Yesterday we learned that President Carter felt that it’s part of his faith to do good things for others, like building homes for them to live in. Why do people do what they do? Why do you do what you do? Do you ever think about it, or just do what you’re told to do?

This is a pretty deep, but essential question: Why do people do what they do? What motivates you to get up every morning and go to work or school? If you could do nothing, would you do nothing? If you believed that there was no one around to punish you for bad behavior, what would you do? We make a lot of assumptions about why people do what they do. We assume that everybody is in it to make a buck or that if there was no police presence that there would be unfettered lawlessness and crime. 

Every apocalyptic story says that when the government collapses whole nations will plunge into anarchy and lawlessness. But is that really what happens? We do have examples in history that would say the opposite is true. For example, Hurricane Katrina, when the whole region faced the collapse of all services and help wasn’t coming from governmental agencies, survivors and strangers pulled together to help one another. The media and some local government representatives may have presented a different picture, but further reporting has confirmed the scenario that it was mostly people helping people and not the lawlessness decried from certain corners. 

So strangers helping strangers, why do they do that? Some might feel like they were always told to be good to strangers in need and that’s enough to motivate them. Others might do it because they recognize that any one of us could find ourselves in need of help from others, so they do what they can do and hope that someone will return the favor if they found themselves in need. While we might start out doing a good thing because we were told to (extrinsic motivation), the teacher in me is always hopeful that we eventually learn to do the good thing because it’s just good for us going forward (intrinsically motivated). It is kind of hard to get the intrinsic motivation going if one cannot connect with others and see themselves in others, but I’m hopeful. 

Why do you think people do what they do? 

Sources:

• The Pendulum of Reporting on Katrina by David Carr/NYT, 2005-09-05, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/business/media/the-pendulum-of-reporting-on-katrina.html
• Katrina, 15 years later, Code Switch Podcast/NPR, 2020-08-08, https://www.npr.org/2020/08/08/900468872/bonus-episode-katrina-15-years-later
• Misleading reports of lawlessness after Katrina worsened crisis, officials say by Mark Guarino/The Guardian, 2015-08-16, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/16/hurricane-katrina-new-orleans-looting-violence-misleading-reports