Motivation Map of the Brain (Gamification)

pelconsulting.org/blog/2016/10/9/motivation-map-of-the-brain

9 2016 ‫أﻛﺘﻮﺑﺮ‬

October 9, 2016
Human beings are incredibly complex creatures. Sometimes our actions are rational,
sometimes they are not. We have the ability to hold multiple contradictory thoughts and
motivations at once. Although we are complex, when millions of our actions are analyzed,
multiple patterns emerge. We can be understood.

Motivation Map of the Brain

Before we begin, I would like you spare a minute to study the diagram above carefully.
You won’t understand everything. Don’t worry, I will explain below. When you are ready,
please proceed!

The diagram is called the Motivation Map of the Brain. I created it as a result of 60 years
of research from affective neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, cultural neuroscience,
social cognition and psychology of game design. The map attempts to compartmentalize

1/21
the emergent motivations and emotions of the human brain. By looking at this one figure,
the entirety of humanity’s will can be known. We can systematically design engaging
experiences for each and every individual on the planet.

It has three layers of octagon.

Level 1

Level 1 octagon represents our deepest and most universal motivations. All human beings
on the planet exhibit these traits in varying degrees. Throughout a person’s life, some
motivations become more important than others. The source of all human actions (apart
from sensory stimulation) can be traced back to these 8 primary motivators:
Narrative, Progress, Freedom, Security, Social Connection, Essentialism, Curiosity and
Fear.

Level 2

The motivations in level 2 octagon are natural extensions of level 1 but they are heavily
influenced by culture and circumstance. In other words every human being has the
potential to develop Level 2 motivations but not all are present in any one person. Due to
differences in culture and childhood experiences, each person has a unique motivation
profile. If this is understood, a tailor made experience can be designed for any particular
person or groups of people. For example, I am strongly motivated by challenge, mastery
and exploration. If I encounter an experience that is designed to fulfill my thirst for
challenge and knowledge, I will pay for it 100% of the time.

Level 3

However, level 3 octagon is quite different. It consists of extremely unhealthy emotional

states which don’t appear in normal circumstances. They are unhealthy because they are
detrimental to the quality of living. They only appear when a person is sick with what I
call ‘motivational imbalance’. I have argued in this article that, in order to achieve a
fulfilling life, one must experience a balanced dose of all 8 core motivations. Otherwise,
you are in danger of developing very negative emotions. These emotions are placed
according to their source level 1 motivation. For instance, extremist movements like Klu
Klux Klan began because their members focused entirely on Motivator 1, Narrative. They
were so blinded by the stories they told themselves about higher causes that they became
gripped by extreme feelings of close-mindedness, hatred and fanaticism. In another
example, a married woman in India abandoned her career and her accomplishments for
the sake of security for the family. As she focused more and more on her husband and
children by abandoning other motivations, her life became very stagnant and boring. She
had imprisoned herself in the confines of her house. Level 3 emotions are very powerful
yet very destructive. They are to be avoided at all costs.

2/21
 Complete Motivation Map

Back to the complete map, the motivators of the left hand side are extrinsic. Anterior
cingulate cortex which resides in the left hemisphere of the brain is the most probable
candidate that regulates extrinsic motivations in order to respond to external influences.
When these ‘economic’ motivators are present, the end goal is more important than the
journey. Interestingly, the moment a threat of punishment is present around the desired
object, extrinsic motivations change to a more powerful intrinsic motivation of curiosity
and intrigue.

Basic brain regions and their functions

On the other hand are intrinsic motivators. When people are motivated by freedom,
social connection or curiosity, they believe the process is fun in itself. Intrinsic
motivations are internally generated most likely in the prefrontal cortex which is involved
in personality expression, decision-making and moderating social behavior. They are
usually long-lasting because the hippocampus and the amygdala also contribute to the
experience. The 1st motivator: narrative and the 8th motivator: fear can be either
extrinsic or intrinsic depending on the context.

