Cecil Alec Mace

Cecil Alec Mace (22 July 1894 – 7 June 1971), usually cited as C. A. Mace, was a British philosopher and industrial psychologist. He is best known for his work on monetary incentives and goal-setting theory.

Life Mace was born on 22 July 1894 to Mary and Walter Mace in Norwich, England. He left home at 18 for Cambridge University, intending to study for holy orders. However, instead he chose to read Moral Sciences at Queens' College, Cambridge. He studied under the philosopher G. E. Moore. The British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers, who started the first experimental psychology laboratory in Cambridge, was another mentor.

At Cambridge Mace became a pacifist and as a conscientious objector during World War I, spent time at Wormwood Scrubs and Dartmoor.

Influence Mace's work on Incentives: Some Experimental Studies (1935) discredited the notion that workers are primarily incentivized by money. He also stated that people have a "will to work." In 1935, he conducted the first empirical studies of goal setting. His most influential books were Sibylla; or the Revival of Prophecy and The Psychology of Study.

Awards and honours President of the Aristotelian Society, 1948-9 President of the Psychological Section, British Association, 1951 President of the British Psychological Society, 1952–53

Works (1926) Sibylla; or, the Revival of Prophecy. (1929) A Manual of Psychology. (1932) (1933) The Principles of Logic. An introductory survey. (1937) Supernormal Faculty and the Structure of the Mind. (1953) Current Trends in British Psychology. Edited by C. A. Mace and P. E. Vernon. (1954) The Psychological Approach to Scientific Management - can this be applied in the home? (1957) British Philosophy in the Mid-Century. A Cambridge symposium. Edited by C. A. Mace. (1973) Selected papers.