Uploaded July 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Imagine a student who writes a story and gets the following feedback: ‘Nice work. You still need some work on the Passive Voice though’. How would they feel? Now listen to Professor Ariely describing a similar incident.
The experiment Ariely describes is fascinating. There are two conditions: in one you get to make robots with Lego bricks and you get paid for it. Your robots are all lined up and you are told they are going to be disassembled later. In the second condition though, as soon as you have made one, it is taken to pieces right before your eyes! Does this matter? And if so why? After all, the robots in the first case would also be dismantled eventually. Here is Dan Ariely to tell us what happened – and what it means for human beings and motivation.
[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
+psychology, +motivation, +etl, +esl, +tesol, +tefl, +intrinsic motivation, +purpose, +recognition, +Dan Ariely, +meaning,
Imagine a student who writes a story and gets the following feedback: ‘Nice work. You still need some work on the Passive Voice though’. How would they feel? Now listen to Professor Ariely describing a similar incident.
The experiment Ariely describes is fascinating. There are two conditions: in one you get to make robots with Lego bricks and you get paid for it. Your robots are all lined up and you are told they are going to be disassembled later. In the second condition though, as soon as you have made one, it is taken to pieces right before your eyes! Does this matter? And if so why? After all, the robots in the first case would also be dismantled eventually. Here is Dan Ariely to tell us what happened – and what it means for human beings and motivation.
[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
+psychology, +motivation, +etl, +esl, +tesol, +tefl, +intrinsic motivation, +purpose, +recognition, +Dan Ariely, +meaning,