Additionally the top half of the map are human motivators. They are the result of the
recently evolved and the most human part of the brain, the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe
is not fully developed until a human reaches full adulthood. The frontal lobe is the
executive center of the brain which carries out complex higher level planning, social and
creative tasks. Along with the temporal lobe, they conjure stories in order to understand
the world. Moreover dopamine is released from the brain and the gut whenever a person
experiences pleasure from human motivators. That is why it feels good to be influenced by
narrative, progress, freedom and social connection.
3/21
In contrast, the bottom half of the map are lizard motivators. I am indeed referring to the
lizard brain, a fancy name given by neuroscientists to represent the limbic system that is
embedded deep beneath the brain. The brainstem for example regulates the basic survival
mechanisms which are both physiological and psychological. The physiological
mechanisms are heart rate, breathing, digesting and sleeping. The psychological ones are
fear, anger, sex, disgust and long term memory. Amygdala which is the fear center of the
brain uses everything in its power to influence the organism the moment it has decided
that a potential threat is near. As a result, the lizard motivators from lower level
processing of the brain possess a strong force of urgency. At the same time, they leave
uncomfortable feelings afterwards. Shopper’s regret is a famous example of this effect.

The motivations of the level 1 octagon will be numbered to make them easier to reference.
Narrative is motivator 1 while progress is motivator 2 etc.

Click on these images to see how the motivators influence each other.

1. Narrative: Our instinct to tell stories is as old as language itself. This instinct is so
strong that the brain is constantly constructing personal stories through imagination,
even in sleep. We love hearing stories from others, watching stories, reading stories. To

4/21
learn how to engage users through stories, study the films, movies, novels and video
games. They have mastered how to tell captivating narratives to motivate behavior. (The
followings are Level 2 motivators.)

Higher meaning: Through narratives we find meaning in our lives. We are

motivated to ensure that our actions are meaningful and impactful for other people.
Otherwise we feel empty.

Ideals and causes: From telling stories, we construct ideals and causes to strive
for. We enjoy serving a bigger purpose and we are faithful to our ideals. All major
religions in the world have utilized this motivation masterfully.

Awe: Awe is the most basic and least understood of the human emotions. We feel
awe when we encounter something larger than ourselves. So large that it is
unfathomable. We know it when we feel it. Our body hairs are sticking up followed
by goosebumps. Throughout history, mankind has constructed incredible
architecture to express their feelings of awe. We are motivated to seek it to feel that
special state again. (Next are Level 3 emotional states.)

Naivety: Naivety mostly affects young people because they are easily swayed
by heroic tales of moral idealism. As a result, they make the most common
mistakes in life in pursuit of such ideals. Reality is incredibly complex and
chaotic. One can never fully guess how a single action can lead to unintended
consequences. Naivety narrow the lens in which to see the world where one
action leads to one consequence. Coming of old age tend to naturally cure
naivety but there are some who are still stuck in their fantasies.

Fanaticism: Higher causes if left unchecked can easily transform into dogma
and then to fanaticism. Those who are affected by extremism are filled with
intense emotions of awe for their object of desire such as God. As a result, they
will attack at anything that challenges their object of desire at the cost of their
life. This is simply not a healthy way to live because reality is populated by
different perspectives of seeing the world. No one view is the only truth.

Close-mindedness: Close-mindedness is being too stubborn to admit that

the narratives and beliefs one subscribes to might be wrong. This most often
affects the older population because their brains have become too rigid to
accept new ways of thinking. They still believe that the world hasn’t changed
since their youthful times. The human society is always moving forward both
in terms of philosophy and technology. At one point, someone will be left
behind because keeping up with the world is a tiring task.

5/21
2. Progress: From the day we were born, we are constantly evolving as a person.
Nurturing self-improvement and personal growth are the main reasons behind
institutional education. This extrinsic motivation is essential for survival. We are always
moving forward to the future and we hate being stuck. A feeling of stagnation in our
career path for instance is the worst feeling in the world. So we are motivated to grow
ourselves to the person we want to be.

