Unlocking the Core Drive Forces: Understanding Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are the two broad reasons people do anything at all, and good design needs both. In 1973, psychologists Mark Lepper, David Greene and Richard Nisbett showed how the two can clash. They worked with preschool children who already liked to draw. Children who were told in advance they would get a reward for drawing later showed less interest in drawing during free play. Children who got no reward, or an unexpected one, kept their interest.

In this article I explain what the two kinds of motivation are and how they map onto the Core Drives. For that I use the Octalysis Framework, created by my co-founder Yu-kai Chou. I also show how we combine both kinds when we design products and workplaces.

What intrinsic and extrinsic motivation mean

Intrinsic motivation means doing something because the activity itself is rewarding. You solve the puzzle because solving it is enjoyable. Or you spend time with friends because you like their company.

Extrinsic motivation means doing something to get an outcome outside the activity. That outcome could be money, points or a promotion. It could also be avoiding a penalty.

Self-Determination Theory, developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, is the best known research tradition on this topic. It links intrinsic motivation to three basic psychological needs. These are autonomy, or a sense of choice, competence, or feeling capable, and relatedness, or feeling connected to others.

When an activity supports those needs, people tend to keep doing it without anyone pushing. Ryan and Deci summarized this work in a 2000 article in American Psychologist. So the theory gives designers a clear question to ask. Does this feature support choice, competence and connection, or does it take them away?

In practice, most real activities mix intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. A nurse may love caring for patients and still care about the salary. A gamer may enjoy a level and also want the badge at the end of it. The design question is about balance and timing.

Left Brain and Right Brain Core Drives

Yu-kai arranged the eight Core Drives in an octagon. The drives on the left side are called Left Brain Core Drives, and they lean toward extrinsic motivation. The drives on the right side are Right Brain Core Drives, and they lean toward intrinsic motivation. Yu-kai is clear that the names are symbolic. They are a memory aid for designers and not brain science.

The Left Brain Core Drives, which lean extrinsic, are:

• Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment. Making progress and reaching goals.
• Core Drive 4: Ownership & Possession. Wanting to own and improve something, from a collection to a personal profile.
• Core Drive 6: Scarcity & Impatience. Wanting something because it is rare or you cannot have it yet.

The Right Brain Core Drives, which lean intrinsic, are:

• Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback. Trying different combinations and seeing the result.
• Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness. Mentorship, companionship, competition and belonging.
• Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity. Wanting to find out what happens next.

Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling sits at the top of the octagon. Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance sits at the bottom. Neither is part of the Left Brain and Right Brain split between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

White Hat and Black Hat: a second axis

Octalysis has a second axis that people often mix up with the first one. The drives at the top of the octagon are White Hat Core Drives. These are Core Drives 1, 2 and 3, and they make people feel powerful and in control.

The drives at the bottom are Black Hat Core Drives. These are Core Drives 6, 7 and 8. They create urgency and can be very effective. However, people who act mainly because of them often feel uneasy, and they leave when they get the chance. Core Drives 4 and 5 sit in between.

The two axes do not line up neatly. Unpredictability & Curiosity is intrinsic and also Black Hat, which is why slot machines rely so heavily on it. Development & Accomplishment leans extrinsic and is White Hat. So when we analyze intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in an experience, we look at both axes at once.

Where extrinsic motivation helps

Extrinsic motivation is useful when you need a specific behavior from people who have no natural interest in the task yet. A first purchase or a mandatory training module are typical cases. A clear goal and a visible reward give people a reason to start.

Scarcity & Impatience can add urgency around a limited offer. Still, we use it sparingly, because it is a Black Hat drive. As a general rule, we also use Loss & Avoidance only moderately, for example to remind people of progress they would lose by stopping.

We design extrinsic rewards to be fair and transparent. A reward system that feels arbitrary or rigged works against the motivation it is meant to create. People also need to understand the rules quickly, before they decide the system is not for them.

When rewards undermine intrinsic motivation

The Lepper study was the beginning of a long line of research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In 1999, Deci, Koestner and Ryan published a meta-analysis of 128 experiments in Psychological Bulletin. They found that tangible rewards for doing an interesting task significantly undermined intrinsic motivation. Positive feedback, on the other hand, tended to strengthen it.

