A passion for passion: Collectivistic cultures value intrinsic motivation more than individualistic cultures

Prior research on cultural models of agency suggests that intrinsic motivation, such as passion, is a stronger predictor of performance in individualistic contexts (e.g., the United States) than in collectivistic contexts (e.g., China). Much less is known, however, about cultural differences in the perceived value of intrinsic motivation, which may more directly shape daily social processes surrounding motivation. The present research examined cross-cultural differences in the perceived importance of intrinsic motivation for both predicting others’ behavior and influencing others’ behavior. Counterintuitive patterns emerged. Faculty members in Chinese and Japanese higher education institutions ranked passion as a more important evaluative criterion in student selection than did their counterparts in American institutions; across 24 societies, country-level individualism negatively predicted teachers’ self-reported practices of upregulating their students’ intrinsic motivation, as indexed by self-efficacy, value, and interest. These findings suggest that, despite its lower observed value in predicting performance in collectivistic than in individualistic contexts, intrinsic motivation is nevertheless perceived to be more important for both predicting and influencing others’ behavior in collectivistic contexts. Rather than negating previous evidence on cultural differences in the predictive value of intrinsic motivation, our results offer a complementary picture of cultural differences in its perceived value and call for more nuanced interpretations of the roles that passion, interest, and other forms of intrinsic motivation play in collectivistic societies.