Accomplishment: Competitive athletes are addicted to the thrill of

accomplishment. For them winning is the ultimate drug. They would grind and
practice for hours in the hope of achieving something great. The western culture
emphasizes on the importance of accomplishment and success.

Mastery: More than accomplishment, we practice certain skills over and over just
for the sake of mastering them. With mastery comes respect and power. When you
have mastered hard skills or a difficult field of knowledge, everyone will come to you
for advice. Mastery increases a person’s status in the field he/she is in.

6/21
Pride: When we look back on our past actions, we want to feel proud of what we
have done. This pursuit of pride is very real for some people. This uniquely human
endeavor requires constant vigilance to make sure that we don’t have any stains in
our personal history. Our children and mentees can also be a source of pride. When
they accomplish something great, we feel like we are floating in the sky.

Hubris: Hubris is having an inflated perception of one’s abilities in the face of

a modest reality. It leads to overestimation of their accomplishments and
competence. In other words, hubris is a form of self-deception which is born in
order to face a harsh life.

Arrogance: Arrogance is similar to Hubris but it occurs when an

accomplished person forgets that his achievements are not caused by his
actions alone. Most successes are achieved by a group of highly skilled people.
Those who are credited with the success should not forget their roots.
Arrogance also affects children who have inherited a large amount of wealth
or power because they don’t know how difficult it was to achieve such things.
They lacked a sense of progress. Arrogant people often push down others in
order to reinforce their own self-importance which leads to social suicide in
the long term.

Narcissism: Narcissism is being obsessed with one’s own appearance. Some

humans are naturally more beautiful than others purely out of genetic luck. It
is an accomplishment without progress and hard work. Beauty can be used to
establish power over others who are not very fortunate. By obsessively
showing the world how beautiful they are, they receive reverence from others
but at the same time become lonelier.

7/21
3. Freedom: Our never ending quest for freedom as witnessed from many historical
revolutions reflects our most important desire, the desire to make meaningful choices in
our lives. If this desire is curtailed, people fight back one way or another. Being human is
to be free.

Challenge: With freedom comes self-actualization. Challenge is an essential

element that helps us to push ourselves beyond what we are capable of. Tackling an
interesting challenge is fun in itself. Creating a challenging task that encourages
your users to grow will always engage them.

Creativity: Creativity is arguably the highest form of human intelligence. No

machine in the world have ever come close to the power of the human mind to
generate insight. Freedom is a definite requirement to achieve true creativity. The
brain is an enormous pattern recognition machine that is constantly making novel
connections. Even in mundane situations, we come up with creative solutions to
tackle everyday problems like cooking and parenting. When we are creating
something with complete focus, the outside world disappears. We lose track of time.
We feel wonderful afterwards. This is a feeling of flow. Flow is activated when the
difficulty of challenge and the skillsets align. Flow is the ultimate engagement. Those
who have experienced it are ultimately addicted to it.

8/21
YOMI: YOMI is our incredible ability to outwit, deceive and predict other people.
By far, the most dangerous predator of a human is another human. Therefore this
ability evolved for the sake of survival of the fittest. When two tennis professionals
compete for the finals, they are constantly using YOMI to get an advantage. Being
cunning is also very valuable in complex social situations. We are motivated to
predict other people's actions and beat them. There is no victory sweeter than that.

Selfishness: Too much freedom leads to encroachment on someone else’s

freedom. Selfishness occurs when a person chooses to do something that is
purely for self-interest and the consequences are potentially detrimental for
other people. Selfishness can be described as an attitude but I am specifically
referring to selfish actions. In reality, we all live in a human society and each
of us has a bubble of freedom around us. When our choices start to affect to
other people, we need to be considerate. Otherwise, selfishness will reign
supreme.

Anti-social: Being creative requires one to be alone with their thoughts.

