What's the difference between "motive" and "motivation"? Thank you

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Answer

Motive is the reason/purpose behind doing something. It can either be positive or negative, though it it is often used with a negative connotation. For example, 'ulterior motive'  or 'what are his motives behind the murder?'
Motivation, on the other hand, has positive connotation. It refers to what drives someone to accomplish something.

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In my experience, it only depends in the way that these words are being used.

Motive:
Is probably either "good" or "bad" reason for doing something.
"He has bad motives" - can mean that he does something for a bad or selfish reason.  Good motives are usually not selfish.

Motivation:
Usually means the desire to accomplish something.
"He has a lot of motivation" or "He has no motivation, so his work is very bad"

Answer

I view a motive as a reason or explanation for why somebody did or does something.  I find motivation to be more of something that drives or inspires or urges somebody to do something (or to want to do something!)  I view "motivation" as something a human actually experiences, but a human does not experience a "motive."

"Hunger is my motivation to eat."  This sounds like hunger is driving you to eat.  It doesn't actually sound certain to me that you actually eat, only that there is a strong desire and drive for you to do so, though it does imply that you eat.

"Hunger is my motive to eat."  This suggests to me that what you are saying is "Hunger is the reason I eat."  As if I had said "Why do you eat?" and you replied "Because I am hungry."  It strongly suggests to me that you eat.

Motivation also seems like it can also be used as it's own independent concept without specifying that which actually motivates, and in fact, without even specifying any specific actions or behaviors that result from it.

"He lacks motivation" sounds like the person is lazy, because the basic urge to do whatever he should be doing can itself be the motivation that he is lacking.

"He needs some motivation" sounds like the person needs some inspiration or a role model or something to get him to be more productive.

Both of these phrases would sound much more awkward with the word "motive(s)" because "motive(s)" is more direct and less "inspirational" feeling.  To use "motive(s)" the speaker would probably have in mind some kind of specific actions or behaviors and some specific explanations for them (even if those explanations are unknown.)  But the speaker of those two sentences probably doesn't have any specific actions or explanations in mind.

I hope that's not too confusing and sorry for the length of this response. :/

Answer

motive= 起見
motivation = 激勵,動因

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What Jura and wyne say about "motive" having a generally bad connotation and "motivation" having a generally positive connotation is true.

I think this is somewhat a result of "motive" being used almost entirely in the context of court rooms and police work, where an analytical process is being used to demonstrate that a person had a reason to commit the crime, or to figure out who had a reason to commit the crime to help in finding suspects in an efficient manner.

I don't think we often analyze, in such an objective manner, why somebody might have done something good.

Answers · 8

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