Motivated by Fear: Exploring How Negative Feedback Influences Performance

Fear can be a strong motivator. People who are afraid of living in poverty may be motivated to pursue any career option in order to avoid financial destitution. In a similar way, individuals who are afraid that they may develop specific health-related problems may work tirelessly to maintain optimal physical condition. Fear often has been linked to motivation, both positively and negatively. Until recently, however, few studies examined how fear of failure affects activity-related performance.

Jocelyn J. Bélanger of the University of Maryland sought to determine how negative feedback on specific tasks affected motivation in individuals fearful of failure (obsessive) and those who were passionate about their activity but less worried about setbacks (harmonious). In a series of experiments, Bélanger found that individuals who are passionate about achieving their goal perform differently based on their style of commitment. In particular, those with obsessive passion responded with positive motivation to negative/failure cues while those with harmonious passion saw no change in performance. In fact, the harmonious passion participants maintained the same level of performance throughout the experiments, regardless of whether they received success or failure feedback.

“Obsessive passion, associated with defensiveness, predicts performance aimed at avoiding failure, whereas harmonious passion, associated with a secure self-concept, predicts stable performance,” Bélanger said. These findings suggest that fear works as a motivator for individuals with obsessive passion. Bélanger believes that people who feel their sense of self is threatened by failure of goal attainment may unconsciously respond to that threat by increasing their performance. However, those who have harmonious passion traits are less threatened and view the feedback, positive or negative, merely as information needed to continue the process of attaining their goals. The results of this study offer valuable information that could be used for the development of goal-attainment strategies in the professional, academic, and sports arenas, and could help clinicians better understand an individual’s reaction to goal-achievement outcomes.

Reference:
Bélanger, J. J., Lafrenière, M.-A. K., Vallerand, R. J., Kruglanski, A. W. (2012). Driven by fear: The effect of success and failure information on passionate individuals’ performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0029585

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  • Sandra

    August 29th, 2012 at 1:59 PM

    While I see that both forms of passion can work as a motivator, it seemes that it is far healthir to be motivated for the achievement of a good goal versus working hard to simply stave off a fear of failure. I know that end the results could be the same, but you are working on this for different reasons and therefore the very way that this affects you will be different. I want to work toward a goal because doing so makes me feel good, makes me feel like I am making a difference. If I am working hard at something simply to prevent something bad from occurring, it becomes less about enjoying myself and working for something positive and instead comes to feel more like a chore.

  • DeA

    August 29th, 2012 at 4:24 PM

    I guess that at least finding something that motivates you to do and to change, even if it is out of fear, is better than feeling not motivated at all, right?

  • eddy

    August 29th, 2012 at 5:12 PM

    while fear could help some people prep up their performance,I would much prefer having people who are stable and can work towards a goal without there being any fear as employees.there is only so much you can drive people into a corner to force them to perform.it has to come from within.only then can a task be labeled as satisfying not only for an employer but also for an employee.and that is a sign of a good career and job and employee satisfaction is a factor as important as employer satisfaction if not more.

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