Can pain motivate us effectively?
Opinion on the Internet about pain and motivation:
“Except that the idea that people avoid pain is completely incorrect.
Even leaving aside BDSM practices, people are willing to endure pain to get what they want, be it in piercings, tattoos, sports, work, etc.
People like to pretend that humans avoid pain, and only react to pain, as a justification for inflicting pain upon others, so they don’t feel like it’s needless cruelty, and can reassure themselves about it.
But actually, studies show repeatedly that people learn best from positive reinforcement.”
Yes, you are right we would need to redefine “pain”.
We are not talking about physical pain here, but about what is painful for my “ego”, my “self-esteem” most of all. After all, people are ready to give up their physical lives for protecting, magnifying the self-esteem, their pride, glory.
Regarding positive reinforcement, you are also right, but positive motivation alone is insufficient.
When everything is good we tend to “park and enjoy” and not move. Pain is a much stronger motivation than positive influence.
Moreover, as I tried to explain “pain” has many different variations and you are focusing on physical pain alone. If I want something very much but can’t get it, this is also “pain”. If I see others being more successful than myself, I feel envy, jealousy, which is also “pain”.
Then there is an even bigger problem. Normally our “pleasure/pain calculations” are 100% egocentric, subjective, while in today’s fully integrated and interdependent world we will have to learn how to make calculations against the ego, for the sake of others, for the same of the whole collective.
So the whole “pleasure/pain” issue changes, we will be confronted with emotions, calculations we never encountered before. And we would never, ever leave the inherently egocentric, subjective calculations without the “double motivation” I mentioned.
So the most effective way is when we have both: presumed or actual “pain” pushing us from behind and positive reinforcement, some important goal, reward, reassurance pulling us from ahead, Then we move like a rocket!
And the best is when the negative pushing force is “non-Human”, like forces of Nature, pandemic, crisis situations pushing us from our comfort zone, while a projected, positive future pulling us through the right education, collective effort.