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Motivation – Intrinsic, Extrinsic, It is All The Same, Right? Wrong…

The question of why people do things or perhaps why they do not has puzzled mankind for centuries.  In the recent past psychologists have researched motivation and developed numerous models and theories to help explain why we do things, such as:

Instinct Theory of Motivation

people are motivated to behave in certain ways because they are evolutionary programmed to do so

Incentive Theory of Motivation

people are motivated to do things because of external rewards

Drive Theory of Motivation

people are motivated to take certain actions in order to reduce the internal tension that is caused by unmet needs

Arousal Theory of Motivation

people take certain actions to either decrease or increase levels of arousal

Humanistic Theory of Motivation

people have a strong cognitive reasons to perform various actions

In the Principles of Persuasion Workshop we focus on and teach persuaders it is important to understand the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is when we undertake a behaviour because it is internally rewarding.  We undertake the task or behaviour because of who we are, what we think of ourselves, it makes us feel good, or because we want to.  It is not done for attainment of any specific external reward.

Extrinsic motivation is when we undertake a behaviour because it is externally rewarding.  We undertake the task or behaviour because doing so will earn us a reward or allow us to avoid punishment or loss.

Yeah, okay you say.  So what?

Here is the so what.  Advertisers and marketers use Scarcity as a means of triggering the extrinsic motivation for you take action.  They highlight how much time you have left, that the product is running out or that you are in competition with others so you had better get it quick so you don’t miss out.  Yes it is a motivator but is it more powerful than an intrinsic motivator?

Research suggests not.  Intrinsic motivation is known to last longer than an extrinsic motivator.  People have more initiative when driven to achieve, they are more satisfied and are well…more motivated to see the task or action through to completion.

With extrinsic motivators – once the reward or punishment is gone then usually so to is the desired behaviour.  With intrinsic motivation it is not usually person or issue centric – for example, if people volunteer their time to help animals or people less fortunate than themselves, the sense of purpose or satisfaction does not diminish after saving one dog or working on one soup kitchen.

Therefore why do marketing and advertising campaigns use the extrinsic motivator so much more?

In my opinion people who continue to just focus on extrinsic motivators do so because they are lazy.  Extrinsic motivators are easier. 

You can easily show people what they stand to lose or use market forces to genuinely create Scarcity or the perception of it.  The reason it works is because every organism on earth is bound by Scarcity, i.e. if we don’t have enough to live we die – it is an easy trump card to get people to take action.

But it is overdone.  Yelling, screaming rug salesmen do not motivate me to go and buy a rug.  All they do is lower the price point of rugs because they obviously have 50, 60, 70, 80% mark-up in the rug because every one of them is marking the price down every other week.  The frequency and overuse of it is working against them, not for them.

Triggering intrinsic motivation is harder.  It takes genuine interaction.  It requires the asking of well constructed questions and the willingness to listen.  Not just an ability to make statements or tell people what to do.  The persuader needs to elicit a commitment from the person in order to trigger the motivation and then this becomes the driver to stay on track.

So the choice is yours – rely on the extrinsic and overuse Scarcity at your own peril.  If you want to truly master the art of influence – learn to ask great questions and elicit commitments to trigger the unending power source within – the intrinsic motivator.

 

 

Source:  Cherry, K Theories of Motivation; A Closer Look at Some Important Theories of Motivation (http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologytopics/tp/theories-of-motivation.htm)

 

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The Birth of Facial Expressions

stockvault-baby-199655

Courtesy of StockVault

Know why your newborn’s dark eyes resemble your wife’s or his/her charming smile reminds you of your teenage days?

This resemblance is not pre-determined but happens randomly between two copies of every gene for a given trait – one from mom, the other from dad.  Business Standard reports that both copies of a gene are switched on or off as an embryo develops into an adult.

The ‘switching on’ of a gene begins the process of gene expression that ultimately results in the production of a protein.  New research shows that this random phenomenon is far more likely to be found in mature, developed cell types than in their stem cell precursors.  This, in turn, offers an unexpected glimpse of randomness and variability in gene expression.

“This significant amount of flexibility and randomness in gene expression is important for adaptation as a species evolves, but it is unclear how it functions in organisms today,” said professor David Spector at New York-based Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).

Occasionally, a cell will arbitrarily begin to use of one copy of a gene over the other.  The activation of only one member of a gene pair is called ‘monoallelic gene expression’.  To better understand when ‘monoallelic gene expression’ is established, Spector and his team collaborated with researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

The team used advanced sequencing technology and analysis tools to globally assess allele usage in two different cell types.  They compared embryonic stem cells which can change or ‘differentiate’ into nearly any type of tissue with cells that had already differentiated into the precursors of neurons.

The team was surprised to find that 8 percent of the monoallelically expressed genes were able to boost their level of expression to compensate for what would otherwise be a shortfall.

“This work raises many important questions like how does the cell know how much of each protein to produce? How much flexibility is there? What is the tipping point toward disease?“ noted Spector.