Abstract
The act of making a choice, apart from any outcomes the choice may yield, has, paradoxically, been linked to both the enhancement and the detriment of intrinsic motivation. Research has implicated two factors in potentially mediating these contradictory effects: the personal control conferred by a choice and the costs associated with a choice. Across four experiments, utilizing a physical effort task disguised as a simple video game, we systematically varied costs across two levels of physical effort requirements (Low-Requirement, High-Requirement) and control over effort costs across three levels of choice (Free-Choice, Restricted-Choice, and No-Choice) to disambiguate how these factors affect the motivational consequences of choosing within an effortful task. Together, our results indicated that, in the face of effort requirements, illusory control alone may not sufficiently enhance perceptions of personal control to boost intrinsic motivation; rather, the experience of actual control may be necessary to overcome effort costs and elevate performance. Additionally, we demonstrated that conditions of illusory control, while otherwise unmotivating, can through association with the experience of free-choice, be transformed to have a positive effect on motivation.
Highlights
People will fight for their right to choose in some instances and flip a coin to avoid choosing in others; in parallel, research on the relationship between choice and motivation is complex and has produced results that are often conflicting
Two major factors have emerged as potential mediators of whether the act of choosing has a positive or negative effect on intrinsic motivation: (1) the personal control provided by a choice and (2) the costs associated with making a choice (Patall, 2012)
In line with our second general hypothesis, we generally predicted that motivational outcomes would be enhanced correspondent to the level of control conferred by choice (Free-Choice > RestrictedChoice > No-Choice)
Summary
People will fight for their right to choose in some instances and flip a coin to avoid choosing in others; in parallel, research on the relationship between choice and motivation is complex and has produced results that are often conflicting. The act of making a choice, separable from any extrinsic gains or losses the decision may incur, has been linked to both motivational enhancements and decrements (Botti and Iyengar, 2004; Patall et al, 2008; Patall, 2012). From these paradoxical findings, two major factors have emerged as potential mediators of whether the act of choosing has a positive or negative effect on intrinsic motivation: (1) the personal control provided by a choice and (2) the costs associated with making a choice (Patall, 2012). Little is known about how control and cost, separately and conjointly, influence the motivational effects
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