Wikiversity enwikiversity https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page MediaWiki 1.47.0-wmf.20 first-letter Media Special Talk User User talk Wikiversity Wikiversity talk File File talk MediaWiki MediaWiki talk Template Template talk Help Help talk Category Category talk School School talk Portal Portal talk Topic Topic talk Collection Collection talk Draft Draft talk TimedText TimedText talk Module Module talk Event Event talk 0 8081 2834043 2770044 2026-09-20T21:55:52Z BluebirdIdeology 3111360 Correction (electron capacity of 2nd layer is 8, not 6), changed "2n square" to "2n^2" 2834043 wikitext text/x-wiki {{physics}} {{chemistry}} ==Atomic theory== An '''Atom''' is a small part of an element that takes part in chemical reactions. It is made up of three subatomic particles called '''Protons''', '''Neutrons''', and '''Electrons'''. Subatomic structures: __________________________________ Particle: Charge: Mass: Proton +1 1 *u Neutron 0 1 *u Electron -1 1 / 1836*u Positron +1. 1 / 1836*u The Nucleus, in the center of the atom, consists of protons and neutrons. Orbiting around the nucleus are the electrons. [[File:Stylised atom with three Bohr model orbits and stylised nucleus.png|alt=Model of a Lithium atom|frame|Model of a Lithium atom]] ==Atomic Structure == The nucleus, in the center of an atom, consists of protons and neutrons. Orbiting around the nucleus are the electrons. Each unique element has an Atomic Number equal to the number of protons it contains. For example, as hydrogen (H) has 1 proton, it will thus have 1 electron. There are 94 naturally occurring elements (1-94) and others which have been artificially created (95+..) Each element has an Atomic Weight for the most commonly found isotope. Atomic Weight = number of protons + number of neutrons; see: The [[Periodic table]]. In a stable uncharged atom the number of electrons will equal the number of protons. If the number of electrons is changed the atom will become ionized and gain either a positive (fewer electrons) or negative (greater electrons) charge. ==Isotopes== The same element can exist in different forms, each form having the same atomic number, but different mass numbers. These forms are called '''isotopes'''. Isotopes that cannot decay during a defined period are called '''stable''' isotopes. And isotopes that can decay during a defined period are called '''unstable''' (or ''radioactive'') isotopes. For example : [[File:Hydrogen Deuterium Tritium Nuclei Schematic.svg|Atomic Structure of [http://www2.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/02/3.html isotopes of Hydrogen]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-three-isotopes-of-hydrogen.html|title=The Three Isotopes of Hydrogen - Video & Lesson Transcript {{!}} Study.com|website=study.com|language=en|access-date=2018-09-18}}</ref>|alt=|left|500x500px]] 1 2 3 1H 1H 1H Protium. Deuterium. Tritium. Tritium is an unstable isotope of hydrogen. In accordance with the '''Bohr Model''', electrons are considered to move around the nucleus in fixed shells (orbits), at various '''energy levels'''. These levels may be designated '''K L M N''' shells (or '''1 2 3 4''' orbits). The first level contains only 2 electrons. The second level can hold 8 electrons. The number of maximum electrons that can occupy one shell is defined by the formula of 2nî or 2n², where n is the number of the shell. When the electrons are excited, they can transfer between the shells. As we move away from the nucleus, the energy levels increase. Electrons have their own energy and the energy increases with increasing the n value or orbit. When the electrons are excited, they can transfer between the shells. As we move away from the nucleus, the energy levels increase. Electrons have their own energy and the energy increases with increasing the n value or orbit. ==Excited state of atom== The configuration of electrons occupying the least amount of space (in the Bohr model) is called the '''ground state'''. But when electrons are excited (by getting electricity, heat), they jump to a higher level. This condition of the atom is called an '''excited state'''. When the electrons return to the ground state they give off energy. ==Levels and sublevels== All energy levels contain '''sublevels''' known as '''s p d f'''. S sub level can contain 2 electrons. (One pair.) P can contain 6 electrons. (Three pairs.) D can contain 10 electrons. (Five pairs.) F can contain 14 electrons. (Seven pairs.) The first shell has only the sublevel s and therefore has only 2 electrons The second shell has both the sublevel s & p and can hold 8 electrons The third shell has the sublevel s,p & d and can hold 18 electrons The fourth and the last shell has the sublevel s,p,d & f and can hold 32 electrons. ==Orbital== *The regions around a nucleus where the probability of finding an electron of a particular energy level is highest are called orbitals. *An orbital can hold only two electrons. They are spinning opposite ways. They are called orbital pairs. 'n' represents principal quantum number or simply the number of the shell. So nth shell contains n^2 number of orbitals hence 2*n^2 number of electrons. *The shape of orbital depends on the sublevel. ==Valence== *Valence electrons revolve in valence shells. *Electrons that can enter into a reaction are only at the last level. *These electrons are called valence electrons. The maximum number of valence electrons is 8. The Valence determines how many electrons the atom has to borrow or lend. All parts of atoms except the last orbit are called a kernel. *The electron dot formula represents the valence electrons. Examples: . . . N . The dotted formula of the nitrogen. . ==Ionization energy== Ionization energy is the amount of energy needed to remove or add an electron from a gaseous atom or ion. Ionization energy depends on the number of protons in the nucleus and the shielding (screening) of the inner electrons. ==See also== * [[Radioactivity]] * [https://www.learncbse.in/structure-atom-cbse-notes-class-11-chemistry/ Structure of The Atom] == References == [[Category:Chemistry]] [[Category:Physics]] au41032vv9m3r327rnrey18slkaa77s 0 60148 2834081 2185151 2026-09-21T00:49:23Z ~2026-50747-27 3111369 2834081 wikitext text/x-wiki {{TOCright}} {{history}} The '''IB (International Baccalaureate) History Review Guide''' is a [https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use free] online [[Help:Course|course]] about the history of the first half of the twentieth century CE. :[[/Introduction|Introduction to the Guide]] :[[/How to use this Guide/]] <TABLE> <TR> <TD>UpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmUpmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm</TD> <TD valign="top"> {{center top}}<p>.</p>{{center bottom}} </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD COLSPAN=2> <div style="float:right;margin:0 0 1em 1em;text-align:center;"> </div> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> [[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:History courses]] br6pbsvjjc81iqcyo25e3tzcegalccw 2834106 2834081 2026-09-21T02:53:16Z MathXplore 2888076 Reverted edit by [[Special:Contributions/~2026-50747-27|~2026-50747-27]] ([[User_talk:~2026-50747-27|talk]]) to last version by [[User:ShakespeareFan00|ShakespeareFan00]] using [[Wikiversity:Rollback|rollback]] 2185151 wikitext text/x-wiki {{TOCright}} {{history}} The '''IB (International Baccalaureate) History Review Guide''' is a [https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use free] online [[Help:Course|course]] about the history of the first half of the twentieth century CE. :[[/Introduction|Introduction to the Guide]] :[[/How to use this Guide/]] <TABLE> <TR> <TD> == Detailed contents list == '''Prescribed Topics''' :[[/Use of Source Material|Chapter 1]] ~ '''Use of Source Material''' ::*Documents ::*Origin, Purpose, Value, and Limitation :[[/The USSR and Stalin|Chapter 2]] ~ '''The USSR and Stalin''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus ::*Struggle for Leadership ::*Collectivization ::*Five-Year Plan ::*Nature of the Soviet State ::*The Purges ::*Foreign Relations :[[/People's Republic of China|Chapter 3]] ~ '''People's Republic of China''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus ::*The Chinese Civil War ::*Political Unification ::*The First Five Year Plan ::*Mass Campaigns ::*The Great Leap Forward ::*Ideology '''Additional Topics''' ---- :[[/Causes, Practices and Effects of War|Chapter 1]] ~ '''Causes, Practices and Effects of War''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus :[[/The Rise and Rule of single-party States|Chapter 2]] ~ '''The Rise and Rule of single-party States''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus ::*Fidel Castro ::*Benito Mussolini '''Regional Topics''' ---- :[[/Tsarist Russia to Communist USSR|Chapter 1]] ~ '''Tsarist Russia to Communist USSR''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus ::*Timeline ::*Glossary of Terms ::*The 1905 Revolution ::*The February 1917 Revolution ::*The October 1917 Revolution ::*The Russian Civil War :[[/The Causes, Course, and Effect of World War One|Chapter 2]] ~ '''The Causes, Course, and Effect of World War One''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus ::*Timeline ::*Glossary of Terms ::*Causes ::*Course ::*Effect :[[/The inter-war Years 1919-1939|Chapter 3]] ~ '''The inter-war Years 1919-1939''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus :[[/Totalitarian Europe|Chapter 4]] ~ '''Totalitarian Europe''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus ::*Benito Mussolini ::*Josef Stalin ::*Adolf Hitler :[[/The Second World War|Chapter 5]] ~ '''The Second World War''' ::*Excerpt from the Syllabus ::*Timeline ::*Glossary of Terms ::*Causes ::*Course ::*Effect '''Indices''' ---- :[[/Contributors/]] </TD> <TD valign="top"> {{center top}}<p>.