What does disincentive mean?
A disincentive is anything that discourages people from doing something — a cost, penalty, burden, or risk that makes a course of action less appealing than it might otherwise be. It is the direct counterpart of an incentive, and the word is most at home in economics and public policy, where analysts debate whether taxes, fines, or reduced benefits act as disincentives to work, invest, or save. A city's high parking charges, for example, may be described as a deliberate disincentive to driving. The term carries a neutral-to-technical tone: it names the discouraging factor itself rather than the emotion of being discouraged. It usually appears with the preposition "to" followed by a noun or gerund, as in "a disincentive to hiring," and often in the fixed phrase "act as a disincentive." Because it captures cause-and-effect reasoning about human behaviour so compactly, it is a staple of policy debate — and knowing it lets you describe not just why people do things, but why they don't.
nounA thing that discourages someone from doing something, typically by making it less attractive or rewarding; the opposite of an incentive.
- Something that discourages a person from acting or behaving in a particular way, especially in economic or policy contexts.
"High taxes can act as a disincentive to entrepreneurship."
"The steep parking fees serve as a disincentive to driving into the city centre."
"Critics argued that cutting unemployment benefits would create a disincentive to seek work."
Regular plural; countable, so it takes "a/an", "the", or numerals.
"Bureaucratic delays are among the biggest disincentives to starting a small business."
Economists argue about whether taxes are a disincentive to work — but the word itself is just 'incentive' wearing a Latin prefix meaning 'away from'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of disincentive
"Disincentive" is formed from the Latin-derived prefix "dis-", indicating removal or reversal, attached to "incentive", which comes from the Latin "incentivus", meaning "provoking" or "setting the tune" — from "incinere", "to sing (to)", from "canere", "to sing". The word arose as a modern coinage in English, gaining currency in the twentieth century alongside the growth of economic and behavioural policy vocabulary. Its relatives include "incentive" itself and, more distantly, words from the same singing root such as "chant" and "canto".
Related word forms
How disincentive is actually used
"Disincentive" belongs chiefly to formal registers — economics, public policy, and business writing. It is almost always used with "to" plus a gerund or noun ("a disincentive to investing"), and frequently appears in the phrase "act as a disincentive." The verb form "disincentivize" is common in business jargon, though some style guides prefer "discourage" as plainer English.
Easily confused with disincentive
"Incentive" is something that encourages action, while "disincentive" is its opposite — something that discourages it.