Through silence, the brain can focus on making creative connections between
unfamiliar things. However being too creative leaves the person with antisocial
tendencies because of being in too much solitude. On the other hand,
naturally anti-social individuals like those who are affected with autism tend
to be very creative people because their brains are hyper-active all the time.

Perfectionist: While it is good to constantly challenge yourself to reach new

heights, it is also important to realize that perfection doesn’t exist.
Perfectionists challenge themselves too much to the point of exhaustion and
constant disappointment. As a result, they become deeply unhappy because
they cannot calm down and relax every once in awhile. The human brain does
not work constantly like a machine. It requires rest and simulations to be
effective in the long run.

9/21
4. Security: Security is the most extrinsic motivation of them all because it is entirely
shaped by the outside environment. For example, we like our homes a lot because it is a
place of refuge for our bodies to rest and be comforted. A mother will do everything in her
power to make sure that she and her family are always safe and secure. We constantly
push our governments to maintain public safety so that we can enjoy our life outside of
our homes without constant fear. Safety and security are very important especially when
we become parents.

Customization: We like to customize our rooms, our houses and our clothing.
This is to distinguish our belongings from others. It gives a feeling comfort.

Bodily needs: Our bodies need food, water, fresh air, clothing and shelter to
survive. So we are motivated to acquire them as much as we can until we feel secure
enough to stop.

Ownership: Most people in the world will say, if given a choice, owning a house is
always superior to renting it. With ownership comes safety. When we know that we
own our house, we have no fear of homelessness. This knowledge helps us to sleep
well at night.

10/21
Collection: We like collecting certain things because the act of collecting comforts
us. Gives us temporary purpose. We like to hoard things that we value. Then we also
like to show off our collection to our friends to increase one’s social status.

Money: What could be safer than having lots of money? Wealth allows us to be
flexible, to enjoy our life without financial repercussions. We are attracted to making
money not only to pay the bills but also to experience other pleasures of life.

Boredom: It is natural to feel boredom every now and then when the brain
does not find anything exciting to do in the immediate environment. However
perpetual boredom is not healthy. It is a sign that the environment is very
predictable. The essence of excitement is built on unpredictability. In order to
curtail perpetual boredom, one must take on an adventure that takes place
outside of one’s comfort zone.

Sensitive: Another disadvantage of constantly being in a safe environment is

making you sensitive to life’s normal hardships. Being sensitive is being
mentally weak. It is important to venture out into new situations that will
challenge your mental toughness.

Stagnant: This feeling often strikes at middle-aged people especially those

who can’t get out of unfulfilling careers or relationships. For the brain to be
engaged requires new challenges to solve. If what you are doing is the same
thing day in and day out, eventually you feel that irritating sense of
stagnation. Although you may feel secure for having a good house with a lovely
family, in the inside you are unhappy because you can no longer grow as a
person. A part of your identity is somehow lost. This is one of the primary
motivations of cheating on their partners. To recover their lost identity.

Greed: Greed is a destructive state that is born from the desire to be secure
for oneself and the family. The more money one gains, the more they like to
hoard just to be sure in case something happens. This habit ultimately turns
into greed because it is never enough. Being 100% safe is absolutely
impossible.

Lust: Lust is the same as Greed but for bodily needs such as food and sex.
After doing a sexual act or after eating a delicious meal, the body produces
comforting hormones to reinforce the soothing feeling. Those who are lusty
are obsessed with this fleeting feeling. Lusty individuals are addicted to their
hormones. As a result, they can never get enough and keep wanting more.
Those who are affected are often insecure people who constantly need to
validate their existence through external means.

11/21
5. Social Connection: Our instinct to connect with others is no doubt the strongest
instinct of humanity. This is most apparent when solitary confinement erodes a prisoner’s
mind very quickly. The main reason why we have such a strong social instinct is because
human babies are pathetically helpless. Being connected to the immediate family and the
tribe is the best strategy to survive the vulnerable childhood years in a dangerous world.
The social groups we subscribe to in turn shape our self-identity and self-worth. We
subconsciously compare ourselves with everyone around us so that we could fit inside the
safety of the community.

