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"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."

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The Infinit Yes presents: The Bribe Mentality

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Neglecting and Derailing Intrinsic Motivation

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♫ She sold her love to a modern man,

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'cause solid currency's the hardest to love...

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[Daniel Pink] ...and so, the evidence- it's not even a close call

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in behavioral science that these 'if-then' rewards-

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if you do this, then you get that-

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they're terrible! They simply don't work.

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We have this 'carrot-and-stick' motivational system

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that's kind of like a technology, that has outlived its usefulness.

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We need to kind of update what we're doing.

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- Time for motivation 3.0? - Yeah.

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Intrinsically motivated action or

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"things we do because we get enjoyment from doing them"

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could well be described as joyful participation in life.

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Take a minute to think about the things in your life that you participate in joyfully.

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If you answered your job, you're in the minority.

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In fact, I couldn't find any statistics on how many people

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say they actually get enjoyment from their work.

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But I could find statistics on how many people were

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dissatisfied with their work, and it's over half.

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This often happens, even to people who are able to actually get jobs

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doing something they enjoy, because as a person is presented with

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extrinsic motivating factors such as money,

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or even excessive praise or other positive reinforcement,

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whatever intrinsic motivation might have been present

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becomes seriously undermined

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as they lose their sense of authorship, authenticity and autonomy

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over what they are doing, and now must be baited

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for what earlier they would have done voluntarily.

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"Excessive extrinsic motivation"

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is actually a widely-recognized phenomenon in the entertainment business,

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where accusations of being a 'sell out' or 'just doing it for the money'

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are hurled regularly when a music artist signs a deal with a major record label

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and the music quality slumps,

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or a filmmaker makes a particularly high- budget film.

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And this is not to say that quality necessarily depletes as rewards increase.

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Many well-paid people display outstanding talents; there's no denying that.

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But, as the 'bribe' so to speak, is accepted,

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the person's self-motivated interest often wanes and fizzles out.

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Now 'bribe' may seem like a strong word.

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After all, when we think of bribes we usually think of

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corrupt police officers or the Mafia,

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so why then would I refer to voluntary payments

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for actions willingly performed as bribery?

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Well, Webster's Dictionary defines bribery as

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"money or favor given or promised in order to

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influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust."

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And since, to quote Alfie Kohn,

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"One of the most thoroughly researched findings in social psychology

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is that the more you reward someone for doing something,

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the less interest that person will tend to have

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in whatever he or she was rewarded to do,"

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we see that we cannot have rewards without them functioning as bribery.

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Even if it is unintended, a reward is, by design,

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an attempted manipulation of another person's behavior.

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When we are talking about money-

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the reward we give for most forms of social participation-

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we must recognize that being deprived of this reward

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is life-threatening, and so the bribe for participating in our society

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is done virtually at gunpoint,

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functioning under the assumption that people are so apathetic,

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or so useless, that they must be threatened with mass deprivation

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i.e. 'being broke', before they will ever contribute to society.

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And it is only in functioning under this assumption

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that people have been conditioned to sometimes actually act that way.

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When bribed into action, one cannot joyfully participate in that action,

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nor can they gain any real happiness from the bribe itself.

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Money does not buy happiness,

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and affection given on a conditional basis

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will only serve to cheapen itself.

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So the rewards we are given don't even make us happy.

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OK, yes, everyone would be happier

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if they had enough money to live comfortably; nobody's arguing that.

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But once we get past that level,

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higher rewards do not equal happier people.

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In fact, the more possessions one has,

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has been shown to often negatively affect their stress levels,

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which makes sense because

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holding a mindset of constantly chasing extrinsic rewards

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is one of always being one step behind,

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always unfulfilled, every step you take up that ladder.

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But so what if we aren't joyful or fulfilled,

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maybe people don't like it as much

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and maybe they don't want to do it as much;

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but aren't people just plain more productive in a society

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when they are chasing rewards?

