Automatic motivation

What is automatic motivation?

In the COM-B model, automatic motivation includes emotional reactions, impulses, drives, and habits that influence behavior without deliberate evaluation. Reflective motivation concerns explicit judgments and plans.

Automatic motivation examples

Craving a cigarette or reaching for a phone when bored can involve influences beyond a considered decision. Snacking while watching television might involve a learned cue, an impulse, a deliberate choice, or a mixture. The action alone does not reveal which.

Michie and colleagues’ description of COM-B uses the distinction to include more than stated intentions in an explanation of behavior.

Why it matters

If someone knows what they want to do but keeps doing something else, examine the cues, emotions, and learned responses involved. Also check capability and opportunity. A person who lacks the means to act does not have a problem that can be solved merely by changing how they feel.