Schadenfreude: Humans tend to demonize others who are outside of their deeply
connected social group. So when they see outsiders or competitors suffer, they take
pleasure from it. This is a necessary adaptation to maintain closer tribal bonds and
keeping the competitive spirits high. It feels good when your enemies fail.

Collaboration: When we reach adulthood, we realize that we can’t do everything

on our own. We need the help of other people to fulfill our dreams. As a result, we
are motivated to work with others in a mutually beneficial way.

Familiarity: Familiarity is our motivation to seek out people that are similar to us
or similar things that we have used before. Familiarity provide a sense of safety as
well as social connections.
12/21
Altruism: Sometimes human beings oddly help strangers with no expectation of
anything in return. This is most revealing after a devastating natural disaster.
Neighbors who have never talked now feel motivated to help each other. Many
people donate to help poor communities. We do this because the feeling of helping
others is satisfying in itself. Those who are very altruistic don’t see themselves as
anything special. They are very sensitive to distressed facial expressions which is
why they like to help.

Envy: Many of our competitive actions are motivated by envy. When we see other
people succeed, we become envious and determined to become like them. This leads
to competition which is the foundation of the free market economy. Healthy
competitions push all competitors to become more than they can ever achieve if they
weren’t competing. In other words, competition helps everyone to become more
resilient.

Over-reliance: If you always rely on your social connections to provide you

with emotional validation, you will end up relying on them for everything.
Moreover, there is such a thing as too much collaboration in work. If the team
is too big with little monitoring, over-reliance on people who work hard by the
lazier ones will become common. Having more personal responsibility for
one’s work and emotional needs will cure over-reliance.

Conformity: Being sensitive to social pressures will bring out conformity in a

group of people. Conformity is essentially tuning one’s opinions and actions to
a perceived group average. Conformity is dangerous because it destroys
individuality and the herd instinct becomes more prominent. A herd is much
easier to influence with toxic ideas than free thinking individuals.

Discontent: Constant comparison of oneself with those who are perceived to

be better is one of the greatest sources of suffering. Capitalist societies in
particular are plagued with discontent in the population because there is
always someone who is smarter, richer and have better families. Comparing
yourself sometimes with your role models in order to improve yourself is a
good thing. Nonetheless, it is not healthy to compare their appearances with
your entire life. You don’t know the sacrifices they have made to get to where
they are. Maybe they are deeply unhappy in their private lives. Maybe they are
jealous of your life.

13/21
 Orthodox: Those who don’t connect with a diverse group of people will often
express orthodox views. Orthodoxy thrives on stereotypes and simplification
of complex aspects in life. Orthodox people cannot let go of familiar ideas
which are no longer relevant. However being orthodox is not the same as
respecting the past. One must possess the common sense to discard views that
are no longer applicable in order to avoid being orthodox.

Hatred: Hatred is unleashed when a person has an unreasonable obsession

with a particular person or a group of people for being wronged by them in the
past. Some say it is the opposite to love but in fact it is not. Hatred is very
similar to love because of the undue attention being given to the target person.
It is a very powerful motivator while at the same time erodes a normal
person’s mind to the point where only madness awaits.

6. Essentialism: Our mind has an inborn intuition that things have an underlying
reality or true nature that one cannot directly observe or measure. It is this hidden essence
that matters. It’s called essentialism. Romantic couples usually say to each other, “I want
you to love me for who I am.” In other words, we want someone who truly appreciates our
inner essence. This is a uniquely human desire. No other animals care about hidden
essences because they simply don’t understand it. Another side of essentialism is the
14/21
economic mindset. We determine the value of something based on scarcity, social proof,
history and the context. All successful salesmen understand that the value of anything is
always subjective and only exist in the imagination. We can tune our subjective value of
the object with others to make them value it as well. For example, when we consume an
object that is rich with creative effort and personal history, we feel a lot of pleasure from
it.

