Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/92892 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
ISER Discussion Paper No. 803
Publisher: 
Osaka University, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Osaka
Abstract: 
This paper provides a simple autonomy-based model of human motivation in which a decision maker with divided selves must perform some task. The key presumption of the model is that the brain is not a unitary system which is equipped to achieve a single goal in a systematicmanner; rather, it ismore like an organizationwhich is hampered by several constraints such as preference incongruence and incomplete exchange (or imperfect recall) of information. Due to these constraints, themodel yields behavioral patterns that are consistent with various stylized facts of human motivation, mostly found in social psychology. The main findings of the paper are: (i) more autonomy induces more motivation; (ii) complex tasks are susceptible to motivation crowding out; (iii) small rewards are detrimental to motivation; (iv) intrinsically interesting tasks are susceptible to motivation crowding out.
Subjects: 
Autonomy
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Dual self
Motivation crowding out
JEL: 
D03
D99
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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