Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Behaviour is considered intrinsically motivated when it is performed for its own sake, because the activity is experienced as interesting or satisfying. Behaviour is extrinsically motivated when it is aimed at a separable outcome, such as a reward or the avoidance of negative consequences. This definition goes back to Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, the founders of self-determination theory [1].

Extrinsic motivation is not inherently disadvantageous. Ryan and Deci distinguish several forms, ranging from direct external pressure to goals whose value a person has recognised and internalised [1]. Regular exercise out of concern for one’s own health is therefore extrinsically motivated and at the same time largely self-determined.

A meta-analysis by Deci, Koestner and Ryan of 128 experiments found that tangible rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation for activities that are already perceived as interesting. People who received an expected reward for such an activity were subsequently less likely to continue it of their own accord. Positive feedback, by contrast, tended to have a beneficial effect [2].

Sanctions can also have unintended consequences. In a field study by Gneezy and Rustichini, six out of ten day-care centres in Haifa introduced a fine for late pick-ups. The number of late arrivals then rose and remained at an elevated level even after the fine was abolished [3]. The authors attribute this to parents perceiving the fine as a price for lateness rather than as a breach of a social obligation.

Many behaviours that are beneficial in the long term, such as regular exercise, are not experienced as pleasant at first. In such cases, there is little intrinsic motivation that could be crowded out. Charness and Gneezy paid students to visit the gym over the course of a month. Even after the payments ended, participants exercised more often than the control groups, with the effect driven entirely by people who had not previously exercised regularly [4].

Royer, Stehr and Sydnor initially found only small lasting effects of a four-week incentive for visits to the company gym among employees of a large US company. Participants who were subsequently also offered a voluntary commitment contract using their own money, however, showed significant behavioural changes that were still detectable years later [5].

Staking money on one’s own goal is an external incentive. The studies cited allow the following conclusions to be drawn, although none of them examined this form directly.

• A stake is particularly suitable for projects for which there is not yet any intrinsic motivation, and less so for activities that are already enjoyed.
• A self-chosen stake corresponds more closely to the voluntary commitment in the study by Royer, Stehr and Sydnor than to a reward granted from outside.
• An amount set too low may, as in the day-care centres, come to be seen as a price for skipping and thereby lose its effect.

Tensio is an app for Android and iPhone that combines verifiable goals with a self-chosen stake. If a check-in is missed, 80 per cent of the stake goes to an organisation chosen in advance. How Tensio verifies goals

1. Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67. doi:10.1006/ceps.1999.1020
2. Deci, E. L., Koestner, R. & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627-668. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627
3. Gneezy, U. & Rustichini, A. (2000). A Fine is a Price. The Journal of Legal Studies, 29(1), 1-17. doi:10.1086/468061
4. Charness, G. & Gneezy, U. (2009). Incentives to Exercise. Econometrica, 77(3), 909-931. doi:10.3982/ECTA7416
5. Royer, H., Stehr, M. & Sydnor, J. (2015). Incentives, Commitments, and Habit Formation in Exercise: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Workers at a Fortune-500 Company. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7(3), 51-84. doi:10.1257/app.20130327