A Unified Theory for Why People Do What They Do?
Exploring Games and Video Media
My learnings from Self Determination Theory (SDT), Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Theory, Drive by Daniel Pink and Flow Theory
W(hy) the H(eck) Y(ou) do it — WHY
The second most important WHY (first being Why were we created?) is why we do what we do? What drives us? It also happens to be the gold dust for designing products.
Let’s start with WHY you should read this article?
a) You want to have one framework of needs that connects learnings from various need theories.
b) You want to know what are the needs that businesses of tomorrow need to focus on.
c) You know me and I have managed to convince you to read this article and give me feedback.
EXISTING MOTIVATION THEORIES
A lot of work has been done on understanding the needs that drive people’s actions. Over the years, many frameworks have become popular and I have heard people use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs sometimes (very popular with MBA professionals), SDT (very popular with psychology professionals), jobs to be done framework (popular with design professionals) and so on. I wanted to re-read all these theories and propose a unifying theory for what drives/motivates people to do what they do.
First a brief recap at some of the popular theories
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
According to this theory, our needs start from Physiological needs and then as we keep fulfilling the needs we keep moving up to finally reach the top need level of Self-actualisation. The real world is littered with examples showcasing the drawbacks of the theory as people don’t just ladder up the needs as explained by Maslow. A lot of poor artists still pursue their art for the love of it(self-actualisation). Also, social media is extremely popular amongst teenagers in India, which is satisfying their Esteem needs (status) and Love & Belonging much before they have satisfied their Safety needs.
2. Herzberg’s Theory
Herzberg’s theory comprises two factors; motivation and hygiene. Presence of motivational factors increases motivation and absence of hygiene factors increases demotivation. It makes sense that marginal benefits of few factors taper off (hygiene factors) and for some the marginal benefits are constant or growing (motivation factors).
3. Drive by Daniel H. Pink
Drive is a great read. Summary of the book as given by the author
“When it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system–which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators–doesn’t work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: 1. Autonomy — the desire to direct our own lives. 2. Mastery — the urge to get better and better at something that matters. 3. Purpose — the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”
A major reason to include the book in our theory discussions, is that Pink also started with the same problem that we are discussing. He also felt that the theories around motivations and what businesses practice are not aligned and therefore, he proposed a theory to bridge those gaps.
Pink’s theory is very close to SDT, which we will discuss next. He has replaced relatedness in SDT with purpose.
A few other interesting points to note from the book regarding needs and motivations are
a) “Rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus. That’s helpful when there’s a clear path to a solution. They help us stare ahead and race faster. But “if-then” motivators are terrible for challenges like the candle problem. As this experiment shows, the rewards narrowed people’s focus and blinkered the wide view that might have allowed them to see new uses for old objects.”
b) Researchers have found that extrinsic rewards can be effective for algorithmic tasks — those that depend on following an existing formula to its logical conclusion. But for more right-brain undertakings — those that demand flexible problem-solving, inventiveness, or conceptual understanding — contingent rewards can be dangerous.
c) “The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive — our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose.”
4. Self Determination Theory (SDT)
The theory gaining a lot of popularity currently is SDT. A brief summary of SDT
a) Need deficit and basic human needs
“From the perspective of drive theory, all behaviors are based in drive reduction processes; in other words, the functional aim of all behavior can be understood as need satisfaction. Hungry people act to get food, pained people act to get relief, and all behavior can be traced back to disequilibria. From the perspective of SDT, however, innate life processes and their accom- panying behaviors can occur naturally, without the prod of a need deficit.”
The above mentioned information is important to comprehend. SDT posits that physiological needs like hunger are driven to satisfy the deficit or hygiene factors whereas the SDT basic needs are fulfilled not to fill a deficit but to make life more fulfilling like motivational factors in Herzberg’s Theory.
b) Intrinsic Motivation and Autonomy
“As studies by Deci and others (e.g., Lepper et al., 1973) suggested, when extrinsic rewards are in- troduced for doing an intrinsically interesting activity, people tend to feel controlled by the rewards, prompt- ing a shift in the perceived locus of causality for the be- havior from internal to external. People feel less like origins of their behavior and thus display less intrinsic motivation. Although this phenomenon remains con- troversial, it has been firmly established and widely replicated.”
Extrinsic rewards thwart autonomy, as a consequence, reducing intrinsic motivation. Does that mean rewarding people is bad? The Primary reason to reward people monetarily is to satisfy their Need Deficit to take care of their physiological needs. Furthermore, monetary rewards might act as positive feedback for performance / competence. Beyond that, monetary rewards reduce intrinsic motivation.
c) Intrinsic Motivation and Competence
“..intrinsic motivation involves people freely engaging in activities that they find interesting, that provide novelty and optimal challenge. Research on intrinsic motivation for initially interesting activi- ties has shown reliably that: (a) events such as rewards that foster an E-PLOC (external percieved locus of causality) tend to undermine intrinsic mo- tivation, whereas events such as choice that foster an I-PLOC (internal percieved locus of causality) tend to enhance intrinsic motivation; (b) events such as negative feedback that foster perceived incompetence tend to undermine intrinsic motivation, whereas events such as positive feedback that foster perceived competence tend to enhance intrinsic moti- vation, although people must feel responsible for the competent performance in order for perceived compe- tence to have positive effects on intrinsic motivation.”
