It was inevitable that Colonel Situ's advice (in Pierre Boulle's The Bridge over the River Kwai) would fail to move the British prisoners under his control. After all, the work in question involved building a railroad bridge that would advance Japan's cause in World War II, and to comply – happily or not – would mean collaborating with the enemy. As a result, Situ had few motivational cards to play. Yet he needed British help. At first Situ sought to persuade the prisoners by increasing their food ration. Then later, when these positive inducements failed, Situ applied the principle of negative reinforcement. By resuming work the prisoners could escape brutal beatings. Still British cooperation was only halfhearted and punctuated by numerous acts of sabotage.

Situ's frustration compellingly illustrates what we already know about achievement dynamics: the quality of one's effort, whether it be enthusiastic engagement, timid reluctance, or active resistance, depends largely on the reasons for performing. Clearly, defiance and anger are a poor basis on which to build anything, not bridges, and certainly not the future.

In the first five chapters we explored the consequences of using competition as a means to motivate students, thanks to the perspective provided by drive theory. In essence, we learned that competition arouses short-sighted, divisive reasons to learn, namely, to win over others and, when necessary, to avoid losing.