Motivations are the reasons why we think and do the things that we do. Related: Desire, Values. Many questions can asked about motivation such as: i) what does/​could/​should motivate people? ii) which stated motivations are true motivations for belief and behavior? iii) which motivations are valid vs invalid? iv) How does motivation even work?

Note: This tag is a work in progress

See also:

• Inspirational

• CEV

• Utility Functions

• Elephant in the Brain by Simler and Hanson

• Signaling

• Multi-Agent Theories of Mind

• Rationalization is the act of finding reasons to support a desired conclusion rather than reasoning in ways which reach the true conclusion.

• Motivated Cognition is when one’s thinking does not purely follow processes for generating truth, and are instead influenced by desires/​motivation to reach certain conclusion.

Motivation and Belief

In the context of belief, a valid motivation for believing something might be having encountered Bayesian evidence for it; in contrast, simply wishing something were true is a poor motivation for believing and often results motivated reasoning [link need].

The Litanies of Gendlin and Tarsky [links] are often invoked to elicit feels which motivate truth-seeking behaviors.

Motivated Cognition, Confirmation Bias, Rationalization

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Stated vs Actual Motivation

It is no secret that often the reasons people give for their actions and beliefs are probably not the real ones driving their behavior. Is that your real objection? The work of Hanson....Signaling...

• Act of Charity

• Player vs Character

The Cognitive Science of Motivation

While most people can recognize the feeling of motivation, it is a much more complication question on how agents, particularly humans, implement motivation.

In 20xx, Lukeprog wrote <Neuroscience Review>. Lengthy and thorough. Unknown uptodateness.

Related to the question of Motivation is subagents. Is one’s overall self actually made up of subagents each with their own desires. Kaj Sotala explores this in his Multiagent Theories of Mind Sequences. CFAR techniques: Internal Double Crux are aimed harmonizing between the desires/​motivations of different “parts” of oneself.

Aligning Motivations

• Overcoming akrasia...

Practical Techniques for Motivation

• Propagating Urges

• Mental Contrasting (external)

• Propagating Urges

• Internal Double Crux

Habitual Productivity and Nate’s Writing

Something to Protect

See also Motivated Reasoning