Major incentive

Audrey Hua ’26

Last Monday, I heard the best advice someone has given regarding nascent generations. The question was, How do you catch the attention of kindergartners? The answer? Oh, that’s easy. You bribe them.

The reason that this advice is so veritable is less attributable to the fact that it is good advice qua advice, but to how alarmingly effective it has become with each new generation. Raffles for going to breakfast? Gift cards for wrapping kids’ toys? Do we do anything for itself anymore? 

The truth is, it’s not enough for something to just be innately good. We, hungry scavengers restlessly salivating after the next achievement, have moved to an almost purely reward-driven system: we must see the potential benefits, or we won’t do it. There is nothing inherently wrong with being reward-driven; throughout all antiquity, from hunter-gatherers to the tiny ants displaced by hunter-gatherers, all living things act for the sake of receiving something in return. But observing my peers, I’ve noticed a shift towards material rewards, leaving intrinsic rewards neglected and devalued. 

Recently, I received an awakening jolt in a conversation with a friend about college. We were talking about what we liked about our respective “dream” colleges. His eyes lit up. I saw an emotion in his eyes like craving. He wanted to go to his dream college because of the people he might meet, the courses that were offered. In my college search, I had not yet encountered many emotions: desire, anxiety, desensitization, jealousy, but I had not yet truly encountered craving. I was struck because here was someone who wanted to go to college not as an end, but as a means. Not for the shiny badge of honor, but because he had to be with that group of people. Because he could not imagine spending his four years elsewhere. Yes, college was a means to an end, but the end was not material. 

It might be argued that the goal of being in a certain community of people, of following your passion, is also material. Intrinsic rewards are often difficult to distinguish from extrinsic ones. Without going into semantics, though, there is something that sounds instinctually right when we say, “I want this because I love it,” versus, “I want this because that’s what everyone looks up to right now.” A good question that seems to differentiate between the two is: What would I choose if I already had enough money, respect, and security?

I later found myself finding a college that I craved. For once, I shifted away from the name, the glory, the praise, and felt myself longing to meet this philosophy professor who wore pink and purple dresses covered with upside-down cats. At that point, I had already accepted another college offer. I am beyond excited and grateful to attend that college. But sometimes, a part of me wonders, did I make the wrong choice? Was I motivated by the wrong type of reward?

All that is to say, intrinsic rewards do not always have to exist in the absence of extrinsic rewards, and extrinsic rewards are not all necessarily bad. We need to eat and sleep, and at the end of a day, the current world requires us to pay for those expenditures – extrinsic rewards literally keep us alive. But in a word, increasingly materialistic, we should rethink at least our major transitions, like college, getting a job, and choosing our friends. 

On a hopeful note, there are many ways in which we take intrinsic motivation as a significant factor in the decision. Relationships are one. While money, networking, and resources often weigh in on who we choose to spend the rest of our lives with, connection on a personal and emotional level is still high on the list of desirable traits for a partner. We don’t look for partners like we look for colleges. Personally, I hope that doesn’t ever change.