Ifølge to ledende psykologer er denne teori ikke blot forslidt, den er forkert. Deres forskning indikerer, at nøglen til motivation er at give råd, ikke modtage det.
I en artikel i MIT Sloan Management Review, forklarer Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, en Wharton psykolog som studerer motivation, og Ayelet Fishbach, en professor i adfærdsvidenskab ved University of Chicago Booth, at psykologer længe har vidst, at problemer relateret til selvkontrol er knyttet til manglende motivation til at omsætte viden til handling.
"Da vi blev klar over dette, besluttede vi at vende standardløsningen på hovedet. Hvad hvis vi i stedet for at bede mennesker, der kæmper med problemer om at søge dem, bad dem om at give dem", skriver Eskreis-Winkler og Fishbach. For at besvare dette spørgsmål, udførte de en serie af eksperimenter, som satte folkde, der kæmpede med deres selvkontrol til at give råd til andre angående de problemer, som de selv havde. Deres samplede forsøgspersoner omfattede arbejdsløse voksne som kæmpede med at finde et arbejde, voksne som kæmpede med at spare penge sammen, voksne som kæmpede med håndtering af deres vrede og børn, der faldet bag ud i skolen.
"Selvom det at give råd til andre ikke bringer nogen ny information til den, som giver råd, tænkte vi, at det ville øge rådgiverens egen selvtillid," skriver de. "Tillid til ens egne evner kan galvanisere og styrke ens motivation og resultater endog mere end éns faktiske evner."
Kommentar: Delvist oversat af Sott.net fra Advice for lack of motivation: Give advice, don't seek it
Overskriften skal forstå i sin sammenhæng, da ikke alle problemer kan reduceres til manglende motivation eller selvtillid.
The results suggest their thesis was right. In one study, unemployed individuals gave advice to their equally deflated peers. Then all participants read job search tips from the career advice site The Muse. After giving and receiving advice, 68% of unemployed individuals said that they felt more motivated to search for jobs after giving advice than they did after receiving it.
Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach similarly found that 72% of people struggling to save money said that giving advice motivated them to save money more than receiving tips from experts at America Saves; 77% of adults struggling with anger management said they were more motivated to control their temper after giving anger management advice than they were after receiving advice from professional psychologists at the American Psychological Association; and 72% of adults struggling to lose weight said that giving weight loss advice made them feel more confident about shedding pounds than did receiving advice from a seasoned nutritionist at the Mayo Clinic.
Even more surprisingly, experiment participants were completely unaware of the effectiveness of giving advice. "They consistently expected themselves and others to be less motivated by giving advice than receiving it," Fishbach tells Quartz.
This false expectation is likely driven by the presumption that underperformance is the result of lacking knowledge. In fact, unmotivated people often know what they need to do to succeed, they just don't take action. "For example, people think that failed dieters don't have information on effective diets," Fishbach says. "But the truth is that failed dieters know quite a bit, only don't apply their knowledge to action."
Giving advice, as opposed to receiving it, appears to help unmotivated people feel powerful because it involves reflecting on knowledge that they already have. So if you're completely clueless about the resources or strategies necessary for progress, asking for help is probably the best first step. But if you (like most of us), know what you need to do, but are having trouble actually doing it, giving someone advice may be the push you need.
Kommentar: Another counterintuitive solution that just goes to show the depth psychologists were right all along: we are strangers to ourselves. A great and somewhat ironic example of the above dynamic is Tony Robbins, who became successful by telling other people how to become successful. People tend not to take care of themselves as they should, and they also tend not to enjoy being hypocrites. By forcing yourself to give advice, you adopt a position of responsibility, and tend to become a little more responsible in the process. But keep the caveat in mind: you have to know what you're talking about.