</p>{{center bottom}} </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD COLSPAN=2> <div style="float:right;margin:0 0 1em 1em;text-align:center;"> </div> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> [[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:History courses]] a7a4c5kc1lvn61ed9m87jqgizb1p1in 0 60170 2834079 2708880 2026-09-21T00:47:24Z ~2026-50747-27 3111369 /* Collectivization */ 2834079 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Rise to Power''' :* Georgian from lower classes. :* 1905- Stalin led fighting squads in bank robberies to raise money for the Bolshevik Party. He was characterized as a basic thug. :* 1917- Stalin was the editor of the official Communist Newspaper, the ''Pravda''. At this time, Trotsky was in the US, and Lenin in Switzerland. :* April 1917- elected to the Politburo of the central committee. :* 1917-1923: Commissar for Nationalities :* 1922- Stalin made General secretary of the Central Committee; this was seen as a minor position by the others, but it allowed Stalin to build his power base. He was referred to by others as "Comrade Card-Index". Stalin began to fill positions with cronies. :* A dying Lenin explained his fear of Stalin's imprudence in his Testament, stating that his views were too extreme and his methods too violent. However, he didn't think that his natural heir would be the best ruler for the USSR either. He believed that the best way to lead the country would be if Stalin and Trotsky were to work together. :*1924- Stalin forms the Triumvirate with Kamenev and Zinoviev against Trotsky. :*Stalin organized Lenin's funeral and made a speech which religiously told of his devotion and loyalty. Stalin undermined Trotsky by misleading him about the date of the funeral, thus Trotsky did not attend. This showed the Soviet public that Stalin cared more about their fallen leader. :*Stalin referred back to a document where Trotsky slandered Lenin pre-revolutionary doctrine. Stalin also played on the fact that Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks just before the revolution and that he was a Bonapartist threat. :*Stalin was also extremely manipulative. As soon as Trotsky had been eliminated, Stalin joined forces with the right wing and Bukharin and went against Kamenev and Zinoviev. Using the fact that they had voted against insurrection in 1917. :*In 1927, he turned against the right and Bukharin. :* There was a popular appeal to Stalin since he was a man of the people. Also his Socialism in One Country appealed to a people who had been fighting since 1914 and simply wanted peace. :* He had dominated the leadership by 1928, but would not gain control until The Purges. '''Five Year Plan''' :* The NEP introduced following the failure of War Communism which allowed for a sufficient degree of market flexibility under the context of socialism. This was because 1922 levels of output were at 14% of the ones in 1914. :*Stalin established the GOSPLAN in 1927. This was a state general planning commission which had a goal to accelerate industrialization. In 1929, it wrote two drafts which eventually became the basis for the five year plan. :*It shifted from the NEP and placed the emphasis on central planning. It focused on the transformation of a largely agrarian nation consisting of peasants into an industrial superpower. It attempted to increase coal, iron, and other vital resources. :*1928-1933: Pig iron rose from 3.3 million to 10 million ::*Coal from 34 to 75 ::*Ore from 5.7 to 14 ::*In addition, there were numerous tractor, automobile, and machinery plants built. :*It succeeded in 4 years, Stalin announced his success. The costs were extremely high. Some 127,000 workers died during the four years that it ran. Collectivization helped induce a famine where some 10 million people died. :* Soviets stated that Economic Growth was around 13.9%, Americans think it's around 5%. '''Collectivization''' :* Intended to increase agricultural output. Consolidated farms into collective farms or state farms. Transfer of land from the kulaks to the peasants. :*1928- Stalin blamed the kulaks for the lack of grain. To some extent this was true, as grain was hoarded by peasants. :*1929- tried to modernize agriculture. Predicted an increase of 200% of output. Collectivization at this point was voluntary, but only some 2% of the peasants agreed. By November of 1929, collectivization was absolutely mandatory. :* It was good for those without land, but not good for those with it. Widespread opposition, sometimes even sabotage. Peasants were forced to join the collective farms. The kulak class was liquidated. ::* 1/6 of kulaks died. ::* 6 million peasants lost their lives. :* 1930- number collectivized fell as 50%, peasants began to simply leave. :* 1936- 90% collectivized. Many farmers refused to work. :* 125,000 peasants sentenced to death for staling collective farming. ::* Lack of success lead to the Great Famine of 1932-1933. Ukraine was hit hard especially since there was no warning as the government attempted to make it secret. '''Social liberalization''' :* Women were given equal education, rights to employment. Stalinist development led to an improvement in health care and the quality of life. Stalin's policies granted universal access to health and education which cut down on malaria, cholera, and typhus. New generation of almost university literate. New generation of Soviet women who could give birth in hospitals. '''Culture and Religion''' :* Socialist realism made the official style for music, drama, literature, art, and almost everything. :* Artists and poets persecuted. :* Hunted down on the church. ::*Only mere hundreds of active parishes ::*Thousands of priests were killed, churches leveled. :* Reintroduced as a patriotic organization during WW2. '''Great Purge''' :* Stalin's consolidation of power, justified by the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a popular leader in Leningrad. Evidence has come to light that the death of Kirov, once blamed by Stalin on the opposition was actually ordered by Stalin himself because he feared that Kirov was more popular and could take over his position. :* Communist party itself purged. Millions died, the exact number is unknown. Carried out by the NKVD. :*1933- 400,000 members were expelled from the party. :* Moscow Trials from 1936- 16 members of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre. Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev sentenced to death and executed. Another minor one in 1937. :* 1938- Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei Rykov executed, as well as Right Wing politicians. :* Also in 1937, purging of the military including the general Mikhail Tukachevsky who was said to have connections with the German high command. :* Stalin would be the only living member of Lenin's politburo. Leon Trotsky would be assassinated in 1940 by with an icepick while exiled in Mexico. :* People who were killed were removed from texts and photographs. NKVD leader Yezhov also purged in 1938. '''Cult of Personality''' :* Numerous towns renamed after Stalin :* Grandesque titles such as "Father of all nations" and the "Great Helmsman". :* Focus on literature, poetry, music, and films. ====Struggle for Leadership==== ---- :*In the early 1920's, a lot of the idealism that was in the minds of Russia's people ceased to exist. In January 1923, Lenin published in article in which he supported the idea of Russia's people being educated about the revolution. Two months later, in March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke and lost the ability to speak, and implicitly, of ruling Russia. :*This left a power vacuum in Russia. His successor would be the most powerful man in the country. There were five candidates for this: ::*'''Leon Trotsky.''' He was an able revolutionary, who had managed to win the Civil War. He had been Lenin's right hand man. He had led the Red Army, but Trotsky was idealist and very arrogant. He refused to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk and believed in world revolution. Furthermore, he had previously been a 'Menshevik,' something which Stalin successfully used against him. ::*'''Grigory Zinoviev.''' He was a colleague of Lenin, and head of the COMINTERN. ::*'''Lev Kamenev.''' He was the president of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party. ::*'''Stalin.''' He was the General Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Main Commissar for Nationalities. He was of Georgian descent. ::*'''Bukharin''': Editor of the Pravda, believed that the economy should develop at its own pace and was Pro-NEP. :*Stalin, the most powerful, managed to unite with Kamenev and Zinoviev against Trotsky, the second most powerful. This was known as the '''Triumvirate'''. It was powerful from 1922-1924 until Zinoviev and Kamenev joined forces with Trotsky in order to oppose Stalin. Their main reason lay in Trotsky's belief that governmental control was vital in fueling a permanent revolution. '''Politics from 1917 to 1924''': Had to deal with internal and external opposition. Party was becoming a mass movement and the bureaucracy remained from the Tsarist regime. Council of People's Commissars formed, which has 10 main members- the most powerful body and greatest concentration of power. Stalin was appointed the General Secretary in 1922. This placed him in a position by which he could influence who obtained positions of power within the regime. By 1921, the bureaucracy was 10 times larger than the Tsarist one, consuming 90% of Russia's paper. In 1921, Lenin introduced his ban on factions. The CHEKA was used as government policy to incite the Red Terror from 1921 to 1923. The CHEKA included 30,000 members and was responsible for two million deaths. :::*Trotsky "We will not enter the kingdom of socialism with white gloves on a polished floor" '''Nationalities from 1917-1924''': Russia was a huge country with many different nationalities. At first, Lenin advocated self-determination, but in the 1920s he began to change his mind after the failed invasion of Poland. He made Stalin, a Georgian, Commissar for nationalities. Ukraine is retaken in 1921 and made part of the old empire. Asian states are brought into the empire. The USSR emerges in 1922. '''Culture and Social Life from 1917-1924''': Religion is banned, 8,000 clergy members are killed in the terror and the state acquired the wealth of the church. There is more personal freedom, it is easier to divorce, women gain equal property rights, and there is more freedom of expression. However, in 1924 all the writers and poets became exiled. :*Even with the improvements that Lenin's NEP brought in Russia, Stalin still supported the idea of '''Socialism in One Country.''' He thought that the Soviet Union must first be a well-established country before trying to spread its communism. :*It was clear that whoever became the ruler of Russia had to be very close to Lenin. Stalin fostered a cult of personality around Lenin, and emphasized his own close relationship with the dead leader. In this way, he could gain support from those who sympathised with Lenin's beliefs. :*An important feature of Stalin’s rise to power is the way that he manipulated his opponents and played them off against each other. Stalin formed a "troika" of himself, Zinoviev, and Kamenev against Trotsky. When Trotsky had been eliminated Stalin then joined Bukharin and Rykov against Zinoviev and Kamenev, emphasizing their vote against the insurrection in 1917. Zinoviev and Kamenev then turned to Lenin's widow, Krupskaya; they formed the United Opposition in July 1926. :*In 1927 during the 15th Party Congress Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the party and Kamenev lost his seat on the Central Committee. Stalin soon turned against the "Right Opposition", represented by his erstwhile allies, Bukharin and Rykov. :*Stalin gained popular appeal from his presentation as a 'man of the people' from the poorer classes. The Russian people were tired from the world war and the civil war, and Stalin's policy of concentrating in building "Socialism in One Country" was seen as an optimistic antidote to war. ==== Collectivization ==== ---- :*"We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this gap in 10 years. Either we do it or they crush us." (Stalin 1931) Stalin and xenophobic. By 1926, NEP is not an effective policy. 