Why is it important to choose for yourself? Dr. Mauricio Delgado of the University of Pittsburgh conducted an interesting experiment on motivation.
Participants in the experiment were asked to press a button to predict whether a random number between 1 and 9 would be less than or greater than 5 after installing an imaging MRI device capable of imaging the brain.
Dr. Delgado predicted that the experiment was simple and that the participants would be bored. However, contrary to the prediction, the participants cheered if they were correct, and if they were wrong, they expressed disappointment and had fun. Some subjects even said they wanted to play the game at home.
This time, we changed the experiment a little and asked the other groups to press the number recommended by the computer instead of making predictions. Then people quickly got bored with the experiment.
People's brains also reacted differently. If you guess by yourself and select a number, the striatum part of the brain is activated regardless of success or failure, whereas when the computer selects a number instead, the striatum does not respond. The brain's striatum is an important part of motivation, pleasure, and the creation of new neurons. In other words, when people have a choice, they are motivated and feel fun, but without a choice, the motive disappears.
What is proactive? It refers to choosing how to respond to external stimuli instead of immediately responding to them. Whether it's a game or work, it's fun when I can choose to react to external stimuli. The human brain is designed to give the gift of'pleasure' and'a sense of accomplishment' when making a choice and confirming the result. At that time, the energy of motivation is generated, and by creating new cells, it has a positive effect on the future. It is fun when you do it yourself instead of doing what you ask. What we do while having fun grows us.
