Motivation's Biggest Myth: Why "Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic" Is a Lie
Everything we were taught about motivation is wrong.
Welcome back to my series on all things motivation.
Last week, you learned that your kid isn’t struggling — they’re just unmotivated. Today, you’ll learn why “intrinsic vs. extrinsic” isn’t actually a thing — and how motivation works, instead. Happy reading.
I’ll be blunt: everything we were taught about motivation is wrong.
We’re taught intrinsic good, extrinsic bad. But motivation is not a binary system. In fact, “intrinsic vs. extrinsic” isn’t even the right framework. Motivation is less like a black-and-white photograph and more like a watercolor painting: fluid, layered, textured.
Let me guess: you want your kid to be “intrinsically motivated,” right? Sounds lovely. But also, totally divorced from reality. Life is bursting at the seams with extrinsic motivators. Paychecks. Netflix. Happy hour. That ski trip in Switzerland. And that’s not a bad thing. Extrinsic motivation is not the villain we make it out to be.
In fact, more external rewards could be the very thing that unlocks your kid’s potential.
Here, let me show you.
Yes, extrinsic motivation can be better than intrinsic
First, let’s define our terms.
Intrinsic motivation — doing something because you find it meaningful, enjoyable, or satisfying in itself. (EX: your kid building a Lego tower because they love the challenge.)
Extrinsic motivation — doing something to achieve an outcome, whether a reward, recognition, or to avoid a negative consequence. (EX: your kid crushing their chores to earn an allowance.)
Intrinsic equals: “I do it because I love it.”
Extrinsic equals: “I do it because it leads to something I want.”
People love to bash extrinsic motivation. Those same people check their Fitbit steps, track their macros, and work for a paycheck. These aren’t negative things — they are life things. They are effective tools to hit goals, accomplish benchmarks, stay motivated, and become the people we want to be. Intrinsic is lovely. But extrinsic pays the bills.
Whether we like it or not, extrinsic motivation is an essential part of our everyday lives.
So, why do we expect our kids to operate without any of it? Why do we expect kids to grind for 12 years with no immediate payoff, while we can’t even finish a workout without checking our Apple Watch to see if we did something worth bragging about?
If anything, we should be showing our kids how to use external motivation to their advantage.
Because that’s exactly what extrinsic motivation does: it unlocks intrinsic motivation.
Achievement unlocks motivation
I’m going to get learning science-y for a second, so stay with me.
The idea of “intrinsic good, extrinsic bad” traces back to studies by Edward Deci and Mark Lepper, which found that college students lost interest in puzzles after being paid to solve them, and children who were promised rewards for drawing became less likely to draw on their own during free time. They called this the “overjustification effect”: the idea that extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic desire.
However, more recent studies have found the opposite. External rewards can fuel motivation, not the other way around.
A 2018 Woolley & Fishbach study showed that early extrinsic rewards increase intrinsic motivation and make activities more enjoyable, acting like “motivational scaffolding” throughout the learning process. Most importantly, students remained motivated even after the external rewards were removed.
A 2020 study in the International Journal of Psychology found that external rewards (specifically: cash) unlock intrinsic motivation when applied in a way that supports student autonomy. Meaning, when students have a say in their reward, it unleashes their internal motivation.
A 2022 Frontiers study found the same: external rewards enhance the intrinsic motivation of the student — but the timing of the reward is critical. Immediate rewards almost always outperform delayed rewards. (“These findings challenge the traditional view that external rewards necessarily undermine intrinsic motivation and suggest that the timing of rewards is a critical factor.”)
To summarize: external rewards can unlock internal motivation — but the reward must be immediate, relevant, and support student autonomy.
Put simply, achievement can unlock motivation.
Put even more simply, “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation are not two separate beings, but one entity.
Except, traditional schools don’t use motivation in this way. We basically tell kids:
"Work hard for 12 years on something you don't really like. If you do well, you’ll get into a good college where you can work another four years on something you don't really like. If you do well, you can get a good job. And that’s when life will finally start for you.”
That’s like your boss saying: "Work hard for 16 years, and maybe you’ll get a raise. In the meantime, suck it up.” You’d laugh — and quit. But that’s exactly the deal we hand kids in kindergarten.
That’s why external rewards matter:
They give direction and clarity.
They create early momentum.
They carve out space for intrinsic motivation to emerge.
But here’s the catch: small, generic rewards don’t work. The rewards have to matter to that kid. How extrinsic motivators are implemented matters enormously. When they support autonomy, provide meaningful feedback, or help kids connect with their intrinsic interests, they can indeed unlock intrinsic motivation. And no school has figured out how to personalize that.
Except Alpha School.
At Alpha School, we use aggressive extrinsic rewards to motivate students to power through mastery and high standards. Yes — aggressive. Time. Money. Privileges. Video games. (More on that in my next few essays. Subscribe to stay tuned.)
Motivation isn’t “or” — it’s “and”
All that to say, motivation works best when intrinsic and extrinsic are in harmony rather than in tension.
Everything meaningful you’ve ever pursued was colored by both the joy of doing it and the outcome you were aiming at. You write because you love the craft and because you want readers. You run because it makes you feel alive and because you want to lose weight for your wedding. Painters love the process and the paycheck. Athletes love the grind and the gold.
What makes us think kids operate any differently?
Like I said: motivation is like watercolor. It’s complex and nuanced. To think only in terms of “intrinsic vs. extrinsic” is to think too small, too simple.
Ultimately, it’s time to stop bashing extrinsic motivation and start harnessing, instead.
What do you think? How have external rewards impacted your life?