Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: why a reward can take the fun out of a task

In 1971 the psychologist Edward Deci asked students to solve puzzles. Some were paid for each puzzle they solved, others were not. Then he left each student alone for a few minutes with more puzzles and magazines, and watched what they did. Students who had been paid spent less of that free time on the puzzles than those who had not.

The result started decades of research on the difference between doing something for its own sake and doing it for something outside it. Deci and Richard Ryan later built it into self-determination theory, one of the best-studied theories of motivation.

Two kinds of reasons

Intrinsic motivation means the activity itself is the reward: curiosity, enjoyment, the pleasure of getting better at something. Extrinsic motivation means the reason lies outside the activity: money, praise, a promotion, avoiding trouble.

They are not two ends of one line. You can be strongly driven by both, for example someone who loves their craft and also wants to be paid well for it. You can also be low on both, which often feels like going through the motions.

When rewards backfire

In 1999 Deci, Richard Koestner and Ryan pooled 128 experiments. Rewards that people expected and that depended on doing or finishing a task tended to lower intrinsic motivation for tasks that were interesting to begin with. Unexpected rewards, and praise that gave real information about the work, did not have that effect. Positive feedback often increased it.

The finding has limits. It applies to tasks people already found interesting. For boring tasks there is little intrinsic motivation to lose, and rewards help. Some researchers have also argued that the effect is smaller in real workplaces than in the lab. In practice, paying people is fine; turning an interesting task into a deal is what to avoid.

Autonomy and mastery

Self-determination theory names three basic needs: autonomy (feeling that you choose what you do), competence (feeling capable) and relatedness (feeling connected to others). The writer Daniel Pink popularised a similar set in his 2009 book Drive: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Our motivation test uses four scores: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, autonomy and mastery. It has 18 statements that we wrote ourselves based on these ideas, so it is a self-reflection tool, not one of the validated questionnaires from the research. Examples: "When something fascinates me, I can spend hours on it without feeling tired" (intrinsic), "If no one could see my work, I would not try as hard" (extrinsic), "Micromanagement kills my motivation" (autonomy), "I choose challenges that let me grow, even if I risk failure" (mastery).

Using your result

Look at the pattern first. High autonomy with low intrinsic motivation can mean you want freedom, but your current work gives you little to be curious about. High extrinsic with low autonomy often fits a job where someone else sets both the goals and the methods.

Money and recognition are legitimate reasons to work, so a high extrinsic score is no cause for worry. It becomes a problem only when they are the only reason, because then nothing remains when the reward stops coming.

If you are thinking about a change at work, the job satisfaction test and the post on the six pillars of job satisfaction cover what else matters besides motivation. For the belief that your abilities can grow, which feeds mastery, read how a growth mindset affects success.