Pain vs Pleasure: Which One Motivates You Better?

What works best for you when it comes to motivation? Are you more driven to do better when you are praised or do you have that fire in your soul to prove more when criticized?

It depends on the coping mechanism of a person. When you are doing so well, and yet you are still criticized for your actions, wouldn't that feel you down? On the other hand, when you are terrible at a certain aspect but still get better encouragement for it? Will that make you feel good?

I have watched a Netflix series entitled "100 Humans". The series aims to conduct social experiments through these 100 humans. They will be given scenarios and the team will record their responses and compare which group serves better than the other.

So which one motivates you better? Pain or Pleasure?

The humans were invited to practice and perform the art of plate spinning. It was clearly shown in the episode that some of them are fast learners. They were able to balance and spin the plate instantly. Meanwhile, some of them were not really getting it. They practiced over and over again for a specific time.

The team invited a professional circus performer, specializing in balancing plates, as the judge. However, to experiment effectively, he was given a box of blue and red balls. Blue balls mean to praise the performer, and red balls to criticize the performer regardless of how well or terrible they executed.

The judge picked a ball and it turns out to be red, so he has to criticize the performer even if he/she has done so well. When the first performer enters the room, she was instructed on how the point system was. She started so cool and the performance was all on point. She got a high score.

After her performance, the judge had to criticize her. She received hurtful words like "the performance was boring, you were terrible", every negative comment you will hear. It was clearly seen on her expression that she was confused because she made it so well and still get criticized. She was instructed to go back again for the 2nd round.

That left her feeling down and obviously, it affected her enthusiasm.

The second performer goes inside the room and in their practice, she can barely spin a plate for 2 seconds. So when she performed, she was really terrible. She only got 1 point out of 15 points.

The judge has to comment on the performance but minutes before the act, he picked the blue ball which means he has to praise the performer. So even if the performer was awful, he told her " you started so well, I like your energy, everything is on point".

The performer was astounded, and it changed her mood. She was a bit confused because she knew she performed awful but the encouragement she received totally set the mood for her.

2nd round begins

The second round begins and the first performer went back to the stage. The point system is still the same, she only has to perform the routine again.

This time, she started badly. The criticism must have affected her so much. She seemed distracted and out of focus. Her body language says it all, she was nervous. From 12 points, she only got 6.

Meanwhile, the second performer enters the stage and started well. She was able to perform the routine perfectly and got 12 points. That's plus 11 points compared to 1 point in the first round. Clearly, it boosted her confidence. She seemed so positive and relaxed.

To wrap up the experiment, everyone who got criticized for their performances decreased in points compared to those who got encouragement. The criticisms obviously became the game-changer while the encouragement worked so well in motivating the subjects.

In real-life situations, when you get criticized, does that affect your focus or does that drives you more to do better?

Well, I should say that any comment may be good or bad, will affect the mindset of the person. It depends on how the person copes with the situation.

As for me, encouragement works well for me. Criticisms will surely affect me but it takes time for me to recover. I get driven by the negative bias my brain is giving me.

So what motivates you better? Pain or Pleasure?

Lead image source

Thanks for reading.

Keep safe everyone!