{"id":48099,"date":"2021-08-26T13:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=48099"},"modified":"2021-09-09T15:18:33","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T19:18:33","slug":"intrinsic-motivation-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/intrinsic-motivation-psychology\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Pink: The Psychology of Intrinsic Motivation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is intrinsic motivation<\/a>? How does the intrinsic drive compare to extrinsic rewards when it comes to performance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsic motivation is a desire to do something for internal satisfaction, not for external rewards.\u00a0External rewards (e.g. financial compensation) enhance performance in the short term, while intrinsic motivation is more enduring\u2014it doesn\u2019t decay as external rewards do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we’ll look at the psychology of intrinsic motivation, and the role of intrinsic rewards in performance enhancement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Rethinking Motivation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the 1940s, operant conditioning was the standard model of behavior. The foundation of this model was that if you give a reward to someone after a behavior, you encourage that behavior to happen again. If you don\u2019t reward a behavior, it extinguishes over time. This idea was borne out in numerous animal studies and also became the model for human management in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in 1949, Harry Harlow, a professor of psychology, discovered a deviation from this standard reward model. His team had created a mechanical puzzle for rhesus monkeys to complete. They placed the puzzles in the monkey cages to habituate them to the puzzle in preparation for the real studies that would happen two weeks later. But strangely, the monkeys began playing with the puzzles independently, with determination and what looked like enjoyment<\/strong>. Without any explicit rewards like fruit juice, the monkeys learned to solve the puzzle of their own volition. Classic operant conditioning couldn\u2019t explain this – why would the monkeys do anything without the expectation of a reward?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In psychology, intrinsic motivation was a new idea at the time. It prompted Harlow to offer another model of motivation: \u201cintrinsic reward.\u201d The joy of the task was its own reward – no extrinsic rewards needed to be given<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more surprisingly, introducing rewards like food <\/strong>decreased <\/em><\/strong>monkey performance<\/strong> \u2013 they made more errors and solved the puzzles less frequently. External rewards seemed to disrupt performance, contrary to standard reward models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research was controversial and lay fallow until 1969, when a graduate student named Edward Deci discovered Harlow\u2019s research and tried a new experiment with humans. All participants were tasked with solving puzzles requiring rearrangement of separate plastic pieces into shapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experiment ran in one-hour sessions held over 3 consecutive days. In each session, a participant was given 3 puzzles. When the participant had solved 2 of 3 puzzles, Deci told the participant he had to step out for a few minutes to retrieve the 4th<\/sup> puzzle, and the participant was free to do whatever she liked. Deci stepped out for precisely eight minutes and watched what the participant did when left alone. This secret observation period allowed the researchers to measure motivation \u2013 the longer someone played when unsupervised, the more motivated the person was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deci split participants into two groups: group A and group B. On Day 1, he treated both groups the same. On Day 2, Deci treated them differently \u2013 he told Group A that they\u2019d be paid $1 for every puzzle they solved. Group B got no reward. Then, on Day 3, he told Group A there wouldn\u2019t be enough money to pay for Day 3, so they would be unpaid. Once again, Group B got no reward, just more puzzles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here were the results (summarized, not exact):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/td>Day 1<\/td>Day 2<\/td>Day 3<\/td><\/tr>
 <\/td>Reward?<\/td>Minutes<\/td>Reward?<\/td>Minutes<\/td>Reward?<\/td>Minutes<\/td><\/tr>
Group A<\/td>No Reward<\/td>3.7<\/td>Reward<\/td>5<\/td>No Reward<\/td>2.9<\/td><\/tr>
Group B<\/td>No Reward<\/td>3.7<\/td>No Reward<\/td>3.7<\/td>No Reward<\/td>3.9<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Group B, the playtime didn\u2019t change substantially over the 3 days. On Day 1 they began engaged (intrinsically motivated), and this persisted day after day. The joy of the task alone was enough to get them to solve puzzles, and this didn\u2019t diminish over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Group A, Deci found that introducing a reward gave a <\/strong>momentary<\/em><\/strong> boost to motivation<\/strong> \u2013 in Day 2, Group A participants increased their play time by about a minute. But on Day 3, when Deci removed the reward, play time plummeted<\/strong>, even below the original Day 1 when no reward was even suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conclusion: rewards enhance performance in the short term, at the expense of intrinsic motivation. Once the reward is removed, overall motivation decreases.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsic motivation, therefore, is a natural drive. People seek out novelty and challenges and want to learn. But developing intrinsic motivation requires a nurturing environment, one where external rewards don\u2019t quash this spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Three Components of Intrinsic Motivation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsic motivation is made up of three components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n