17% of what is grown is marketed. Most of the food is hoarded by peasants in fear of a famine. :*'''Collectivization''': Stalin's plan for agricultural reform. Attempted to increase efficiency and productivity through modernization and improvement in agricultural methods. It was piloted in Siberia in 1927, and then made the official government policy later that year. It involved large farms owned by the state of a workforce of 1,000. Resources and labour were shared on the land, the government took a percentage of what was produced regularly. It was introduced in the country in 1929 as a volunteer program, but no one wanted to join and so it was made mandatory. Between December 1929 and March 1930, 60% of peasants were collectivized. By June, only 25% of peasants are collectivized, as 35% leave their collective farms. The process happened again in by September 1930, this time much more organized and peasants were given incentives to join such as tractors. By 1936, collectivization is complete and the Kulak class (rich peasants who owned land) were collectivized or sent to Gulags. :*'''Famine''': (1931-1934) 10-15 million people die, but kept a secret. This is because peasants burned their crops to avoid collectivization and collectivization washfhfhfhfhfhfhfhgfhgfhgfhfh slow to get going. This is due to Stalin's emphasis to push collectivization too quickly. :*Stalin's regime moved to force collectivization of agriculture. This was intended to increase agricultural output from large-scale mechanized farms, to bring the peasantry under more direct political control, and to make tax collection more efficient. Collectivization meant a drastic drop in living standards for many peasants, and it faced violent reaction among the peasantry. :*The '''Kulaks''', the rich peasants who owned land posed the greatest problem. Stalin believed that peasants, being the backbone of the USSR, were supposed to work for the country, and not for themselves. :*There were many problems, though. Farms were unable to benefit from modern equipment, and a great number of them still used methods developed in the Middle Ages. Transportation was also a great problem, and often the collection and distribution of goods were severely slowed down. :*The Kulaks were killed or deported to Gulags, so that the USSR can benefit from their land. This created an immense famine, because: Peasants the peasants were supposed to take over the Kulak's land and property. The latter, reluctant, burned everything. The produce that was meant for the rapidly-industrializing cities was slowed down by a terrible transportation system. O:*Overall, seven million people were deported to Siberia, and most of them found their death there. For the Communist Party, the Collectivization was a success, as it had achieved its goal of having complete control over the agriculture and what was going on in the countryside. ==== The Five Year Plans ==== ---- The Two Five Year plans are best viewed from an Economic and Social Perspective. '''Economic: ''' :*The GOSPLAN (state planning commission) was to guide the economy towards rapid industrialization. It established the 1st '''Five Year Plan''' (’28 – ’32), focusing on the mobilization of natural resources to build up a heavy industrial base by increasing output of coal and iron. '''At high human cost, this was largely successful.''' Output of coal rose from 35 to 75 million tons, and iron ore from 5.7 to 19. The goals were fulfilled in 4 years. The 2nd FYP (’32 –’36) saw an 80% rise in steel production, to 17 million tons. The USSR was just behind Germany as a major steel-producing country. The 2nd Five Year Plan was not uniformly successful, failing to reach the planned production levels in coal and oil. By 1936, 90% of farms were collectivized. '''Social: ''' :*In the USSR, by 1940, employment tripled to 8.3 million. The industrialization of agriculture reduced unemployment to virtually 0. In 1924 there were 6 million students, while in 1939 there were 13 million. The people benefited from a degree of social liberalization. Women were given equal rights in labor and education. Universal access to healthcare increased life spans by decades. ====Nature of the Soviet State==== ---- :*By the late 1930's, Stalin had managed to centralize and plan the USSR's economy. Priority was given to the heavy industry, as Stalin thought it to be "the way of the future". Socially, workers in lower ranks do have a chance of succeeding, but this can only be done through their own hard work. :*The intelligentia were used to contribute to political goals, meaning that the Communist Party benefited from everything. Stalin created the Cult of Personality around him. His one man leadership was supported by a great deal of propaganda. :*The USSR became, in fact, a Totalitarian Society, in which Stalin was the autocrat. ====The Purges==== ---- :*Stalin's Purges originated during the early 1930's as 'means of punishing those blamed for the lack of succese of the Five Year Plans.' Eventually, it became a means by which Stalin resolved his suspicion of all those around him and managed to rid the Communist Party of those who Stalin considered "unfaithful" members. It's worth mentioning that both Kamenev and Zinoviev were executed in 1936, during the '''Moscow Show Trials'''. These trials had verdicts predetermined by Stalin, and were merely formalities. They also served as an effective warning to other members of the Communist Party. Stalin used more of these trials to dispose of other political adversaries, such as Sergey Kirov. :*Eventually, only two of Lenins's initial Politburo survived: Stalin and Trotsky. Trotsky was assassinated with an icepick in 1940 while living in Mexico. Stalin died on March 3 1953 after suffering from an apparent paralyzing stroke. Some people believe that he was poisoned by his own party members. Before his death Stalin had been on the verge of beginning a new series of purges and had considered poisoning his own party to cleanse the system, i.e. Jewish Doctor's Plot. ====Foreign Relations==== ---- :*After Lenin's death, the more industrialized powers saw Russia and the Soviet Union as a threat, and therefore isolated it from commercial and political relations, even though it tried to establish political relations with the Western Countries. :*Eventually, the USSR signed a treaty with the Weimar Republic by which the latter would give the former technology in exchange for natural resources. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that divided Poland was eventually the starter of WWII. Nazi-Soviet Pact :*Axis formed in Oct. 1936. Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, Nov. By this time, Stalin giving up on collective security. :*Nazi gains in 1938, destroyed any hope of USSR getting help from West :*Munich Conference in October, USSR not included, France and Britain surrendered Czech Sudetenland to Hitler and made Czechoslovakia indefensible :*Stalin signs friendship treaty with China, and supplies Chiang with arms and credits :*May 1939, Molotov replaces Litvinov as foreign commissar. Imposes rigid conformity upon Narkomindel. :*West promises to protect Poland and Romania, but Stalin not convinced. :*18th Party Congress, Stalin accuses West of trying to provoke war between Germany and Russia (March) :*August, West sends military missions. Too late, b/c Hitler already making negotiations with USSR. :*Aug. 23, 1939, Nazi-Soviet Pact signed. Secret: delimited Soviet and German spheres; Poland disintegrated, and partitioned. Happens with other countries as well :*USSR attacks Finland to gain land, so that they aren’t totally weak/completely dependent on Germany. Find much resistance, but finally win :*July 1940, Hitler wants to invade USSR :*Trying to avoid, Molotov states Soviet demands in pragmatic, power-political terms.: 1) Finland USSR’s, once German troops leave. 2) Security of USSR interests in Straits. 3) recognize area south of Batum and Baku in direction of Persian Gulf is recognized as center of the aspirations of the Soviet Union. :*Japan renounces rights to concessions for coal and oil in northern Sakhalin [[Category:Pages moved from Wikibooks]] [[Category:Soviet Union]] 07advvkzntovdcl3o638sz4ux8t92ib 2834080 2834079 2026-09-21T00:48:46Z ~2026-50747-27 3111369 /* Collectivization */ 2834080 wikitext text/x-wiki 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[[Category:Pages moved from Wikibooks]] [[Category:Soviet Union]] 4yb8x18chxnb4j03326pph114ohobfg 2834105 2834080 2026-09-21T02:53:04Z MathXplore 2888076 Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/~2026-50747-27|~2026-50747-27]] ([[User_talk:~2026-50747-27|talk]]) to last version by [[User:87.128.79.77|87.128.79.77]] using [[Wikiversity:Rollback|rollback]] 2708880 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Rise to Power''' :* Georgian from lower classes. :* 1905- Stalin led fighting squads in bank robberies to raise money for the Bolshevik Party. He was characterized as a basic thug. :* 1917- Stalin was the editor of the official Communist Newspaper, the ''Pravda''. At this time, Trotsky was in the US, and Lenin in Switzerland. :* April 1917- elected to the Politburo of the central committee. :* 1917-1923: Commissar for Nationalities :* 1922- Stalin made General secretary of the Central Committee; this was seen as a minor position by the others, but it allowed Stalin to build his power base. He was referred to by others as "Comrade Card-Index". Stalin began to fill positions with cronies. :* A dying Lenin explained his fear of Stalin's imprudence in his Testament, stating that his views were too extreme and his methods too violent. However, he didn't think that his natural heir would be the best ruler for the USSR either. He believed that the best way to lead the country would be if Stalin and Trotsky were to work together. :*1924- Stalin forms the Triumvirate with Kamenev and Zinoviev against Trotsky. :*Stalin organized Lenin's funeral and made a speech which religiously told of his devotion and loyalty. Stalin undermined Trotsky by misleading him about the date of the funeral, thus Trotsky did not attend. This showed the Soviet public that Stalin cared more about their fallen leader. :*Stalin referred back to a document where Trotsky slandered Lenin pre-revolutionary doctrine. Stalin also played on the fact that Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks just before the revolution and that he was a Bonapartist threat. :*Stalin was also extremely manipulative. As soon as Trotsky had been eliminated, Stalin joined forces with the right wing and Bukharin and went against Kamenev and Zinoviev. Using the fact that they had voted against insurrection in 1917. :*In 1927, he turned against the right and Bukharin. :* There was a popular appeal to Stalin since he was a man of the people. Also his Socialism in One Country appealed to a people who had been fighting since 1914 and simply wanted peace. :* He had dominated the leadership by 1928, but would not gain control until The Purges. '''Five Year Plan''' :* The NEP introduced following the failure of War Communism which allowed for a sufficient degree of market flexibility under the context of socialism. This was because 1922 levels of output were at 14% of the ones in 1914. :*Stalin established the GOSPLAN in 1927. This was a state general planning commission which had a goal to accelerate industrialization. In 1929, it wrote two drafts which eventually became the basis for the five year plan. :*It shifted from the NEP and placed the emphasis on central planning. It focused on the transformation of a largely agrarian nation consisting of peasants into an industrial superpower. It attempted to increase coal, iron, and other vital resources. :*1928-1933: Pig iron rose from 3.3 million to 10 million ::*Coal from 34 to 75 ::*Ore from 5.7 to 14 ::*In addition, there were numerous tractor, automobile, and machinery plants built. :*It succeeded in 4 years, Stalin announced his success. The costs were extremely high. Some 127,000 workers died during the four years that it ran. Collectivization helped induce a famine where some 10 million people died. :* Soviets stated that Economic Growth was around 13.9%, Americans think it's around 5%. '''Collectivization''' :* Intended to increase agricultural output. Consolidated farms into collective farms or state farms. Transfer of land from the kulaks to the peasants. :*1928- Stalin blamed the kulaks for the lack of grain. To some extent this was true, as grain was hoarded by peasants. :*1929- tried