Abstract
Extant literature consistently demonstrates the level of self-determination individuals experience or demonstrate during an activity can be primed. However, considering most of this literature comes from a period wherein p-hacking was prevalent (pre-2015), it may be that these effects reflect false positives. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether published literature showing autonomous and controlling motivation priming effects contain evidential value or not. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify relevant priming research, while set rules determined which effects from each study would be used in p-curve analysis. Two p-curves including 33 effects each were constructed. P-curve analyses, even after excluding surprising effects (e.g., effects large in magnitude), demonstrated that literature showing autonomous and controlling motivation priming effects contained evidential value. The present findings support prior literature suggesting the effects of autonomous and controlling motivation primes exist at the population level. They also reduce (but do not eliminate) concerns from broader psychology that p-hacking may underlie reported effects.
Highlights
Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017) is a ubiquitously utilized psychological framework which maintains individuals will generally engage more optimally in activities when motivated for more self-determined reasons
Individuals that engage in activities because they want to would, according to SDT, be expected to achieve more favorable outcomes when compared with individuals that engage in those same activites because they need to
For an article to be considered for p-curve analysis, the following inclusion criteria needed to be met: (1) autonomy was experimentally manipulated using priming techniques not expected to exert immediate motivationally relevant effects due to exposure, but to cause downstream differences in motivational states; ‘motivational states’ here referring to any behavioral, affective, or cognitive state expected to be sensitive to differences in motivation
Summary
Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017) is a ubiquitously utilized psychological framework which maintains individuals will generally engage more optimally in activities when motivated for more self-determined reasons. Individuals that engage in activities because they want to (i.e., autonomous motivation; Werner & Milyavskaya, 2019) would, according to SDT, be expected to achieve more favorable outcomes when compared with individuals that engage in those same activites because they need to (i.e., controlling motivation; Ryan & Deci, 2017). These outcomes include greater task persistance, application of effort, and improved performance (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Explicit interventions to promote autonomous motivation often require
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