The surprising science of motivation

The myth that appealling to people´s self-interest is the key to motivating sustainable behaviour is dispelled in this fascinating TED talk by Dan Pink. This gives a great explanation of research showing that extrinsic motivations (e.g. money) only improve performance for a certain type of mechanical tasks with clearly defined end goals. For tasks involving any level of cognitive skill or creativity, extrinsic goals will either not work or hinder performance; that means for most tasks we are faced with today, instrinsic motivations - such as autonomy, mastery and purpose - are far more motivating. Here Dan Pink talks about this research in relation to the mismatch between the 40 years of evidence from social science research and how businesses motivate performance, although the prinicples also apply to motivating changing behaviour to more sustainable lifestyles. "This is one of the most robust findings in social science, and also one of the most ignored." The good news is that linking sustainable actions and lifestyles to people´s existing values of autonomy, mastery and serving a purpose larger than ourselves is an immediately accessible way of helping to promote more successful behaviour change.

The power of clear communication

In a Swedish retail shop ICA in Nyköping store manager Magnus Åberg came up with an idea to describe conventional bananas in a more precise manner. So now customers can choose between organic bananas, fair trade bananas and sprayed bananas. The sign has been there for three years, but have recently been posted on Facebook and distributed almost 4 000 times and 13 000 people liked the idea. According to Magnus Åberg the sign does influence ecological purchases.

Photo by Jens Alvin
Original article in Swedish can be found here.