to modernize agriculture. Predicted an increase of 200% of output. Collectivization at this point was voluntary, but only some 2% of the peasants agreed. By November of 1929, collectivization was absolutely mandatory. :* It was good for those without land, but not good for those with it. Widespread opposition, sometimes even sabotage. Peasants were forced to join the collective farms. The kulak class was liquidated. ::* 1/6 of kulaks died. ::* 6 million peasants lost their lives. :* 1930- number collectivized fell as 50%, peasants began to simply leave. :* 1936- 90% collectivized. Many farmers refused to work. :* 125,000 peasants sentenced to death for staling collective farming. ::* Lack of success lead to the Great Famine of 1932-1933. Ukraine was hit hard especially since there was no warning as the government attempted to make it secret. '''Social liberalization''' :* Women were given equal education, rights to employment. Stalinist development led to an improvement in health care and the quality of life. Stalin's policies granted universal access to health and education which cut down on malaria, cholera, and typhus. New generation of almost university literate. New generation of Soviet women who could give birth in hospitals. '''Culture and Religion''' :* Socialist realism made the official style for music, drama, literature, art, and almost everything. :* Artists and poets persecuted. :* Hunted down on the church. ::*Only mere hundreds of active parishes ::*Thousands of priests were killed, churches leveled. :* Reintroduced as a patriotic organization during WW2. '''Great Purge''' :* Stalin's consolidation of power, justified by the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a popular leader in Leningrad. Evidence has come to light that the death of Kirov, once blamed by Stalin on the opposition was actually ordered by Stalin himself because he feared that Kirov was more popular and could take over his position. :* Communist party itself purged. Millions died, the exact number is unknown. Carried out by the NKVD. :*1933- 400,000 members were expelled from the party. :* Moscow Trials from 1936- 16 members of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre. Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev sentenced to death and executed. Another minor one in 1937. :* 1938- Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei Rykov executed, as well as Right Wing politicians. :* Also in 1937, purging of the military including the general Mikhail Tukachevsky who was said to have connections with the German high command. :* Stalin would be the only living member of Lenin's politburo. Leon Trotsky would be assassinated in 1940 by with an icepick while exiled in Mexico. :* People who were killed were removed from texts and photographs. NKVD leader Yezhov also purged in 1938. '''Cult of Personality''' :* Numerous towns renamed after Stalin :* Grandesque titles such as "Father of all nations" and the "Great Helmsman". :* Focus on literature, poetry, music, and films. ====Struggle for Leadership==== ---- :*In the early 1920's, a lot of the idealism that was in the minds of Russia's people ceased to exist. In January 1923, Lenin published in article in which he supported the idea of Russia's people being educated about the revolution. Two months later, in March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke and lost the ability to speak, and implicitly, of ruling Russia. :*This left a power vacuum in Russia. His successor would be the most powerful man in the country. There were five candidates for this: ::*'''Leon Trotsky.''' He was an able revolutionary, who had managed to win the Civil War. He had been Lenin's right hand man. He had led the Red Army, but Trotsky was idealist and very arrogant. He refused to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk and believed in world revolution. Furthermore, he had previously been a 'Menshevik,' something which Stalin successfully used against him. ::*'''Grigory Zinoviev.''' He was a colleague of Lenin, and head of the COMINTERN. ::*'''Lev Kamenev.''' He was the president of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party. ::*'''Stalin.''' He was the General Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Main Commissar for Nationalities. He was of Georgian descent. ::*'''Bukharin''': Editor of the Pravda, believed that the economy should develop at its own pace and was Pro-NEP. :*Stalin, the most powerful, managed to unite with Kamenev and Zinoviev against Trotsky, the second most powerful. This was known as the '''Triumvirate'''. It was powerful from 1922-1924 until Zinoviev and Kamenev joined forces with Trotsky in order to oppose Stalin. Their main reason lay in Trotsky's belief that governmental control was vital in fueling a permanent revolution. '''Politics from 1917 to 1924''': Had to deal with internal and external opposition. Party was becoming a mass movement and the bureaucracy remained from the Tsarist regime. Council of People's Commissars formed, which has 10 main members- the most powerful body and greatest concentration of power. Stalin was appointed the General Secretary in 1922. This placed him in a position by which he could influence who obtained positions of power within the regime. By 1921, the bureaucracy was 10 times larger than the Tsarist one, consuming 90% of Russia's paper. In 1921, Lenin introduced his ban on factions. The CHEKA was used as government policy to incite the Red Terror from 1921 to 1923. The CHEKA included 30,000 members and was responsible for two million deaths. :::*Trotsky "We will not enter the kingdom of socialism with white gloves on a polished floor" '''Nationalities from 1917-1924''': Russia was a huge country with many different nationalities. At first, Lenin advocated self-determination, but in the 1920s he began to change his mind after the failed invasion of Poland. He made Stalin, a Georgian, Commissar for nationalities. Ukraine is retaken in 1921 and made part of the old empire. Asian states are brought into the empire. The USSR emerges in 1922. '''Culture and Social Life from 1917-1924''': Religion is banned, 8,000 clergy members are killed in the terror and the state acquired the wealth of the church. There is more personal freedom, it is easier to divorce, women gain equal property rights, and there is more freedom of expression. However, in 1924 all the writers and poets became exiled. :*Even with the improvements that Lenin's NEP brought in Russia, Stalin still supported the idea of '''Socialism in One Country.''' He thought that the Soviet Union must first be a well-established country before trying to spread its communism. :*It was clear that whoever became the ruler of Russia had to be very close to Lenin. Stalin fostered a cult of personality around Lenin, and emphasized his own close relationship with the dead leader. In this way, he could gain support from those who sympathised with Lenin's beliefs. :*An important feature of Stalin’s rise to power is the way that he manipulated his opponents and played them off against each other. Stalin formed a "troika" of himself, Zinoviev, and Kamenev against Trotsky. When Trotsky had been eliminated Stalin then joined Bukharin and Rykov against Zinoviev and Kamenev, emphasizing their vote against the insurrection in 1917. Zinoviev and Kamenev then turned to Lenin's widow, Krupskaya; they formed the United Opposition in July 1926. :*In 1927 during the 15th Party Congress Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the party and Kamenev lost his seat on the Central Committee. Stalin soon turned against the "Right Opposition", represented by his erstwhile allies, Bukharin and Rykov. :*Stalin gained popular appeal from his presentation as a 'man of the people' from the poorer classes. The Russian people were tired from the world war and the civil war, and Stalin's policy of concentrating in building "Socialism in One Country" was seen as an optimistic antidote to war. ==== Collectivization ==== ---- :*"We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this gap in 10 years. Either we do it or they crush us." (Stalin 1931) Stalin and xenophobic. By 1926, NEP is not an effective policy. 17% of what is grown is marketed. Most of the food is hoarded by peasants in fear of a famine. :*'''Collectivization''': Stalin's plan for agricultural reform. Attempted to increase efficiency and productivity through modernization and improvement in agricultural methods. It was piloted in Siberia in 1927, and then made the official government policy later that year. It involved large farms owned by the state of a workforce of 1,000. Resources and labour were shared on the land, the government took a percentage of what was produced regularly. It was introduced in the country in 1929 as a volunteer program, but no one wanted to join and so it was made mandatory. Between December 1929 and March 1930, 60% of peasants were collectivized. By June, only 25% of peasants are collectivized, as 35% leave their collective farms. The process happened again in by September 1930, this time much more organized and peasants were given incentives to join such as tractors. By 1936, collectivization is complete and the Kulak class (rich peasants who owned land) were collectivized or sent to Gulags. :*'''Famine''': (1931-1934) 10-15 million people die, but kept a secret. This is because peasants burned their crops to avoid collectivization and collectivization was slow to get going. This is due to Stalin's emphasis to push collectivization too quickly. :*Stalin's regime moved to force collectivization of agriculture. This was intended to increase agricultural output from large-scale mechanized farms, to bring the peasantry under more direct political control, and to make tax collection more efficient. Collectivization meant a drastic drop in living standards for many peasants, and it faced violent reaction among the peasantry. :*The '''Kulaks''', the rich peasants who owned land posed the greatest problem. Stalin believed that peasants, being the backbone of the USSR, were supposed to work for the country, and not for themselves. :*There were many problems, though. Farms were unable to benefit from modern equipment, and a great number of them still used methods developed in the Middle Ages. Transportation was also a great problem, and often the collection and distribution of goods were severely slowed down. :*The Kulaks were killed or deported to Gulags, so that the USSR can benefit from their land. This created an immense famine, because: Peasants the peasants were supposed to take over the Kulak's land and property. The latter, reluctant, burned everything. The produce that was meant for the rapidly-industrializing cities was slowed down by a terrible transportation system. O:*Overall, seven million people were deported to Siberia, and most of them found their death there. For the Communist Party, the Collectivization was a success, as it had achieved its goal of having complete control over the agriculture and what was going on in the countryside. ==== The Five Year Plans ==== ---- The Two Five Year plans are best viewed from an Economic and Social Perspective. '''Economic: ''' :*The GOSPLAN (state planning commission) was to guide the economy towards rapid industrialization. It established the 1st '''Five Year Plan''' (’28 – ’32), focusing on the mobilization of natural resources to build up a heavy industrial base by increasing output of coal and iron. '''At high human cost, this was largely successful.''' Output of coal rose from 35 to 75 million tons, and iron ore from 5.7 to 