Exclusivity: Exclusivity increases value because people who are invited are
probably accomplished and powerful. The essence of an exclusive car is much
higher than a stock car. We are motivated to access exclusive content because it
increases our status.

Luxury: Some people like to buy luxurious things especially because they are
pointless. The common intuition of luxurious products is that they are hard to make
and everyone wants them. What else could explain their exorbitant price? Moreover
it acts as a social cue that obtaining them will make you more valuable than others.

15/21
Scarcity: We determine a value of something based on how easily it might be lost.
This is indeed a shortcut our brain likes to take because scarce resources tend to be
more useful than abundant ones in prehistoric times. Utilizing this motivation will
create a sense of urgency so that the customers are motivated to buy right now to
avoid loss in the future.

Restless: Being obsessed with essentialism can make a person restless. By

restless I mean being constantly worrying about cleanliness, romantic love,
hidden value of things etc. For example, restless people often worry about
their material status over others while spending a lot of money to make sure
that their inner essence is pure and luxurious.

Disgust: Disgust is a normal instinct to protect the organism against

ingesting disease-causing substances which are often smelly. Humans
naturally avoid sick people out of disgust because diseases can easily spread.
Sometimes they are unreasonably disgusted towards a group of healthy people
out of perceived dirtiness. Many prejudiced views feed on this state of mind.
This is when essentialism goes out of control. This disgusted feeling is in
complete contrast to attractive feeling towards objects which have been in
contact with extraordinary people. Like buying a personal belonging of the
Emperor, Napoleon in an auction.

Wrath: When a person do not receive something they desperately crave, they
feel anger. When the acceptable personal boundaries are invaded, they feel
anger. When a loved one is being insulted, they feel anger. The two root causes
of wrath is a scarcity of positive experiences and an excess of negative
experiences. Anger is more easily activated when the human is feeling hungry
or some internal pain in the body. The frustration due to scarcity of food and
water causes anger in ordinary people who can quickly become violent. A
scarcity of love causes deep seated anger that is difficult to be cured. Wrath
usually erupts when there is a convenient person to blame for unfortunate or
unsatisfactory consequences. Anger has a tendency to build up due to
tolerance until everything explodes in one moment.

16/21
7. Curiosity: Children are naturally very curious. They have a strong drive to explore
and understand the world. We don’t lose this motivation as we get older. It just becomes
saturated by other motivations so it is not as strong anymore. Nevertheless, curiosity
empowered our ancestors to conquer the world. Even now all of our scientific endeavors
feed on this motivation. Not to mention, the sheer success of the travel and hotel industry
reminds us that we are still very curious of the world.

Novelty: Every day we are excited by something new. A new product. A new play. A
new movie. News. The media industry understand our hunger for new things. It
constantly provides us with novelty.

Exploration: We like to explore our inner self because we enjoy discovering

unique things about ourselves. We want to explore the world and the universe for
the hope of discovering something big. The joy of exploration is the reason why
mountaineers want to climb higher and more dangerous cliffs.

17/21
Unpredictability: We get a lot of pleasure from surprises. The joy of getting
something we want when we least expect it is the reason why gambling industry is
still going big. The excitement you get from the hope of winning an unpredictable
bet is very addictive.

Overconsumption: Those who buy a lot are usually addicted to new things.
Novelty is very exciting because of the hype around it. Yet at the same time,
too much novelty is fueling overconsumption.

Addiction: The human brain is programmed to react quickly to

unpredictable circumstances life may throw our way. If these circumstances
are conquered, the brain releases a lot of rewarding hormones in order to keep
the self-reinforcement strong. This evolutionary feature is easily prone to
addictive behaviors in a modern life where there are systematically designed
unpredictable environments to extract profits and time.

Nosiness: Being curious is healthy but being nosy is not. Nosiness leads to
strains in social relationships because everyone likes to keep secrets every now
and then. Being too investigative on sensitive personal matters will only lead
to suspicion and annoyance from the other.

