What is the psychology behind not wanting to perform a task after someone tells you to do it, even if you were going to do it anyways?
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I don’t know a lot about the psychology of this – others in the thread seem to have that covered – but in my field (game design) it’s understood that people respond differently to intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, and that the difference can sometimes be perverse. When a game gives you the ability to do something like climb a mountain or mess around with crazy physics objects, the player can come up with their own goals and be very motivated to accomplish them. If the game offers extrinsic rewards (like points or achievements) for doing these same things, some players suddenly become less motivated to do them. I can’t explain exactly why motivation works this way, but I know it’s something that has to be taken into account when designing games.
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