19. The goals were fulfilled in 4 years. The 2nd FYP (’32 –’36) saw an 80% rise in steel production, to 17 million tons. The USSR was just behind Germany as a major steel-producing country. The 2nd Five Year Plan was not uniformly successful, failing to reach the planned production levels in coal and oil. By 1936, 90% of farms were collectivized. '''Social: ''' :*In the USSR, by 1940, employment tripled to 8.3 million. The industrialization of agriculture reduced unemployment to virtually 0. In 1924 there were 6 million students, while in 1939 there were 13 million. The people benefited from a degree of social liberalization. Women were given equal rights in labor and education. Universal access to healthcare increased life spans by decades. ====Nature of the Soviet State==== ---- :*By the late 1930's, Stalin had managed to centralize and plan the USSR's economy. Priority was given to the heavy industry, as Stalin thought it to be "the way of the future". Socially, workers in lower ranks do have a chance of succeeding, but this can only be done through their own hard work. :*The intelligentia were used to contribute to political goals, meaning that the Communist Party benefited from everything. Stalin created the Cult of Personality around him. His one man leadership was supported by a great deal of propaganda. :*The USSR became, in fact, a Totalitarian Society, in which Stalin was the autocrat. ====The Purges==== ---- :*Stalin's Purges originated during the early 1930's as 'means of punishing those blamed for the lack of succese of the Five Year Plans.' Eventually, it became a means by which Stalin resolved his suspicion of all those around him and managed to rid the Communist Party of those who Stalin considered "unfaithful" members. It's worth mentioning that both Kamenev and Zinoviev were executed in 1936, during the '''Moscow Show Trials'''. These trials had verdicts predetermined by Stalin, and were merely formalities. They also served as an effective warning to other members of the Communist Party. Stalin used more of these trials to dispose of other political adversaries, such as Sergey Kirov. :*Eventually, only two of Lenins's initial Politburo survived: Stalin and Trotsky. Trotsky was assassinated with an icepick in 1940 while living in Mexico. Stalin died on March 3 1953 after suffering from an apparent paralyzing stroke. Some people believe that he was poisoned by his own party members. Before his death Stalin had been on the verge of beginning a new series of purges and had considered poisoning his own party to cleanse the system, i.e. Jewish Doctor's Plot. ====Foreign Relations==== ---- :*After Lenin's death, the more industrialized powers saw Russia and the Soviet Union as a threat, and therefore isolated it from commercial and political relations, even though it tried to establish political relations with the Western Countries. :*Eventually, the USSR signed a treaty with the Weimar Republic by which the latter would give the former technology in exchange for natural resources. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that divided Poland was eventually the starter of WWII. Nazi-Soviet Pact :*Axis formed in Oct. 1936. Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, Nov. By this time, Stalin giving up on collective security. :*Nazi gains in 1938, destroyed any hope of USSR getting help from West :*Munich Conference in October, USSR not included, France and Britain surrendered Czech Sudetenland to Hitler and made Czechoslovakia indefensible :*Stalin signs friendship treaty with China, and supplies Chiang with arms and credits :*May 1939, Molotov replaces Litvinov as foreign commissar. Imposes rigid conformity upon Narkomindel. :*West promises to protect Poland and Romania, but Stalin not convinced. :*18th Party Congress, Stalin accuses West of trying to provoke war between Germany and Russia (March) :*August, West sends military missions. Too late, b/c Hitler already making negotiations with USSR. :*Aug. 23, 1939, Nazi-Soviet Pact signed. Secret: delimited Soviet and German spheres; Poland disintegrated, and partitioned. Happens with other countries as well :*USSR attacks Finland to gain land, so that they aren’t totally weak/completely dependent on Germany. Find much resistance, but finally win :*July 1940, Hitler wants to invade USSR :*Trying to avoid, Molotov states Soviet demands in pragmatic, power-political terms.: 1) Finland USSR’s, once German troops leave. 2) Security of USSR interests in Straits. 3) recognize area south of Batum and Baku in direction of Persian Gulf is recognized as center of the aspirations of the Soviet Union. :*Japan renounces rights to concessions for coal and oil in northern Sakhalin [[Category:Pages moved from Wikibooks]] [[Category:Soviet Union]] hf70um2pmi8j85qspn0y68kbkfbbhbs 0 86823 2834112 2771325 2026-09-21T05:59:29Z Michael Ten 654933 /* Sources */ formatting 2834112 wikitext text/x-wiki Many children’s toys are marked with a specific age range on the packaging to determine if a child is old enough to play with them. The age range serves as a guide to parents or grandparents on how old their children must be to play safely with the product. If the toy has small parts, most likely the age range is higher to prevent accidental swallowing and choking. Although important to avoid, these aren’t the only ways toys can be harmful to children. Many toys manufactured overseas and imported to the United States, antique toys, or collectible toys have been made using lead. Lead can be found in the paint used on toys, or in the production of the plastic used to make the toy. In the U.S. in 1978, lead was banned in house paint, on merchandise marketed towards children, and in dishes and cookware. The use of lead in plastics, however, has not been banned. Lead allows the plastic to be softened and makes it more flexible and return to its original shape if stretched. The purpose of lead used in toys is to stabilize the molecules from heat. Still, when toys made with lead are exposed to sunlight, air, or detergents, the chemical bond between the lead and the plastics break down and forms a dust. Lead is invisible to the naked eye and has no taste or smell. To be exposed to lead, all a child has to do is handle the toy that contains lead, and then put their hands in their mouth. Sometimes, children put their hands or the toys in their mouths, even sucking or chewing on them which can expose them to lead. The only way to accurately test for the presence of lead in a toy is through a certified laboratory test. Do-it-yourself kits are available to the general population, but they do not indicate exactly how much lead is present, and they have not been proved reliable at detecting low levels of lead. What to do if you suspect your child has been exposed to lead: • Remove the toy from your child • Contact your health care provider and consider a blood lead test • If your child swallows the toy, contact your local Poison Control Center How to prevent lead poisoning from toys: • Wash your children’s hands often, especially before eating • Wash your children’s toys often • Provide a nutritious and well-balanced diet with plenty of foods that are high in iron and calcium (children who may be undernourished can absorb more lead into their body than children with a healthy diet) ==Sources== National Center for Environmental Health. (2009). Lead: Toys. Retrieved :September 28, 2009, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention :Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/tips/toys.htm Department of Human Services. (2007). Lead In Children’s Jewelry and Toys. Retrieved : September 28, 2009, from Lead Poisoning Prevention Program : Web site: http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/lead/toysandjewelry.shtml The Oklahoma Poison Control Center. (2008). Toys- Dangers of Lead Poisoning. : Retrieved September 28, 2009, from Poison Help Home : Web site: http://www.oklahomapoison.org/press/detailed.asp?InterestID=2051 [[Category:Essays]] 3nzicupfzlqodz96pis6qoferbswinz 0 139579 2834040 2687385 2026-09-20T19:20:51Z Michael Ten 654933 more columns 2834040 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Entrepreneurship''' is the process by which one starts and runs a [[business]]. Studying the resources here can hopefully help you to become a successful entrepreneur! __NOTOC__ '''Entrepreneurs '''are those who look for a problem area and offer a solution for that problem. Marketing Agent might be the best candidates. Someone who market the brand. Big business companies use marketing agents when doing their Advertising. Salesman will add up to the successful business. This person is one who sell products from door to door process. ==Discussion questions== * Explain the role of entrepreneurship in economic development? * What are the steps to launch a new business? * What are the qualities or traits of a successful entrepreneur? * What universities offer programs in entrepreneurship? How do they differ from one another? * How can entrepreneurship be used to help benefit society while earning a profit? * How do colleges and universities help to enable entrepreneurship? * What type of business could you start that could earn you a profit and benefit all stakeholders involved? * Is the only purpose of entrepreneurship profit? Why or why not? ==Learning resources== * [[Bootstrapping a business]] * [[Business/Earning money|Earning money]] ===External === * [https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/hire-manage-employees Hire and manage employees] * [https://www.employer.gov/ employer.gov] ==Suggested readings== ===Books=== {{colbegin|3}} * ''Think and Grow Rich'' by Napoleon Hill * ''10X Rule'' by Grant Cardone * ''Sell or Be Sold'' by Grant Cardone * ''Be Obsessed or Be Average'' by Grant Cardone * ''4 Hour Work Week'' by Timothy Ferriss * ''Platform'' by Michael Hyatt * ''The Millionaire Fastlane'' by MJ DeMarco * ''The Effective Executive'' by Peter F Drucker * ''The Magic of Thinking Big'' by David J Schwartz * ''The Art of Profitability'' by Adrian Slywotzky * ''The Innovator's Discussion: The Conversational Skills of Entrepreneurial Teams'' by B. Campbell {{colend}} ===Wikipedia=== {{colbegin|5}} * [[Wikipedia:Business plan|Business plan]] * [[Wikipedia:Angel investor|Angel investor]] * [[Wikipedia:Sweat equity|Sweat equity]] * [[Wikipedia:Venture capital|Venture capital]] * [[Wikipedia:Venture capital financing|Venture capital financing]] * [[Wikipedia:Private equity|Private equity]] * [[w:Business risks|Business risks]] * [[Wikipedia:Publicly traded private equity|Publicly traded private equity]] * [[Wikipedia:Initial public offering|Initial public offering]] * [[Wikipedia:Equity crowdfunding|Equity crowdfunding]] * [[Wikipedia:History of private equity and venture capital|History of private equity and venture capital]] * [[Wikipedia:List of venture capital firms|List of venture capital firms]] * [[Wikipedia:Social entrepreneurship|Social entrepreneurship]] * [[Wikipedia:B Corporation (certification)|B Corporation (certification)]] * [[Wikipedia:Benefit corporation|Benefit corporation]] * [[Wikipedia:Business ethics|Business ethics]] * [[Wikipedia:List of official business registers|List of official business registers]] * [[Wikipedia:Microfranchising|Microfranchising]] * [[Wikipedia:List of social entrepreneurs|List of social entrepreneurs]] * [[Wikipedia:Social venture capital|Social venture capital]] * [[Wikipedia:Revenue-based financing|Revenue-based financing]] * [[Wikipedia:Business opportunity|Business opportunity]] * [[Wikipedia:Business administration|Business