#6: Can everyone afford intrinsic motivation? (Part 1)
Sometimes you gotta put food on the table and scrub the toilet
TL;DR
Two studies in sub-Saharan Africa found girls more likely to attend school when they were excited about learning for its own sake
A study in Perú found people who prioritise intrinsic goals happier than those favouring extrinsic goals
Parents, policy-makers can foster autonomy to help intrinsic motivation flourish
I’ve had a niggling unease ever since I started exploring this intrinsic motivation concept.
I worry about the self-helpy messages implying that if we just follow our bliss, at work and in our free time, things will flow easily and we’ll be happier.
On Facebook for example, some #intrinsicmotivation posts say:
“once you decide that you are ready to make the change - anything is possible!!!”
“stop, slow down and give yourself what you need”
OK. But what if I work two jobs I don’t like to make ends meet? What if caring for my kids or my parents (or both) leaves me no energy or time for joyful activities? What if I live in a desolate area and the only safe place to hang out is the shopping mall, where I’m lured to buy things I don’t want? Can we just think our way to intrinsic goals, no matter our circumstances?
I worry that putting the onus on individuals to be self-aware and positive, to do the right things for the right reasons, distracts us from the real constraints around us. Sometimes, things are hard and unfair.
And even if, like me, you have the safety, freedom, time, money, and support to seek delight a lot of the time, chances are you also have to scrub the toilet every now and then.
So: Can everyone afford to be intrinsically motivated, or is it a luxury?
Motivated schoolgirls
“I started with the same question as you”, says psychologist Marieke van Egmond, who studied the motivation to attend school of hundreds of girls “exposed to extreme resource-poor environments” in rural Malawi and Mozambique1. “I wondered, is [intrinsic motivation] really relevant in this context?”
The short answer is Yes.
In the communities she studied, many girls have to overcome barriers to attend school, such as walking long distances or speaking up to parents who may expect them to stay home and do chores, explains van Egmond, who now works as a policy researcher at the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs. “You could theorise that it’s about extrinsic rewards: if you go to school, you’ll get a better job2.”
But on the contrary, her field work found that the girls’ intrinsic motivations—their enjoying school and learning for its own sake—was key, “regardless of the level of resource scarcity that the girls were exposed to”.
Where does that drive come from? van Egmond’s study confirmed that three basic psychological needs have to be met for intrinsic motivation to flourish: relatedness, competence, and autonomy3. In both countries, girls who had the strongest feeling of connection to their community, of aptitude, of agency over their choices, were the most motivated to attend school—again, regardless of their poverty level.
This was true even if the girls’ basic physical needs, for example for food, weren’t met every day.
But psychology only explains a small part of the picture: other factors (likely economic, sociological, demographic) do play a greater role in explaining the variation in school attendance levels between girls.
Does it make you happy?
In another study4, social scientist Mònica Guillen-Royo and psychologist Tim Kasser examined the relationship between personal goals—intrinsic or extrinsic—and life satisfaction in Peruvian communities.
“We’re all motivated both by intrinsic and extrinsic goals. The question was, which ones dominate?” recalls Guillen-Royo, who now works at Cicero, a climate research centre in Oslo, Norway.
While most research in that field uses samples of adults, especially students, in Europe and North America, Guillen-Royo’s study included 500 people in five districts—three in the capital city and two in the Andes; some richer, some poorer. It confirmed that people who prioritise extrinsic goals (like money and popularity) are less happy than those who prioritise intrinsic ones (like personal growth and community feeling). This was true in the city and in the mountains alike.
But in the slums of Lima, focussing on intrinsic goals was negatively associated with well-being. Guillen-Royo says this echoed what Kasser’s previous work had found in prisons: in both settings, people see their intrinsic goals frustrated by the constraints of the place where they live.
“Intrinsic motivation is fragile; extrinsic motivation is easier to influence” in particular through advertising, she explains: A person living in poverty, or in a family or community rife with conflict or disease, will have less resources to protect her intrinsic motivation.
van Egmond is careful not to extrapolate her African results to other settings. But she says she was “amazed by the power” of the three basic psychological needs underpinning intrinsic motivation, and that follow-on studies confirmed their importance for lower-income families in Germany and the Netherlands.
“I think the power of satisfying those needs is sometimes neglected in policy-making, where it’s mostly about providing extrinsic incentives”, like cash rewards for certain behaviours.
At the family level, she says parents can also foster those beliefs of relatedness, competence and autonomy in their kids, for instance by involving kids (in age-appropriate ways!) in decision-making. To support their child’s autonomy, parents can “provide a few safe options for a toy or an activity for example, explain the pros and cons of each and let the child choose among them”.
Meanwhile, Guillen-Royo recommends this short video narrated by Kasser, which offers ideas to counter consumerism and give your intrinsic motivation a boost: volunteering in your local community organisations; spending time in nature; limiting your exposure to advertising.
“We’re bombarded by messages that reinforce extrinsic motivators,” so we need to direct our time and attention elsewhere, she says.
Click here for Part 2: Can everyone afford intrinsic motivation at work?
published in 2017 and 2020, respectively
Some academics have criticised girl-centred development programmes for focusing on economic empowerment and failing to consider the girls’ real desires and problems. I wrote about this briefly for SciDev.net in 2015.
That’s according to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), one of the dominant theories explaining intrinsic motivation. SDT says these needs for relatedness, competence and autonomy are universal, and this has been backed up by field studies carried out in different cultures.
published in 2014