What is it about?
Motivation is the subjective willingness to do things. This important feeling is closely linked with mental health as well as happiness, tiredness and sleep quality. Motivation also changes a lot over time. When deciding whether to do something effortful, how motivated we feel at any given moment actually impacts how valuable the potential rewards seem to us. This is why when feeling motivated, we typically choose to make more effort.
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Why is it important?
This study used a smartphone game to capture changes in mental health and decision-making. Scientists have typically assumed that mental health and the decisions we make are very stable. This study reveals in fact that day-to-day ups and downs in subjective experiences actually impact our decisions in the moment. Therefore, people are less stable and more complex than previously assumed. Many mental health conditions involve changes to motivation. For example, depression is associated with changes in motivation and changes in the subjective value of rewards (e.g., the sense of pleasure after exercise). Using smartphone methods, we can better understand how depression can emerge through these processes over time, and therefore potentially prevent this (and other similar conditions).
Perspectives
This article emerged from ideas in my PhD and invented a completely new type of study design involving repeated smartphone games in a short period. I have lived experience of anxiety and depression. This experience has taught me that sometimes every day is different and I was struck by how few research studies truly appreciate this. I designed a study to try to capture how and why our decisions seem to change over time with ups and downs in our mental health which sometimes feel rapid and chaotic. This was the result - I hope that it inspires others to use a similar naturalistic approach that aims to appreciate the complexity of human beings and their experiences.
Samuel Hewitt
University College London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Day-to-day fluctuations in motivation drive effort-based decision-making, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2417964122.
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