1 Division of Social Sciences, Yale-NUS College.
2 Department of Management and Organisation, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore.
Psychol Sci. 2018 Oct;29(10):1653-1664. doi: 10.1177/0956797618780643. Epub 2018 Sep 6.
People are often told to find their passion, as though passions and interests are preformed and must simply be discovered. This idea, however, has hidden motivational implications. Five studies examined implicit theories of interest-the idea that personal interests are relatively fixed (fixed theory) or developed (growth theory). Whether assessed or experimentally induced, a fixed theory was more likely to dampen interest in areas outside people's existing interests (Studies 1-3). Individuals endorsing a fixed theory were also more likely to anticipate boundless motivation when passions were found, not anticipating possible difficulties (Study 4). Moreover, when it became difficult to engage in a new interest, interest flagged significantly more for people induced to hold a fixed rather than a growth theory of interest (Study 5). Urging people to find their passion may lead them to put all their eggs in one basket but then to drop that basket when it becomes difficult to carry.
人们常被告知要找到自己的激情，仿佛激情和兴趣是预先形成的，只需去发现即可。然而，这种观点隐含了一些动机上的含义。五项研究考察了兴趣的内隐理论——即个人兴趣相对固定（固定理论）或发展（增长理论）的观点。无论是评估还是实验诱导，固定理论更有可能抑制人们对现有兴趣以外领域的兴趣（研究 1-3）。赞成固定理论的个体在发现激情时也更有可能预测到无限的动力，而不会预测到可能的困难（研究 4）。此外，当一个新的兴趣变得难以参与时，与被诱导持有固定而非增长理论的人相比，兴趣显著下降（研究 5）。鼓励人们找到自己的激情可能会导致他们孤注一掷，但当事情变得困难时，他们又会放弃。