18/21
8. Fear: Fear is a feeling everyone understands. Fear is the survival mechanism to make
sure we live as long as possible. It can also act as the opposite to other motivations. In
other words, fear can be generated from the motivations mentioned above. For example,
we are afraid of negative judgments from others, we are afraid of losing security, we are
afraid to give up our freedom, we are afraid to waste our time on unimportant tasks. Fear
of losing something you already have is much stronger than the possibility of gaining
something new. When fear takes over the body, our awareness becomes sharp and it is
very hard to ignore it. Humans are capable of immoral actions when they feel cornered
due to fear because the principle of fear states that survival trumps everything.

Fight: When we fear that we are missing out on something important, we will fight
as much as possible to get what we want. Fighting is essentially going towards fear,
using it as an energy source. We will fight when we see the slightest possibility of
winning the battle.

Flight: When the challenge is insurmountable and the danger too great, the brain
will instead decide to flee from the source of fear. If there is no way to win, the best
course of action is to retreat and regroup. We avoid the fear.

Paralysis: If the danger is too great even to flee or too small to bother, the human
brain will subconsciously decide to stay in one place while hoping the danger to pass
eventually. The human brain knows from millions of years of evolution that no
threat or agitation ever stays the same forever. Eventually it will pass and a bright
sunny day will come up again.

19/21
Lack of fear: This is an odd one you might think. I put this here for a reason. A
minority of people are born with a disorder to the amygdala, the fear center of the
brain. They are commonly known as psychopaths or sociopaths who have little fear
and empathy. For psychopaths who don’t feel fear as we know it, the previous three
strategies of fight, flight and paralysis do not necessarily apply to them. Instead
their decision-making process is very rational when they encounter dangerous
situations. They also tend to have schadenfreude, selfishness and greed more than
the rest of the population. As a result they are not easily discouraged by negative
consequences of their actions. Sometimes their actions lead to crime, trolling or
making people miserable for the sake of pleasure. They also tend to make great
leaders because they are willing to make hard decisions for the good of a system. In
other words, they are motivated by the thrill of danger and a sense of control and
power.

Self-hatred: Self-hatred is born from having too much fear and dislike of
one’s own identity because of negative reinforcements from outside
environment. Being afraid of showing oneself because of a perceived dislike
from the world. This is often due to ugly physical appearances, negative
demographic labels or low self-esteem.

Depression: Continuously fleeing from uncomfortable situations always

brings out depression. Coupled by extreme sadness, depression cripples the
individual by isolating themselves from social circles and the reality of life. As
depression gets deeper and deeper, the person starts to perceive the world as a
big scary place with no way out except death.

Violence: Continuously tolerating against frustrating or threatening

situations always ends in violence. Violence is an intentional act in order to
eliminate all manner of frustrations altogether and restore the balance. Or
violence can be used to reinforce an insecure self.

Sloth: Sloth is the evil child of the paralysis behavior when an organism faces
a threat that is too great or too small. In other words, sloth is a habitual state
of living where a person is too lazy to face up to anything. He ends up wasting
his time by doing nothing in particular. It is caused by a mind that has lost
hope.

20/21
In real life, these motivations are all mixed up in the brain. No motivation is ever isolated.
Some amplify each other while some cancel each other out depending on the situations.
The motivation map is an attempt to understand the chaotic experiences we all feel in our
heads. No model is perfect but they do help in understanding complex things such as
human motivation.

There are game designs to generate every motivation mentioned above. The gaming
industry possesses an enormous amount of knowledge on how to satisfy and dissatisfy the
human mind. The trick is to combine these game designs effectively to get the behavior
you want from the users. The process is very delicate because it requires a lot of planning,
foresight and testing to get it right.

Do you now understand more about the peculiar human behaviors? How will you use the
motivation map of the brain in your business and personal life?

Disclaimer: I do not own the Octalysis model. It is owned by Yu-kai Chou and the
Octalysis Group. This map is my own creation using latest neuroscience research.

21/21