People who found meaning in boring tasks said they felt more motivated
People who made their tasks more interesting reported greater motivation in the area that mattered most to them, in a Danish survey. The association did not hold in another survey.
The key idea
Seeking interest and meaning went along with motivation in one survey, while in another the general tendency to seek self-determination remained associated.
The study, in plain language
The team asked adults what they did with boring or irrelevant tasks: find an option of their own, make the tasks more interesting, or connect them with something they cared about. In the first survey, they also asked what motivated people in the area of life they considered most important, usually health: interest, personal value, or outside pressure.
In the first survey of 1,675 adults, people who used these strategies more also said they acted more out of interest or because they valued the activity in that area. No such association appeared for acting only under external pressure.
In the second survey, 565 adults reported how often they used these strategies in two hypothetical situations; their interest-based motivation and sense of self-determination were measured. Considered alone, the strategies went along with both. But after adding a general measure of how much each person sought to choose and find meaning in what they did, regardless of a specific situation, and how much they sought to meet their needs, the situation-specific strategies no longer showed that association, while the general tendency did. These measures were very similar to one another, which the authors identify as a possible explanation. No one was assigned to try anything; participants only reported what they did and felt.
What they found
- In the first survey, making a task interesting or connecting it with something valuable went along with greater motivation in the area that mattered most to participants.
- No such relationship appeared for acting only under outside pressure.
- In the second survey, those strategies no longer went along with motivation after accounting for the general tendency to seek self-determination.
How they studied it
In the first survey, 1,675 Danish adults reported strategies they used to find choice, interest, and meaning in a task, and what motivated them in the area of life that mattered most to them. In the second, 565 adults responded to two hypothetical situations; among reasons for acting, only interest was measured. The team compared responses without intervening or assigning groups. Because these were observational surveys, the associations do not show what causes what.
What the study cannot show
- The study was cross-sectional and based on self-reports, so it cannot establish what causes what. The dilemmas were hypothetical and participants were adults from one country. Sample sizes in Study 2 differ between the methods and tables.
Something to think about
Think of a task you have been putting off: are you driven by interest, its meaning to you, or pressure? These are three reasons the study measured. It only observed behavior and did not test what people should do.
The original study
Testing self-supportive strategies to regulate autonomy and motivation
Source under CC BY 4.0. English adaptation and explanation by PaperFlow, with AI assistance. The text has been reorganized for a general audience; it is not the complete paper and does not imply endorsement by its authors.
One study alone does not represent a field's consensus. Educational content does not replace professional advice. Report a possible error.
