Being Too Motivated Can Wreck Your Decision-Making Skills And Performance, According To This New Study
With lifestyle gurus, self-care enthusiasts, and “growth mindset” influencers taking over social media, you have probably been bombarded with a fair share of #MondayMotivation posts and the like.
Of course, everyone wants to feel more motivated for one reason or another. Perhaps by Thursday each week, you are just slugging along at the office in need of some rest and mental relaxation. Or maybe, you wish to feel motivated in other areas of your life– like focusing on fitness or working on a personal hobby.
But is pumping ourselves with motivation-focused content the best way to achieve these goals? Well, according to a new study conducted by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), being too motivated can actually wreck our decision-making processes.
It has long been known that motivation and performance are tied together. The exact nature of this relationship has been severely misunderstood, though.
Many believe that the link is linear– so more motivation must equal a higher performance output, right? Perhaps thankfully, this is actually not the case.
Led by Sami El-Boustani, the study ultimately analyzed how different degrees of motivation alter the sensory information that is transmitted by neurons within the brain’s cortex. Moreover, to what extent different levels of motivation will impact performance and learning while completing a decision-making task.
The researchers were able to do this using a mouse model, in which they first trained the rodents to respond to stimuli using two whiskers– A and B. And afterward, the mice were trained to complete an action– licking a water spout– using only whisker A in order to produce a drop of water.
Once the training portion was completed, the mice were able to successfully differentiate the sensations of whisker A versus whisker B. Then, the research team conducted an experiment using decreasing levels of thirst– essentially the mice’s motivation– and observed how these varying degrees impacted performance.
The study ultimately revealed that when mice were very thirsty, or highly motivated, they did not perform well. The rodents would lick the spout haphazardly and failed to distinguish between the stimulation of whiskers A and B.
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On the flip side, the mice performed best while experiencing only a moderate level of thirst. They successfully licked the spout after only whisker A was stimulated.
And finally, when the mice were not very thirsty at all, their task performance was subpar again.
The team also observed neural activity during each task and found that when the mice were in a state of hyper-motivation, their circuits were bombarded with electrical signals– which basically overwhelmed the rodents.
“Hyper-motivation leads to strong stimulation of cortical neurons, which causes a loss of precision in the perception of tactile stimuli,” underscored Giulio Matteucci, the study’s first author.
Motivation levels that were too low also revealed interesting neural findings. While the rodents were not thirsty, their sensory information was more accurate. However, since they were not motivated enough, these signals were not strong enough to be correctly transferred– which, again, resulted in impaired stimuli perception.
So now, the researchers believe that a new understanding of motivation’s impact on decision-making and performance is necessary. Moreover, these findings should pave the way for the creation of methods that cater to optimal motivation levels in learning.
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Neuron, visit the link here.
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