If people already enjoy an activity, paying them for it can shift their attention to the payment. When the payment stops, many stop as well. Sometimes they end up less engaged than before the reward was introduced. We cover how to avoid this in how to use rewards in gamification without killing motivation.

Feedback that tells people they are getting better works differently. It feeds the need for competence. Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback and well designed progress systems can therefore support intrinsic motivation instead of replacing it.

Using intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in sequence

We usually design intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to work in sequence. At the start, people do not know the product or the task well. An extrinsic reason to try it helps them take the first step.

As they gain skill and meet other people, Right Brain drives can take over. The person starts to enjoy the activity itself, or the community around it. At that point the reward becomes a pleasant extra and not the main reason to show up.

A simple check is to look at every incentive you run and ask what will happen when it ends. If you expect engagement to collapse, plan which intrinsic drive should carry people before you reduce the reward. That is much easier to design in at the start than to add later.

A LATAM Airlines example

Our work with LATAM Airlines shows this mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in a loyalty setting. Members were used to static point offers, so we designed a narrative campaign called “Treasure Hunt in the Jungle”. It was built mainly on Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity and Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback. It also used Scarcity & Impatience and Social Influence & Relatedness, together with educational and mission sections.

The miles were still there, and they still mattered. However, the campaign delivered them through curiosity and play. Our LATAM case study reports a 123% increase in mile accumulation and a 153% increase in credit card acquisitions. It also reports more than 160,000 unique visits to the campaign.

For me, the lesson is that points and fun are partners. The points gave members a familiar reason to take part. The story and the surprises made them want to keep going. You can find more examples like this in our case studies.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation inside organizations

The same balance applies at work. Bonuses and recognition can direct attention to what matters right now. Long-term engagement, though, depends more on autonomy and good relationships with colleagues. Both are basic needs in Self-Determination Theory.

A sales contest is a typical extrinsic tool. It can lift results while it runs. If the team only works hard during contests, the contest has become the reason to work. Giving people more say in how they reach their targets, and helping them learn from colleagues, builds the intrinsic side. We describe how we apply this at work on our employee engagement page.

The long term matters most in what we call the Endgame. This is the last of the four Experience Phases, when people know the experience well and the novelty is gone. In this phase we design mainly for mastery and community, because points have usually lost their pull by then. Our article on user retention and Endgame design goes deeper into this phase.

Practical design guidance

When we balance intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, we first look at these elements on the intrinsic side:

• Meaningful choices. Let people decide how they reach a goal. This supports Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback and the need for autonomy.
• A challenge that matches skill. Tasks that are too easy get boring, and tasks that are too hard cause anxiety. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called the absorbed state in between flow.
• Other people. Mentors and communities bring in Social Influence & Relatedness. That keeps people involved on days when their own energy is low.
• A reason that matters. When people see who their effort helps, Epic Meaning & Calling can motivate them, provided the story is honest.

When we use extrinsic motivation, we keep rewards fair and easy to understand. We use them mainly when people are new to an experience. We also favor feedback and recognition over pure payment.

Implicit design also lowers the risk of crowding out intrinsic interest. Here the motivation comes from the experience itself, instead of an announced reward scheme. We explain the difference in explicit vs implicit gamification.

Getting intrinsic and extrinsic motivation right is rarely about one feature. It comes from how the whole experience fits together over time. If you would like to look at the balance of Core Drives in your own product or team, I am happy to discuss further. Drop me a line if you would like to know more, or simply contact us.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

Intrinsic motivation is the drive to do something because the activity itself is satisfying, interesting or meaningful. Extrinsic motivation is the drive to do something to get an outside reward or avoid a penalty, such as money, grades, recognition or punishment.

Which is better, intrinsic or extrinsic motivation?

Neither is better in every situation. Intrinsic motivation is usually more sustainable and leads to deeper engagement, while extrinsic motivation works well for short-term goals and tasks people do not naturally enjoy. The strongest designs combine both and avoid letting rewards crowd out genuine interest.

How does the Octalysis Framework use intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

Octalysis maps both types across its 8 Core Drives. Left Brain drives (2, 4 and 6) are mostly extrinsic and Right Brain drives (3, 5 and 7) are mostly intrinsic. Designers use this to check whether an experience depends too heavily on rewards and to add the missing intrinsic drives.