Easy to Get People to Do Things, More Challenging to Facilitate Their Motivation

Abstract People use extrinsic incentives such as rewards, threats, and punishments to stir others to act and change their behavior. Such incentives can be immediately effective, but they have drawbacks. For interesting activities, extrinsic incentives can undermine motivation, making the person feel that they are behaving only because of the incentive. For uninteresting activities, extrinsic incentives prevent people from appreciating the value and importance of the activity. In both cases, when the incentive is no longer available, the person’s motivation is at risk. In contrast, providing rationales and choices are two alternatives that facilitate both behavior and long-term motivation. Rationales and choices also allow for the person’s input and for student–teacher opinion exchange regarding the behavior.