On twitter I follow Jane McGonical, author of “Reality is Broken” and basic gamification pioneer. There I discovered her new TED talk.
After being inspired by the talk I initiated a twitter sized dialog with her who directed me to the science she referred to on her new TED talk
Her research is here: http://showmethescience.com/
A really brief review of it seems to uncover some more academic literature that might be useful, but I’ll have to dig more. If anything it will be interesting reading.