is interesting for you, please contact me via email, and I’ll explain further.

Whatever formal notation you choose I think this is really interesting research.