| Description |
For many-from prophets and poets to athletes and activists-experiencing inspiration is a fundamental part of the human condition. Specifically, inspiration can be a powerful tool in motivating people to act morally, help other people, and become their best selves. However, despite the power of inspiration to help people fulfill their potential, surprisingly little is known about when and why individuals are actually inspired to action. Drawing from schema incongruity theory and recent conceptualizations of inspiration as a psychological construct, I develop and test a general model of being inspired to act (the disruption model of inspiration). I assert that individuals will be more likely to experience inspiration-that is, feel inspired to act-to the extent that an evoked potential action is perceived as (1) disruptive to the continuity of their current mental schemas (i.e., it forces them to think about things differently), (2) relevant to the fulfillment of their core human motives (i.e., agency, communion, and coherence), and (3) attainable (i.e., they believe they can successfully accomplish the action or actualize the possibility). While this model has implications for theory and research on leadership, social influence, motivation, and other topics of organizational import, I focus on the role of inspiration in the moral domain-specifically related to prosocial behavior. Accordingly, I examine the human experience of inspiration in a survey of U.S. adults, an online experiment, and a field experiment in a Fortune 100 company. |
