Since rewards can sometimes be a motivation, is it an intrinsic motivation or extrinsic? This is an important question and one that has confused many in the gamification industry. However, people do thing for many reasons beyond the rewards, so there are many motivations that are not rewards. Thus the rewards we get, can sometimes be the motivation. So rewards can sometimes be the reason that drives people to do things. Here is the tricky part, so stay with me. Why People are Confused about Reward vs Motivation Instead, it means whether the motivation is intrinsic to the activity or not. However-as you might recall the previous post-when talking about motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic has nothing to do with whether the motivation originates from within the person or outside the person. When talking about rewards, intrinsic rewards are those that originate from within the person, and extrinsic rewards are those that originate from something beyond the person. Here is an important distinction that I like to emphasize. Therefore, extrinsic rewards means the reward is extrinsic to the performer of the activity or behavior. Because extrinsic rewards are tangible, they are usually given to the person doing the activity as such, they are typically not from within the person. For example, it’s a certificate of accomplishment, a trophy or medal for winning the race, a badge or points for doing something right, or even a monetary reward for doing your job. It is a tangible recognition of ones endeavor. So “intrinsic” in this case means the reward is intrinsic to the person doing the activity or behavior.Īn extrinsic reward is an award that is tangible or physically given to you for accomplishing something. Because intrinsic rewards are intangible, they usually arise from within the person who is doing the activity or behavior. For example, it is the knowledge that you did something right, or you helped someone and made their day better.
So what is the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards?Īn intrinsic reward is an intangible award of recognition, a sense of achievement, or a conscious satisfaction. A simplistic way to look at the difference between motivation and reward is that motivations generally come before the behavior, but rewards come after the behavior. It is what you get for doing something rather than the reason for doing it in the first place. Extrinsic Motivation.Īs you may recall, motivation is the reason that drives someone to do something (i.e.
It is critical to understand the fundamental concepts around motivation before jumping into today’s discussion. Since this post builds on the concepts introduced in my last post, if you haven’t read it yet, please take a few minutes to do so.
Some even treat these distinctive concepts synonymously, which is ridiculously wrong. Although motivation and rewards are both very critical to the design and implementation of gamification strategies, few gamification practitioners can articulate the subtle differences between intrinsic motivations vs. Now we can go one step further to talk about rewards and the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. OK back to lifting the fog! Last time I discussed motivation and the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Looking for practical examples? Watch this session with Domo, Videotron, and SAS from our Engage Conference in September 2019. I’m excited to see more of my gamification theory and work being productized in the near future! Don’t’ forget to let me know your comments on the new badging features.
The Badging feature is just the first of many more that we plan to add to our already robust gamification engine. Last week Lithium launched the first feature of our Premium Gamification products. Before I delve into today’s topic, let me share an exciting announcement.