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Natural curiosity drives learning, while external rewards can compromise performance, creativity, and interest over time, according to a broad analysis with hundreds of studies and thousands of students.
Genuine interest in what is learned remains one of the most consistent factors to explain good performance, persistence, and creativity among students.
A meta-analysis with 344 samples and 223,209 students concluded that more autonomous forms of motivation, especially intrinsic motivation, are positively associated with indicators of academic success and well-being, while more controlled forms tend to be linked to less favorable outcomes.
Intrinsic motivation and academic performance
This difference helps to understand a frequent impasse at home and in school.
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On one hand, young children often explore their environment out of their own impulse, trying to discover how objects, animals, and situations work.
On the other hand, as they progress in their education, they increasingly encounter grades, comparisons, praise, and material rewards, mechanisms that can organize routines but do not always strengthen the desire to learn.
Frédéric Guay, a researcher at Laval University and one of the authors who systematize this field of study, summarizes the logic directly by stating that intrinsic motivation arises early and that children are “proactive and curious by nature.”
In the same vein, he argues that it is the school’s responsibility to preserve this impulse rather than replace it with a growing dependence on external incentives.
The data gathered by the literature indicates that the pleasure of studying a subject is not a peripheral detail.
When students engage because they see meaning or satisfaction in the activity, they tend to achieve better academic results and more consistency in facing difficult tasks.
In the meta-analysis, intrinsic motivation was linked to student success and well-being, while motivation based on personal value, called identified regulation, showed a particularly strong relationship with persistence.
Reading, engagement, and long-term effects
This pattern also appears in specific research on reading.
A longitudinal study with students in Germany found reciprocal effects between intrinsic motivation to read and reading competence over time, indicating that one dimension can reinforce the other.
In other words, reading with interest promotes progress in reading, and improving in this skill also tends to foster a liking for the activity.
The effects of the type of motivation extend beyond childhood.
In a study with more than 10,000 West Point cadets in the United States, researchers observed that internal reasons for entering the academy were related to better long-term outcomes, such as career retention and early promotions.
The work also highlighted a less intuitive point: combining internal motivation with strongly instrumental motivation did not yield additional advantages and, in some cases, was associated with worse results than isolated internal motivation.
Culture of rewards in the classroom
Still, the school routine remains heavily supported by rewards.
In a study with teachers from early childhood to 5th grade, all educators reported using some type of reward in the classroom, and 79% said they resorted to tangible rewards weekly.
The survey showed that these tools appeared mainly in behavior management, not just in monitoring learning.
This widespread presence does not mean that every reward produces the same effect, nor that it should be discarded in any circumstance.
In practical schooling, praise, combined with immediate reinforcements, is often used to organize coexistence and support students with specific self-regulation needs.
The problem arises when this repertoire becomes the center of the learning experience and conveys the message that studying is only worthwhile when there is a prize, external approval, or fear of punishment.
Impact of grades and feedback on learning
The distinction is crucial because long-term learning depends less on momentary obedience and more on connection with the activity.
Classic research on assessment indicated this as early as the 1980s.
In experiments with students equivalent to 5th and 6th grade, Ruth Butler and colleagues found that interest and performance tended to be higher when students received qualitative feedback, without numerical grades.
Isolated grades, or grades combined with comments, had a weaker effect and, in several cases, harmed interest and performance.
This finding helps to explain why some educators have questioned the weight of grades.
The argument is not to abolish all forms of assessment, but to reduce the prominence of numerical rankings that turn every task into a ranking.
When the student begins to focus more on the final result than on the process, attention can shift from understanding to simply obtaining points.
In this shift of focus, there is room for a decline in creativity, aversion to mistakes, and withdrawal from more complex challenges.
When extrinsic motivation still has space
On the other hand, research does not support the idea that all extrinsic motivation is automatically harmful.
The self-determination theory itself distinguishes more controlled forms from more internalized forms of engagement.
When the student understands why a task matters, even without considering it enjoyable, performance can remain positive.
This process is different from acting solely to avoid punishment or to collect rewards.
There are also situations where external incentives seem to produce relevant effects, especially among older students and in contexts of access to opportunities.
A frequently cited example is the Advanced Placement incentive program in Texas.
The study identified an increase of about 4.2 percentage points in college attendance and subsequent salary gains, with particularly significant effects among Hispanic students.
However, these results do not negate the central distinction.
Incentives can increase participation at certain stages, but they do not replace the pedagogical work of sustaining autonomy, belonging, and perception of competence.
Another meta-analysis concluded that support for autonomy from teachers plays an important role in satisfying students’ psychological needs and strengthening more self-determined forms of motivation.
Strategies to stimulate interest in learning
In reading, this may mean offering materials compatible with the student’s level and recognizing different reading practices, including comics, magazines, and short texts.
Instead of restricting the identity of a reader to those who only consume long books, access and engagement are expanded.
In the classroom, the principle is similar.
Listening to the student, explaining the usefulness of an activity, validating difficulties without humiliation, and providing clear feedback on what needs improvement are strategies highlighted by the literature.
The central point revealed by the body of evidence is less a war between reward and curiosity than a hierarchy of effects.
Rewards can have a localized function, especially in managing routine and in specific contexts.
But when they become the main engine, they tend to impoverish the school experience. Meanwhile, curiosity, a sense of choice, and understanding the value of the task consistently appear as the foundations of lasting learning, persistence, and creativity.
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