administration]] * [[Wikipedia:Corporate social entrepreneurship|Corporate social entrepreneurship]] * [[Wikipedia:Entrepreneurship ecosystem|Entrepreneurship ecosystem]] * [[Wikipedia:Small Business Administration|Small Business Administration]] * [[Wikipedia:University spin-off|University spin-off]] {{colend}} ==See also== {{colbegin|3}} * [[School:Entrepreneurship]] * [[Social entrepreneurship]] * [[Social entrepreneurship/Social entrepreneur]] * [[Online social entrepreneurship]] * [[Internet entrepreneur]] * [[Internet entrepreneurship]] * [[Ethics/Business ethics]] * [[Portal:Social entrepreneurship]] * [[Careers and Employment]] * [[Social entrepreneurship/What is Social Entrepreneurship]] {{colend}} ==External links== * [https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/ Discuss and learn about entrepreneurship on Reddit] * [https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialpreneur/ Discuss social entrepreneurship on Reddit] ===Entrepreneurship discussions=== * [https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/5qbm59/posted_here_8_months_ago_when_i_hit_1kmonth_in/?st=iyfdoqz3&sh=dd706619 Posted here 8 months ago when I hit $1k/month in revenue. Just hit $10k/m, still don't know what I'm doing. Some random thoughts] [[Category:Entrepreneurship]] h5ctdhd6do2kfj8vm9pxhgd5gr8jlru 2834041 2834040 2026-09-20T19:21:47Z Michael Ten 654933 updated title and added. How can AI agents be utilized in online entrepreneurship? ... bless up. 2834041 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Entrepreneurship''' is the process by which one starts and runs a [[business]]. Studying the resources here can hopefully help you to become a successful entrepreneur! __NOTOC__ '''Entrepreneurs '''are those who look for a problem area and offer a solution for that problem. Marketing Agent might be the best candidates. Someone who market the brand. Big business companies use marketing agents when doing their Advertising. Salesman will add up to the successful business. This person is one who sell products from door to door process. ==Discussion questions, essay ideas, and learning related AI prompt ideas== * Explain the role of entrepreneurship in economic development? * What are the steps to launch a new business? * What are the qualities or traits of a successful entrepreneur? * What universities offer programs in entrepreneurship? How do they differ from one another? * How can entrepreneurship be used to help benefit society while earning a profit? * How do colleges and universities help to enable entrepreneurship? * What type of business could you start that could earn you a profit and benefit all stakeholders involved? * Is the only purpose of entrepreneurship profit? Why or why not? * How can AI agents be utilized in online entrepreneurship? ==Learning resources== * [[Bootstrapping a business]] * [[Business/Earning money|Earning money]] ===External === * [https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/hire-manage-employees Hire and manage employees] * [https://www.employer.gov/ employer.gov] ==Suggested readings== ===Books=== {{colbegin|3}} * ''Think and Grow Rich'' by Napoleon Hill * ''10X Rule'' by Grant Cardone * ''Sell or Be Sold'' by Grant Cardone * ''Be Obsessed or Be Average'' by Grant Cardone * ''4 Hour Work Week'' by Timothy Ferriss * ''Platform'' by Michael Hyatt * ''The Millionaire Fastlane'' by MJ DeMarco * ''The Effective Executive'' by Peter F Drucker * ''The Magic of Thinking Big'' by David J Schwartz * ''The Art of Profitability'' by Adrian Slywotzky * ''The Innovator's Discussion: The Conversational Skills of Entrepreneurial Teams'' by B. Campbell {{colend}} ===Wikipedia=== {{colbegin|5}} * [[Wikipedia:Business plan|Business plan]] * [[Wikipedia:Angel investor|Angel investor]] * [[Wikipedia:Sweat equity|Sweat equity]] * [[Wikipedia:Venture capital|Venture capital]] * [[Wikipedia:Venture capital financing|Venture capital financing]] * [[Wikipedia:Private equity|Private equity]] * [[w:Business risks|Business risks]] * [[Wikipedia:Publicly traded private equity|Publicly traded private equity]] * [[Wikipedia:Initial public offering|Initial public offering]] * [[Wikipedia:Equity crowdfunding|Equity crowdfunding]] * [[Wikipedia:History of private equity and venture capital|History of private equity and venture capital]] * [[Wikipedia:List of venture capital firms|List of venture capital firms]] * [[Wikipedia:Social entrepreneurship|Social entrepreneurship]] * [[Wikipedia:B Corporation (certification)|B Corporation (certification)]] * [[Wikipedia:Benefit corporation|Benefit corporation]] * [[Wikipedia:Business ethics|Business ethics]] * [[Wikipedia:List of official business registers|List of official business registers]] * [[Wikipedia:Microfranchising|Microfranchising]] * [[Wikipedia:List of social entrepreneurs|List of social entrepreneurs]] * [[Wikipedia:Social venture capital|Social venture capital]] * [[Wikipedia:Revenue-based financing|Revenue-based financing]] * [[Wikipedia:Business opportunity|Business opportunity]] * [[Wikipedia:Business administration|Business administration]] * [[Wikipedia:Corporate social entrepreneurship|Corporate social entrepreneurship]] * [[Wikipedia:Entrepreneurship ecosystem|Entrepreneurship ecosystem]] * [[Wikipedia:Small Business Administration|Small Business Administration]] * [[Wikipedia:University spin-off|University spin-off]] {{colend}} ==See also== {{colbegin|3}} * [[School:Entrepreneurship]] * [[Social entrepreneurship]] * [[Social entrepreneurship/Social entrepreneur]] * [[Online social entrepreneurship]] * [[Internet entrepreneur]] * [[Internet entrepreneurship]] * [[Ethics/Business ethics]] * [[Portal:Social entrepreneurship]] * [[Careers and Employment]] * [[Social entrepreneurship/What is Social Entrepreneurship]] {{colend}} ==External links== * [https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/ Discuss and learn about entrepreneurship on Reddit] * [https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialpreneur/ Discuss social entrepreneurship on Reddit] ===Entrepreneurship discussions=== * [https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/5qbm59/posted_here_8_months_ago_when_i_hit_1kmonth_in/?st=iyfdoqz3&sh=dd706619 Posted here 8 months ago when I hit $1k/month in revenue. Just hit $10k/m, still don't know what I'm doing. Some random thoughts] [[Category:Entrepreneurship]] 5aesgmw9ufb7fni8byta3exsmickf49 0 165672 2834018 2834014 2026-09-20T13:54:05Z MathXplore 2888076 Reverted edit by [[Special:Contributions/Kamalbadsha|Kamalbadsha]] ([[User_talk:Kamalbadsha|talk]]) to last version by [[User:ShakespeareFan00|ShakespeareFan00]] using [[Wikiversity:Rollback|rollback]] 1668615 wikitext text/x-wiki Welcome to the learning project on '''Tour Heels: A UNC Bucket List'''! This page is under construction by English 149 (the best class ever) at UNC Chapel Hill, and it will eventually include information on sites of consequence to UNC students. ''The construction of this page will be a learning experience aimed at fostering familiarity with wiki markup and editing practices. By using a simple, local topic, we can focus on writing technique rather than content mastery. Be aware that if this page was transferred to Wikipedia, it would be considered too informal, of too localized interest, and too lengthy for easy navigation. That's why we're using Wikiversity.'' [[File:Tour Heels banner.png|thumb|800px|Tour Heels logo]] ==Academic Sites== ===Davis Library=== [[File:Davis_Library_at_The_University_of_North_Carolina_at_Chapel_Hill.JPG|thumb|left| The Davis Library at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] Davis Library is one of the main library on Campus, located between the Student Union and Lenoir dining hall. It is the biggest library containing a total of eight floors of study and work spaces. There are plenty of books, computers, chairs, maps, government information, data collections, and microforms available. It is normally open until 2:00 AM for students with inconvenient day-time schedules. ===Sloane Art Library=== [[File:The Sloane Art Library at UNC-Chapel Hill.JPG|thumb|left|The inside of the Sloane Art Library, a small library at UNC-Chapel Hill]] ====Description==== The Sloane Art Library is located in the Hanes Art Center on South Columbia Street across from Fraternity Court. It is one of the smaller libraries on campus, since very few students at UNC-Chapel Hill know it even exists. It is a very convenient library for students living in Granville and Fraternity Court because of its close proximity to these areas. It is also extremely quiet and peaceful due to the low student volume. ====Regular Hours==== *Monday-Thursday 8AM-9PM *Friday 8AM-5PM *Saturday 12PM-5PM *Sunday 3PM-9PM ===Undergraduate Library (UL)=== [[File:UNC_Undergraduate_Library.jpg|thumb]] This is the library of choice for most UNC undergrads. It's centrally located, near the Pit and the Student Store. There aren't very many books compared to the other libraries, but there are plenty of desks and arm chairs for studying. New books, reserved books, and periodicals are located downstairs, along with the reference collection and the circulation desk. The main collection and study rooms are upstairs. These study rooms can be reserved online through the UNC libraries website and are a great place to meet with study groups. The ITS Help Desk is downstairs, along with the electronic media resources. These resources include screenplays, the DVD collection, and computers equipped with various editing softwares and programs. There is a small studio for recording and editing video and audio files, which can be reserved in advance. The library is open on a 24 hour basis, but students need to present their ID’s when studying late at night. <ref>http://library.unc.edu/house/ UL Home</ref> ===Places to Print=== *Underground Union (located next to Wendy's) *Usually all dorms on their lobby floors/with sitting RA will have a printer close by. *Sitting rooms/ Game rooms sometimes have a printer close by ====With OneCard==== *Alumni Hall (Outside of Room 203) *Beard Hall (Inside Room 104) *Campus Y (2nd Floor) *Carrington Hall (Inside Room 205) *Carroll Hall *FedEx Global Education Center (Coffee Shop) *Hanes Art Center (Sloane Art Library) *Kenan-Flagler Business School (McColl Building, 1st Floor Study Rooms, 3rd Floor Atrium) *Kenan Science Library *Law Library *Peabody Hall (Outside of room 204) *Back of the UL *Glass room of UL *Lower level of UL *Lower level of Union *First Floor Davis *Dorms **First floor of Hinton James through small TV lounge ====Without OneCard==== *Computer Labs on lower level of Carroll Hall *Undergraduate Library ==Social Sites== ===Popular Places to go eat with Friends=== *The Yogurt Pump aka YoPo ** Since 1982, YoPo has been serving the best frozen yogurt (froyo) on Franklin Street. Regardless of the time or day, people line up out the door for this delicious, guilt-free treat. All of their selections are low fat, no fat, or just 10 calories per ounce. [[File:The Yogurt Pump.JPG|thumb| The Yogurt Pump located on Franklin Street]] *Bandidos **Hidden down a stairwell, in an alley on Franklin Street, Bandidos is a popular Mexican restaurant that one can attend for someone's birthday or just to grab margaritas with friends. [[File:Restaurants on Franklin Street.jpg|thumb|The front of the restaurants Top This and Chopsticks on Franklin Street]] *Top This **Top This is a burger joint with a great selection of toppings. They have many different kinds of buns, meats, and sauces that many burger places do not. Every Monday they have a burger special that makes the price very competitive. *Cosmic Cantina **Cosmic Cantina is located near Johnny t-shirt and the Lux Apartment complex offices on Franklin Street. A place often referred to simply as "Cosmic" by students the restaurant is open from 11 AM to 4 AM every day of the week. A wide range of Mexican food from burritos to quesadillas to nachos and cheese, Cosmic is a relatively cheap place to eat at most times of the day. *Top of The Hill aka TOPO **Top of the Hill has been a staple of Chapel Hill since it was established in 1994. This restaurant, brewery, and distillery resides on the corner of Franklin and Columbia Street, an intersection widely regarded as the social center of Chapel Hill nightlife. *Sutton's Drugstore **If you want to see a basketball player or athlete on campus, Sutton's is one of the best places to look. Since 1923, Sutton's has been serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the back of the drug store. There is now a late night food truck on Rosemary Street besides Bob's, so you can get chili cheese fries or a hot dog on your way home from the Chapel Hill night life. Even though the store changed ownership in 1964 to Elliott Brummitt, he promised the community that he would maintain the tradition of having a pharmacy and restaurant. The walls of Sutton's have photographs of families, athletes, and celebrities who have came in to the store. *[B]ski's **In the summer of 2005, Bradley & Blair Smith moved to Chapel Hill, NC to create and build the ultimate restaurant brand they later named [B]SKI’S. In the spirit of offering a “home away from home” dining experience, the concept was designed around a new grilled wrap that was so different and unique that they named it a SKI!