Why We Think Everyone Else Is Doing It for the Money
Why do we think others are in it for the money, but we’re in it for the experience?
Imagine two employees working late.
You explain your own behavior like this:
“I care about the project. I want to do good work.”
But when you see your coworker staying late, you think:
“He probably wants the bonus.”
That difference is called extrinsic incentive bias.
It is our tendency to assume that other people are more motivated by external rewards—money, promotions, status, job security—while seeing ourselves as more motivated by internal reasons such as purpose, curiosity, pride, or enjoyment.
Psychologist Chip Heath demonstrated this in studies involving students, employees, and managers. People consistently predicted that others cared more about things like pay and job security, while they described their own motivation in terms of learning, accomplishment, and meaningful work.
Why?
We have direct access to our own inner motives.
But we cannot see what is happening inside someone else’s mind.
External rewards are much easier to observe.
So we may think:
“I work hard because I care. They work hard because they’re paid.”
The lesson
When judging someone’s motivation, ask:
“Am I assuming money or status matters more to them simply because I can’t see their inner reasons?”
People are often motivated by far more than money.
And sometimes we give ourselves credit for having deeper motives while forgetting that other people probably have them too.
