Choice seeking is motivated by the intrinsic need for personal control

Abstract

When deciding between options that do or do not lead to future choices, humans often choose to choose. We studied choice seeking by asking subjects to decide between a choice opportunity or performing a computer-selected action. Subjects preferred choice when these options were equally rewarded, even deterministically, and were willing to trade extrinsic rewards for the opportunity to choose. We explained individual variability in choice seeking using reinforcement learning models incorporating risk sensitivity and overvaluation of rewards obtained through choice. Degrading perceived controllability diminished choice preference, although willingness to repeat selection of choice opportunities remained unchanged. In choices following these repeats, subjects were sensitive to rewards following freely chosen actions, but ignored environmental information in a manner consistent with a desire to maintain personal control. Choice seeking appears to reflect the intrinsic need for personal control, which competes with extrinsic reward properties and external information to motivate behavior.

Deep brain stimulation and dopamine medication enhance free choice preference in Parkinson’s disease

“…We observed that Parkinson’s disease patients OFF DBS were indifferent between the free and forced options, while ON DBS they increased their free choice preference to a level close to that observed in healthy humans using similar experimental designs 15,37 . This improvement in choice preference was associated with increased connectivity between medial frontal cortical (MFC) and the VATs constructed with individual parameters of each patient side by side.…”

“…To further investigate the role of dopamine in intrinsic motivation, we asked whether dopamine replacement therapy modulates choice preference in a second group of Parkinson's disease patients. We found that on average patients in the DOPA group preferred choice at a similar level to healthy humans 15,37 , independent of acute levodopa treatment. However, chronic medication type can influence behavioral (dys)functions in distinct manners 3,78 .…”

“…Details of stimulation parameters are provided in Supplementary Table 1. The sample size was chosen based on previous studies investigating the value of free choice 15,37 . All the patients were fully informed of the study approved by the local ethics committee and gave consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and.…”

“…Decisions may also be intrinsically motivated, that is, driven by an inherent satisfaction distinct from extrinsic rewards or punishments 13 . For example, several species prefer access to opportunities to choose, even when this has no impact on immediate extrinsic outcomes [14][15][16][17] .…”

“…For example, several species prefer access to opportunities to choose, even when this has no impact on immediate extrinsic outcomes 14–17 . Although choice preference appears economically irrational, it is proposed that opportunities to choose are intrinsically rewarding because they offer potential control over ones’ environment 13,15 . Personal control is central in numerous psychological theories, where constructs such as autonomy 13,18 , controllability 19,20 , personal causation 21 , effectance 22 , perceived behavioral control 23 or self-efficacy 19 are key for motivating behaviors that are not economically rational or easily explained as satisfying basic drives such as hunger, thirst, sex, or pain avoidance 24 .…”