It may be that internal motivators, instead of external motivators, create long-lasting behavior change, say University of Utah postdoctoral scholar Robert G. Kent de Grey and psychologist Carol Werner in a paper published in Transportation Research Part A<\/em><\/a>. People who make alternative transit fun, interesting or productive are more likely to continue that transit mode long-term. The results, the authors say, may inform how future challenges are structured.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever you do, you need to catalyze the creation of intrinsic interest if you want results to last beyond the scope of the challenge itself,\u201d Kent de Grey says.<\/p>\n Kate Lohnes, formerly of the Salt Lake City Department of Sustainability and the Environment<\/a>, was also a co-author of the study.<\/p>\n Incentivizing environmental change<\/strong><\/p>\n For four weeks in February 2018, people all over the Salt Lake Valley biked, rode and carpooled as part of the Clear the Air Challenge (previous years\u2019 challenges were held in the summer). Since the annual challenge began in 2009, participants have eliminated<\/a> nearly a million single-occupancy vehicle car trips and saved nearly 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.<\/p>\n The U\u2019s Sustainability Office<\/a> offered prizes<\/a>, including a dinner with campus leaders, to top participants. But if such external, or extrinsic, motivators draw people into the challenge, will participants keep using transit once the challenge is over and the prizes are gone?<\/p>\n That\u2019s the question Kent de Grey and Werner sought to answer. Once extrinsic motivators stop, Kent de Grey says, there\u2019s a high likelihood that the behaviors supported by those extrinsic motivators will stop too. Intrinsic motivations, or those that come from our values, may be more durable.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s a growing idea that intrinsic motivation is what builds durable attitudes that resist persuasion and that can lead to lasting behavior change,\u201d Kent de Grey says. \u201cUnless you find value or interest in something, or have that conviction that it’s the right thing to do, eventually people will\u00a0get tired of doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Pondering motivation<\/strong><\/p>\n To assess the psychological underpinnings of participants\u2019 activity in clean air challenges, Kent de Grey and Werner surveyed 197 participants in the 2012 Clear the Air Challenge and assigned them randomly to receive one of three interventions, experiences designed to influence behavior. The three interventions invited participants to ponder and express, in different ways, their reasons for joining the challenge. \u201cThe more you think about it and mull it over and convince yourself that you really want to do this, then you’re more likely to maintain the behavior,\u201d Werner says.<\/p>\n Kent de Grey reports that participants in all three interventions completed the challenge at about the same rates. But they also assessed participants\u2019 continued attitudes about alternative transit two months after the challenge ended\u2014and at that point, people\u2019s attitudes toward transit were correlated to their ability to create their own intrinsic interest in the activity\u2014to make walking, riding, biking, carpooling or telecommuting productive, interesting and fun.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can maybe pick just about any intervention you want,\u201d Kent de Grey says. \u201cBut the magic that is hiding behind each of these intervention strategies appears to be that harnessing of intrinsic motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy Brunvand, an associate librarian at the U\u2019s J. Willard Marriott Library<\/a>, wrote a 2016 essay<\/a> explaining how she finds intrinsic motivation for riding the bus to work. \u201cIt\u2019s a mistake to think of a bus as kind of a large inconvenient car that doesn\u2019t go when or where you want,\u201d Brunvand writes. \u201cThe best way to think about bus riding is as an aid to walking.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunvand says she has been a bus rider \u201csince I was too young to drive\u201d, and views walking to the bus stop as a way to become more connected to her neighborhood. \u201cI look at that time as an opportunity to not be at work,\u201d she says. \u201cThe time is what’s valuable to me\u2014the time when I don’t have something on the schedule. That’s time to think.\u201d<\/p>\n Kent de Grey and Werner view Brunvand as an example of harnessing intrinsic motivation. \u201cShe’s going to take the bus for the rest of her life,\u201d Kent de Grey says.<\/p>\n Helping get the ball rolling \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Another result arising from Kent de Grey and Werner\u2019s work was a disincentive to continuing transit use: strong employer pressure to join the Clear the Air Challenge. \u201cForcing people to do these challenges may be counterproductive,\u201d Kent de Grey says. \u201cThose are really good intentions on the part of the bosses, but good intentions aren’t enough. You have to have good results as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers are next hoping to study the best ways to create intrinsic interest, including the relative effectiveness of hearing pro-environmental and pro-transit messages from either friends or the university sustainability office.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get people to a point where they are determined to succeed,\u201d Werner says.<\/p>\n Kent de Grey adds: \u201cThere’s magic in what the commuters can do once the ball gets rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2019 Clear the Air Challenge\u00a0<\/a>begins February 1.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d1bbnjcim4wtri.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/18095750\/Dec-14-2018-16-00-27.gif\")
\u201cAn aid to walking\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n