Autonomy and Competence are very inter-related. The more choices one is given to perform a task, the higher the feeling of control and competence and vice versa. Positive feedback is needed to enhance competence. Nevertheless, people need to feel responsible for their performance. The agency or control of the performance is critical for people to feel competent.
d) Intrinsic Motivation and Relatedness
“Although autonomy and competence have been found to be the most powerful influences on intrinsic motivation, theory and research suggest that related- ness also plays a role, albeit a more distal one, in the maintenance of intrinsic motivation.”
“SDT proposes that people will tend naturally to in- ternalize the values and regulations of their social groups. This tendency is facilitated by feelings of relat- edness to socializing others, as well as feelings of com- petence with respect to the regulation being internalized. The latter includes the ability to under- stand or grasp the meaning or rationale behind the reg- ulation and an ability to enact it.”
The need to relate has found to be the weakest influence on intrinsic motivation. I was surprised by these results given that every digital business is asked to be “social” today. Though it makes sense that humans became social animals to increase their chances of survival and that was a critical factor in us surviving the much stronger species of Neanderthals. Hence, relatedness is driven by the need for competence, which is the desire to deal with our environment better. Relatedness has helped us internalise external regulations and extrinsic rewards. Think of how the Armed Forces, where there is almost no autonomy, have to promote relatedness and status to compensate for lack of autonomy. The relatedness and brotherhood really help internalise the external rules which are very contrary to our intrinsic needs of autonomy.
5. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow is the state of concentration and engagement that can be achieved when completing a task that challenges one’s skills. The important ingredients to achieve flow are:
a) Focus: A thinking skill in one’s mental toolbox which enables them to maintain their attention while there are no distractions when doing a particular activity.
b) Freedom: When you have the liberty to choose what you want to do. Goals within the system are designed so that the user can choose their desired purpose and path. Other goals can be more implied, for instance, winning in most games is an implied goal and not an explicit goal.
c) Feedback: Feedback should be clear, immediate and natural consequence of your action which helps you progress towards your desired goal.
d) Challenges need to be just right: If the challenges are too easy, you experience boredom and if too hard, you experience anxiety. The challenges should be in one’s optimal zone, where they are just harder than your skill. Challenges need to keep getting harder as you progress on your skill.
UNIFIED THEORY OF MOTIVATION
Now that we have summarised the major needs and motivation theories, we need to unify them to make sure we get a better understanding of what motivates us. One key question I had for SDT is whether the need for autonomy is more basic than say hunger? This is when it occurred to me that hunger is a physiological need, which is Hygiene. If I am hungry, it will contribute to my demotivation and most of my energy and focus will be spent in fulfilling the need deficit of hunger. Motivational needs like being autonomous will matter much less in such a scenario. Motivational needs really start to drive my behavior once there is some fulfillment of my hygiene needs. So all theories of Maslow, Herzberg, SDT, Drive and Flow are really different pieces of a large puzzle, which can give us a better idea of what drives us.
I postulate that the base needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy are in fact Hygiene factors. If these needs are not met, it is difficult for anyone to focus on their motivational needs. So really people start focussing on motivational needs once the hygiene factors are fulfilled. Though there isn’t a clear line where hygiene factors end and motivational factors take over. People want to fulfill intrinsic needs even if hygiene factors aren’t fulfilled like artists being poor but still desirous of pursuing their art for keeping their autonomy and competence. Also new age economies are combining hygiene factors with motivational factors like the gig economy where people are combining autonomy, competence to secure employment. Traditional businesses were primarily built around satisfying hygiene factors, the business of tomorrow will need to combine hygiene with motivation and some will just focus on the motivational factors alone like Facebook.
Also according to me, the Purpose as defined in Drive is very similar to Relatedness in SDT. The need to believe in a purpose is the same as relatedness which just helps you in internalizing external regulation or extrinsic rewards.
Flow is a state that is attained when one optimally attains autonomy and competence. Flow isn’t a motivational factor but the resultant state when one attains the 2 strongest motivational factors of competence and autonomy.
A summary of what can we derived from the Unified Theory of Needs
a) Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Theory, SDT, Drive, Flow Theory are all pieces of the same puzzle and together they can be explained under a Unified Theory of Needs.
b) Businesses of tomorrow will need to satisfy needs that fall under motivational factors (autonomy, competence and relatedness). That is the only way to have an ever increasing need for the user.
c) Traditional businesses satisfying only Hygiene factors are waning as these needs go away when the deficit is fulfilled whereas basic needs under motivational factors are unlimited.
d) Relatedness is the weakest of the motivational factors and the need to socialise really emerges from the need for competence, which is the desire to deal with our environment better.
e) Flow is a state that is attained when one optimally attains autonomy and competence.