<ref>http://www.bskis.com/story</ref> # ====Delivery Options==== *[https://insomniacookies.com Insomnia Cookies] **Delicious milk and cookies! *[http://www.yelp.com/biz/jimmy-johns-chapel-hill Jimmy Johns] **Deliveries are freaky fast! *[http://www.bskis.com B Ski's Wraps] **Delivers Late *[http://www.beyondmenu.com/20923/chapel-hill/asia-cafe-chapel-hill-27514.aspx?r=20923 Asia Cafe] **Delivers Late *[https://www.tarheeltakeout.com Tarheel Takeout] **Offers a variety of delivery options from local restaurants, which they will pick up for you and then deliver. In addition to debit or credit card, Tarheel Takeout also will accept student flex accounts. *[https://crunchbutton.com Order Carolina] **Offers delivery from local restaurants, including Chipotle, Sakura Xpress, and Artisan Pizza, at a lower price than Tarheel Takeout. They also have a free app called Crunchbutton which allows for quick ordering right from your smartphone. *[http://www.dominos.com/ Domino's Pizza] **There is a Domino's at 1289 N Fordham Blvd Chapel Hill, NC 27514 that delivers late and delivers to most of the dorms ===The Pit=== The sunken courtyard known as “The Pit” beside the Student Union is a popular gathering place for students and the site of speeches and performances. Notices painted on “The Cube” near the Union alert students to upcoming events. The Pit’s south side steps lead to Student Stores in the Daniels Building. The north side steps lead to Lenoir Hall, the main dining hall on campus. The pit prides itself as the center of student life. It is rumored that you will see every student on campus if you stand in the pit for a day. It is also prime location for fundraising endeavors, passing out flyers, and public statements/events. <ref>http://unc.edu/interactive-tour/landmarks/the-pit/</ref> ===Greek Life=== [[File:UNC Kappa Delta Bid Day 2014.jpg|thumb|Kappa Delta, one of the 14 sororities, on bid day in September.]] Greek life is a large part of campus life. 18% of undergraduates are involved in more traditional Greek organizations. There are 23 fraternities and 14 sororities. Most of the fraternities are part of the Intrafraternity Council, and most sororities are part of the Panhellenic Council. ====IFC Chapters==== *Alpha Epsilon Pi *Alpha Tau Omega *Beta Theta Pi *Chi Phi *Chi Psi *Delta Kappa Epsilon *Delta Sigma Phi *Delta Upsilon *Kappa Alpha *Kappa Sigma *Lambda Chi Alpha *Phi Delta Theta *Phi Gamma Delta *Pi Kappa Alpha *Pi Kappa Phi *Pi Lambda Phi *Sigma Alpha Epsilon *Sigma Chi *Sigma Nu *Sigma Phi *Sigma Phi Epsilon *Zeta Beta Tau *Zeta Psi ===Bars & Clubs=== *He's Not Here - home of the blue cup *Pulse Nightclub *The Library - founded by UNC alumni, Alex Lewis *Players *Bob's *Rec Room *Fitzgerald's Irish Pub *Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery *The Heel *La Res *Old Chicago- commonly know for their $2 pizzas ===Restaurants Open Past 12 AM=== *Time Out *Waffle House *I Love NY Pizza *[B]Ski's *Old Chicago *Sutton's Food Truck *Jimmy John's *Wings Over Chapel Hill *Linda's *Toppers Pizza *Sup Dogs *Cosmic Cantina *Wendy's ==Historic Sites and Landmarks== ===The Old Well=== The Old Well is one of the most enduring symbols of UNC. It is located on Cameron St. between Old East and Old West Residence halls. It was originally built as the water supply for Old East and Old West dormitories. President Erwin A. Alderman directed its present form in 1897 as a beautification project resembling the Temple of Love in the Garden of Versailles. Students often drink from the well before the first day of class as an old tradition to bring good luck. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://unc.edu/interactive-tour/landmarks/old-well/|title=Old Well|publisher=The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|accessdate=October 24, 2014}}</ref>[[File:University of North Carolina Old Well.JPG|thumb|left|The Old Well is an iconic symbol of UNC-Chapel Hill's campus]] ===Morehead Bell Tower=== Each hour of the day the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower rings to remind students and faculty of the generosity of two families associated with the university since its earliest days.<ref>http://unc.edu/interactive-tour/landmarks/morehead-patterson-bell-tower/</ref> ===Davie Poplar Tree=== [[File:Davie Poplar Tree on UNC Campus.jpg|thumb|left|This is a photo of the Davie Poplar tree at McCorkle Place on the campus of the University of North Carolina.]] The Davie Poplar Tree is a tuliptree (or tulip poplar) located at McCorkle Place on the campus of the University of North Carolina. It is believed to be at least 300 years old. The tree's namesake comes from Revolutionary War General William R. Davie and legend has it that he stood beneath the tree as he selected the site for the University. Many people say that as long as the tree is standing, the University will be successful.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://unc.edu/interactive-tour/landmarks/davie-poplar/|title=Davie Poplar|publisher=The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|accessdate=October 24, 2014}}</ref> ===Old East=== Old East is the first building constructed on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1793. The building currently serves as a co-ed residence hall for students of the University. ===Davie Poplar Bench=== The bench is located beneath the Davie Poplar Tree. According to campus folklore, if you sit on the bench with your significant other, the two of you will always be together. ===Silent Sam=== The statue of a confederate soldier by John Wilson. Silent Sam is located on the upper quad. The statue was erected in 1913, and was dedicated to the students who were in the Confederate Army, as well as the 321 alumni who passed away during the Civil War. The soldier is referred to as silent because he is not carrying any ammunition. <ref>{{cite web|title=Silent Sam|url=http://unc.edu/interactive-tour/landmarks/silent-sam/|accessdate=29 September 2014}}</ref> ===Unsung Founders Memorial=== The Unsung Founders Memorial is located in McCorkle Place. Designed by Do-Ho Suh, it was erected in 2005 in order to honor the minority groups who helped to build the university. The memorial is a round, black table held up by three hundred bronze figurines. The table is surrounded by five seats, where visitors can rest. The memorial contains the inscription: “The Class of 2002 honors the University’s unsung founders – the people of color bond and free – who helped build the Carolina that we cherish today.” ==Campus Curiosities== ===The Underground Tunnels=== [[File:Tunnels under UNC.JPG|thumb|Student in storm drain system under UNC's campus]] The so called "Underground Tunnels" on UNC's campus are actually a series of storm drain pipes. It is illegal and dangerous to go into the storm pipes, but that does not hold students back from exploring their depths. <ref>{{cite web|title=UNC tunnels mysterious, dangerous|url=http://carolinaconnection.org/2013/09/06/tunnels-under-unc-mysterious-dangerous/|accessdate=29 September 2014}}</ref> ===Order of Gimghoul=== [[File:Gimghoul_Castle_Tower.JPG|thumb|The castle that is owned by the Order of Gimghoul, as seen from the gravel road out front. Note the black car with tinted windows parked under the porch.]] The [[w:Order of Gimghoul|Order of Gimghoul]] is a collegiate secret society founded in 1889. Students enjoy speculating about the nature of this society, and visits to the castle site are always exciting for them, especially under cover of darkness. ====The Legend==== A UNC Chapel Hill student, Peter Dromgoole, was in love with a woman named Miss Fanny. However, another young man also loved this woman, and there was a pistol duel for her affection between the two men. Dromgoole was allegedly killed at the site of the castle, and his blood stains a rock there to this day. The rock was dragged over his body to cover up any wrongdoing. The name Dromgoole inspired the founder of the Order of Gimghoul, who named the Order after this mysterious occurrence. <ref>''[http://gradschool.unc.edu/funding/gradschool/weiss/interesting_place/history/castle.html]'', The Legend of Gimghoul Castle</ref> ====The Founding==== Wray Martin, a student at the University, liked to visit Point Prospect at night to write a private mythology. In these mythologies, which were inspired by the Arthurian legends, he created a "City of the Gimghoul." The castle was in the spot where he wrote, and was surrounded by a "great, island-dotted sea." <ref>''[http://ncpedia.org/gimghoul-castle]'', Gimghoul Castle on NCpedia</ref> ====Speculations and Weirdness==== When people try to take photos of the site, if someone who works for the organization sees you- for example, a maintenance man in a white truck- they will be told they are not supposed to take photos because it's "top secret." On the eve of Halloween every year, a group of hooded figures with candles appears in the Forest Theater around midnight. A popular student theory is that these figures are, in fact, the members of the Order. Some students say that the Order is basically just a fraternity that's more secret. One student, walking by at night, saw a male wearing a polo shirt and khakis come outside while holding a red cup. ===Gary the Pit Preacher=== Gary "preaches" to the student body of UNC Chapel Hill publicly outside of WIlson Library or in "The Pit". He is known for his extremely racist, sexist, and just generally offensive views, as well as for his blue fold-up lawn chair and picket-signs. He has been known to say that UNC is his favorite university to "preach" at- the students can't decide if that is a good or bad reflection on the student body. It is widely accepted that his views are false and irrelevant, and that he is impossible to engage in formal debate. In 2014 Gary was banned from The Pit for a period of one year, and was henceforth known as the "Adjacent-to-the-Pit Preacher." [[File:Gary the Pit Preacher of UNC-CH.