Metamotivational Beliefs about Extrinsic Incentives

Metamotivation refers to the individual’s awareness of their own motivational processes and their beliefs about how best to manage and regulate their motivation. One area of investigation in metamotivational research is the discrepancy between these beliefs and evidence-based findings. The present study examined beliefs about the role of extrinsic incentives in students’ intrinsic motivation. Language teachers (n = 130) and students (n = 252) read a description of a previous experiment that showed an undermining effect of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation, and were asked to predict the outcome of that experiment. The results showed that teachers and students alike believed that extrinsic rewards would enhance, rather than undermine, intrinsic motivation. These beliefs might explain the prevalence of extrinsic incentives in educational contexts and suggest the need for targeted interventions to raise awareness of the detrimental effects of overreliance on extrinsic incentives.