Without being intrinsically motivated, people can lose sight of why they want to partake in an activity. Being motivated to perform a task often improves performance therefore, it is important for companies and leaders to understand how best to motivate people. Motivation is hugely important, especially in today’s society where we are bombarded with endless options for how to spend our time. What the overjustification effect might tell us is that it is important to keep some of our hobbies as just hobbies, rather than try to benefit monetarily from them, in order to prevent loss of the intrinsic value of partaking in that activity. Does the overjustification effect mean that we shouldn’t do something we love as our job? That seems counter-intuitive. Yet, it’s not as though working for free is sustainable or realistic. Money and other extrinsic rewards often overshadow any other motivators. We feel forced to complete the tasks because otherwise we wouldn’t get paid, which causes us to forget that we may actually enjoy the activity otherwise. Since we are getting paid for completing tasks at work, we attribute our salary as the primary reason for what we do. The overjustification effect may be the reason behind why we so often complain about our jobs, even if we are interested in what we are doing. The overjustification effect captures this belief by suggesting that intrinsic motivation and enjoyment is diminished by money. Consider the saying, “money can’t buy you happiness”. Instead of the rewards adding value to the activity, they take away from it. It can cause us to abandon activities that we actually find intrinsically valuable once we are presented with a prize or money for doing the activity. The overjustification effect is an undesirable cognitive phenomenon. This is known as the overjustification effect. Even if you stopped selling your paintings, it is unlikely that your intrinsic motivation would return, because you now attribute any enjoyment you derived from painting to the fact that you were being paid. 2 However, replacing your intrinsic motivation for money has actually caused you to feel less motivated to paint. 1 Your intrinsic motivation to paint has been replaced with extrinsic motivation, which is motivation caused by an external reward, such as money. Intrinsic motivation is the motivation to do something without any obvious external rewards. It feels like a chore.ĭue to being offered money for an activity you love, you have lost the intrinsic motivation to paint. A while after you start painting to fulfill orders, painting no longer feels enjoyable. Thinking it might not be such a bad idea to make extra money, especially for an activity you love, you set up a page on Etsy and decide to charge people $20 for a painting. You start giving out paintings to friends and family as gifts, and a number of them suggest that you start selling them on Etsy. These are activities that we do because we enjoy them, rather than because we use the activity as a means to an end that we find rewarding.įor example, imagine that you have always loved painting because you find the activity calming. The overjustification effect occurs for any activity that we find intrinsically valuable.
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