One manifestation of the processes of attribution and self-perception concerns the formation of commitment. The balance between effort and reward has powerful effects on the attributions people make about why they engage in certain behaviors. For instance, it possible to induce commitment by persuading individuals to expend considerable effort on an activity in the absence of a clear external reward for doing so. Psychologists call this insufficient justification; unable to identify a clear external rationale for exerting effort on a task, the person can either believe that the effort was wasted or, alternatively, that there was some higher purpose served by the effort. Because we generally dislike perceiving ourselves as having done things that are foolish or that lack efficacy, there is a tendency to take the other cognitive route and divine a higher purpose in our behavior, thereby psychologically inducing commitment to that course of conduct.
The process of commitment has a strong self-reinforcing quality. The more we invest in a specific course of conduct, the more difficult it is psychologically to abandon that path, and therefore the stronger the inclination is to reaffirm our commitment to the activity. This process of escalating commitment is strongest when the person got involved in the activity voluntarily (rather than through coercion), has exerted considerable effort, has done so Visibly and publicly, and when the course of conduct is difficult or impossible to undo. Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation leia todo o artigo