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Actually: No. In study after study the results say

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that after a certain reasonably low level of income

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further reward has absolutely no effect

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on the productiveness of people who are doing work

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that requires even rudimentary thinking skills.

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Once our basics needs are met, people who get paid more

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do not perform better and in many cases often perform worse.

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The only thing money is good at motivating

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is mindless, repetitive drone work

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that could just as easily been done by trained monkeys,

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or, more realistically, robotics technology.

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It is an absolute insult to the progress of humanity

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and the history of human achievement

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that we allow our brothers and sisters to continue to be subjected

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to the needless imposition of this kind of mindless menial labor,

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when we have the technology to move beyond it.

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Of course, that is not to say that there is no work to be done,

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but working towards a society that actually takes care of its inhabitants

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is something that I think we could all joyfully participate in.

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When I ask people all over our planet, in my work,

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to think of something they did, recently, that enriched somebody's life,

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and anybody can usually think of it, although it takes a while

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because we, everyday, do so many things that do that.

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It's so part of us that we don't think of it, you know.

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We give verbal greetings that are designed to

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connect in a pleasant way with people; we cook meals for people.

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We do it-... touch them in ways that nourish.

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So very often it takes a while before people can answer this question,

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but then they get something in mind that they've done

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for somebody in the last 24 hours. Now I say

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"Focus your attention on how you think that enriched their life

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in terms of their needs. What needs of theirs were met?

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How do you think that left them feeling?"

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And when people start to imagine that, you can see

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a beam come out on their face and their eyes.

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And I say "How do you feel right now,

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when you realize that you did something that had that impact on people?"

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And people say "I feel good, I feel happy, I feel delighted."

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Then I ask them this question "Do any of you know

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anything that's more fulfilling, than to do that,

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to use the power we have

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in a way that contributes to people's well-being?"

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I've asked that question all over the planet,

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and nobody has ever said to me "If you get a Lexus that's better" or...

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if you get these culturally-induced rewards, that that's better. No!

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People say, the most fulfilling thing is to contribute to people's well-being.

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Well, that's play then!

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That's the most enjoyable play that we human beings engage in:

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to contribute to people's well-being.

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Now sometimes that play can involve hard work,

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because I may work very hard to

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do something that contributes to people's well-being.

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Sometimes I travel a long way across the world

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to offer something to people that's enriched my life.

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But it's play when my full focus of attention is on why I'm doing it.

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I'm not doing it for money; I'm not doing it to get a positive report card.

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I'm doing it because [it's] something that has increased joy in my life.

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It's joyful to share it with others; it's a fun game.

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It's the most fun game I've ever found, contributing to people's well-being.

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I'm really confident it's the most fulfilling game

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we human beings will ever find.

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Social contributions must be freely and willingly given

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if we as a civilization are to reach our peak potential.

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By working to secure the integrity of society for all people,

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not just those with so-called monetary wealth,

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we create an environment which will truly nurture

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the inquisitive, productive, and giving qualities present in all people.

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We must stop competing for rewards that leave us unfulfilled

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and release a new culture of self-motivated collaborative advancement.

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The drive to move society to the next level is present within the population.

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Let's not stifle and insult that drive by assuming

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its actions are conditionally based on some superfluous reward.

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Human beings want to help. Let's let them!

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A resource-based economy does not use money,

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instead relying on intrinsic motivation

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removing the very basis for greed and corruption,

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allowing us to nurture each other and the planet.

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We can't fix problems using the thinking that caused them.

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For more information on a resource-based economy

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google 'The Zeitgeist Movement' and 'The Venus Project'

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Thanks for watching!  www.theinfinityes.com

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♫ Get along for a while, citizen, you'll see

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How the innocent are bound to the damned

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What it is just is, I know, so we're trapped by answers

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Love haunts to the end

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From the moment that we're born

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'Til we're old and tired out,

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do we ever know people?

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From the moment that we're born

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'Til we're old and tired out,

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do we ever know people?

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'Citizen' from the Album 'Broken Bells'