postulate about academia

[eirias]

Academics have a reputation for being personally passionate about their subjects. It's often said that if you aren't passionate about what you're doing as a researcher, it's not worth it, because of the amount and quality of work that's required. Apparently you can't do a very good job of it if you're not totally in love. We know from social psychology research (I think the original citation is Deci, JPSP, 1971) that people's intrinsic motivation declines as their extrinsic motivation increases.* The obvious conclusion, to me, is that academics should be paid salaries that are small relative to their education level. Oddly, this approximates reality.#

* (miang, Our Lady of Goals: once you are out of prelim hell, you should tell me if people still believe this; my UG advisor pointed me to it but it wasn't his field as much as it is yours)
# (though at my current level of education, and with my current employment qualifications, starting salaries of academics look pretty damn peachy)

Comments

[ex-miang438.livejournal.com]

Let me preface this by saying I wholeheartedly agree about not surviving as an academic if you don't really, really love what you do.

Regarding intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, what you have is kind of true...the actual effect I think you're trying to get a hold on is the overjustification effect, which says that if people have intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for doing something, they'll come to discount the intrinsic reasons and give more weight to the extrinsic reasons. The classic study on this effect is Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett (1973), a really neat study with children and markers and photographs.

The larger context for the theory is Deci & Ryan's self-determination theory (and really, the cognitive evaluation theory part of it -- that's Deci & Ryan, 1985). I can go into that more if you want, but it's probably not necessary. I think the important part of their theory as it applies to your postulate is the idea that self-perception is critical in the process. So higher salaries might not be so bad if one can continue to say "I'm doing this job because I love it, and researching/teaching/mentoring/x,y,z are fulfilling and important, and I'd still love it if I made less money." The problem with starting with a high salary is that you'll get people who are just in it for the money (i.e. completely extrinsically motivated), and they won't do very good work according to your preliminary assumptions.

[leora.livejournal.com]

And, of course, if the salary is too low, you will drive out people who do love it but need money. I'd rather risk some people losing their motivation than drive good brains away because they can't afford to stay in academia.