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Gary "preaches" to the student body of UNC Chapel Hill]] ====Theories==== *Gary is the most committed performance artist of all time *Gary is hired by the university to encourage debate and discussion *Gary is possibly the greatest genius of all time. *Gary is a troll. ====Activities==== *Pit Preacher Bingo<ref>http://imgur.com/gallery/0w6pPQz</ref> ===Ackland Art Museum=== The Ackland Art Museum was founded via a bequest made by William Hayes Ackland who wanted to be laid to rest in an art museum named after him. It can be found close to Franklin Street and across from Fraternity Court. ====Ackland Tomb==== William Hayes Ackland is entombed in the Ackland Art Museum.In Ackland's last will and testament, he outlined he wanted to be laid to rest in a museum to be named after him at Duke University. Duke rejected the idea of have a museum that held the tomb of Ackland and instead, after nine years of litigation, the Ackland trust was awarded to UNC Chapel Hill. Currently, Mr. Ackland is laid to rest in the Art Museum and his tomb can be seen inside the museum. <ref> [http://ackland.org/about/history/] Ackland Art Museum History</ref> ==Unique Institutions== ===LaUNCh Chapel Hill=== *A start-up incubator on Franklin Street. Young entrepreneurs, both students and residents of Chapel Hill, use this office space to work on their business endeavors. The incubator supports 9 current ventures and 17 tenant ventures. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, LaUNCh provides you with the resources you need to be successful. [[File:LaUNCh Chapel Hill.JPG|thumb|left|LaUNCh Chapel Hill Front Sign, Startup Incubator.]] [[File:LaUNCh Chapel Hill Workspace.JPG|thumb|LaUNCh Chapel Hill Workspace]] ====Current Ventures==== *The Director Group *Emerging Frontiers *SyncHear *Organics and Sound *Non-Scents *Mamafrica Designs *Sono Health and Wellness *Digirithm *Allignedin ===1789=== *A followup start-up incubator created in the wake of LaUNCh Chapel Hill's wild success. ==Athletic Sites== ===Hooker Fields=== [[File:Hooker_Fields.JPG|thumb|left|Hooker Fields are turf fields that are utilized by students for athletics.]] *Hooker Fields are turf fields that are located next to Carmichael Arena and behind both Eddie Smith Field House and Fetzer Field. These fields are utilized for many different sports activities on campus. Intramural Leagues use these fields for flag football, soccer, softball, and kickball. Also, sport clubs such as soccer, ultimate frisbee, and rugby use these fields for their competitions or games. ===Student Recreation Center=== *'''Racquet Ball Courts'''[[image:Racquetball-racquet-and-bal.jpg|thumb|Racquet ball and racket]] The racquet ball courts in the SRC are located past the main weight room to the right. There are XX number of courts, seperated on two different floors, resulting in a frequent availability. The equipment managers provide racquets, balls,, and eye protection for any person with a UNC OneCard. These courts share the same hours as the SRC. *'''Weight Room''' The SRC houses a state of the art free weight setups, weight machines, as well as resistance training machines. In addition to strength training, there are also various cardiovascular exercise-centered machines located throughout the weight room as well as in the upstairs space. This includes free wheel spin bikes (located by the racquet ball courts), rowing machines (upstairs), treadmills (main weights area), and ellipticals (upstairs). *'''Gymnastics Room (Climbing Wall)''' The gymnastics room is located on the upper floor of the SRC, and is quite expansive. The room's primary function is to serve as the practive facilities for the UNC-CH gymnastics team. This room does, however, house an artificial climbing wall. While the gymnastics equipment is off limits to students not on the varsity or JV gymnastics teams, the climbing wall is a resource that any student can access so long as they have been certified for belaying. *'''Fencing Room'''[[File:UNC-CH_Fencing_Room.jpeg|thumb|The UNC-CH Fencing Room]] The fencing room is in the basement of the SRC by the equipment manager's room, and adjacent to the locker rooms. This room is often open, but not available to any undergraduate student or faculty, instead only those on the fencing team have access to this area for fencing purposes. *'''Basketball Courts (Fetzer)''' Fetzer basketball courts are in the same building as the SRC, and could be classified as the same facility, although they do not share a name. These courts are often available to all students for pickup basketball. They also commonly host Lifetime Fitness classes for students throughout the day, so their availability differs based on this schedule. ===Ehringhaus Field=== [[File:Ehringhaus Field.jpg|thumb|left|The turf athletic field on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill near Ehringhaus residence hall and Boshamer Stadium.]] Ehringhaus Field (or Ehaus Field for short) is a turf athletic field located behind the Ehringhaus residence hall and next to the Boshamer baseball stadium. It is used by students for pickup games of soccer, football, ultimate frisbee, and other sports. It is also used by certain varsity and club sports teams at UNC for warmups, practices, and/or matches. On nice days, you're likely to see people studying, tanning, or simply hanging out on Ehaus Field. ===Carolina Outdoor Education Center=== *Is a 20-acre wooded area that is approximately a 10 to 20 minute walk from the Student union [http://campusrec.unc.edu/carolina-outdoor-education-center]. * 8 Tennis Courts * 3 Sand Volleyball Courts * 18-Hole Disc Golf Course * Map included (click link for details) [http://campusrec.unc.edu/sites/campusrec.unc.edu/files/Map%20of%20the%20OEC.pdf]. * The COEC has a challenge course which has low elements and two high ropes courses. An expedition program includes rock climbing, sea kayaking, backpacking, day hikes and WAFFYS (which is a special opportunity for first years). The expedition programs are offered to students, university groups, staff and other community members. ===Rams Head Recreation Center=== *indoor track *basketball courts *weight room *multi-purpose room *cardio machines *locker rooms ===Woollen Gymnasium=== *8 basketball courts *Equipment room for equipment rental and towel service *CPR training lab *Locker rooms *Small dance studio (room 207) *Instructional weight rooms and multipurpose rooms ===Residence Hall Recreation=== In the dorms on campus, there are enhancements available for residents to check out. These enhancements can be used to play billiards, ping pong, and other small sports. ====Granville Towers==== *Outdoor Pool/Basketball court Full-court basketball court and swimming pool located between Granville Towers Residence Hall and University Square. *Fitness Center The Fitness Center is located in the bottom of the East Tower. The facility contains cardio machines and weight equipment. ====Hinton James==== *basketball court *sand volleyball court ====Craige==== Commonly known as "Crusty Craige", Craige is a dormitory on South Campus that houses primarily first year students. Some of the attractions of Craige are: *basketball court *sand volleyball court *printer *laundry room *outdoor grills ====Ehringhaus==== Named for the 1902 graduate, John Christoph Blucher Ehringhaus, Ehringhaus community – or E-haus as residents call it – has as much history as it has fun. E-haus has a heavy first-year population, which makes it an ideal community for making the transition to college and meeting others who are eager to get connected to everything going on at Carolina. *outdoor grills *laundry room *printer *sand volleyball cour *mail room <ref>http://housing.unc.edu/community/ehringhaus/index.html</ref> ====Cobb==== *tennis courts *basketball courts ====Connor Community==== Connor Community is located on north campus and is conveniently located less than a quarter mile from the pit, which is the center of campus. Nicknamed CoCo, the community is made up of hall style dorms including Alexander, Connor, Joyner, and Winston. The community office is located on the first floor of Connor and the dorms that make up this community surround a beach volleyball court that can be accessed by anyone. A well-known event in the Connor Community is known as Connorstock, in which residents get to enjoy a music festival in the spring that includes free food. Living in Connor Community makes it easier for residents to commute to class, enjoy a nice meal in Lenoir, or visit any of the main libraries to get some studying done. ====Lower Quad==== *sand volleyball court ====Upper Quad==== *sand volleyball court ===Boshamer Stadium=== Since the late 1960's, Boshamer Stadium (known as "The Bosh") has been the home of UNC's baseball team. The campus began expanding during the 60's, which allowed the baseball team to be able to have a new field. The stadium eventually opened in 1972. The baseball team enjoyed much success on the field, and were awarded with a new stadium. In 2007, ground was broken for the new stadium, and later opened in 2009 for the team. Boshamer Stadium has hosted ACC tournaments and NCAA regionals. ==UNC Athletics== ===Men's Basketball=== *The UNC men's basketball team has won six national championships in its history, with the most recent championship win coming in 2017. *Notable alumni: Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, Phil Ford, and many more. *Notable Coaches: Dean Smith and Roy Williams. ===Football=== [[File:Kenan Stadium - UNC vs. Liberty.JPG|thumb|UNC vs. Liberty Football Game at Chapel Hill]] The UNC Football program is one composed of a huge number of athletes, coaches, managers, and media professionals. The community culture of UNC football is one of tradition and excellence. ===Men's Baseball=== *The UNC men's baseball team has won 6 ACC championships and had 10 College Worlds Series Appearances. ===Women's Basketball=== Coach: Sylvia Hatchell Roster: 0 - Cherry, Jamie 1 - Mavunga, Stephanie 2 - Coleman, Latifah 3 - Buckland, Megan 10 - Butts, Danielle 11 - Rountree, Brittany 13 - Fuller, Hillary 15 - Gray, Allisha 22 - Bryant, N'Dea 24 - Washington, Jessica 30 - Summers, Hillary 31 - Johnson, Erika 34 - McDaniel, Xylina *The UNC women's basketball team has won one national championship as well as an ACC championship. ===Women's Soccer=== *The UNC women's soccer team is the most successful sports team on campus, with a record breaking 21 NCAA national championships. ===Men's Soccer=== *The UNC men's soccer team has won 2 national championships and 3 ACC championships. ===Men's Lacrosse=== *The UNC men's lacrosse team has won 7 ACC championships and 4 national championships. ==Music on Campus== ===Music Venues Nearby=== *Memorial Hall - As the main performance venue on campus, Memorial Hall plays host to all Carolina Performing Arts events during the school year. The theatre seats 1434 people: 518 in the balcony, 916 in the orchestra. Each year, Carolina Performing Arts brings world-renown artists to Carolina to play at memorial hall. The acts range from classical to jazz to rock to rap and everything inbetween. Students get tickets for Memorial Hall for only $10. *Local 506 - A small venue on West Franklin Street that brings in lots of smaller, "niche" type acts. The venue features a bar and fits 250 people. See [http://www.local506.com Local 506's website] for dates and prices. [[File:Local506photo.JPG|thumb|Local 506, music venue in Chapel Hill, NC]] *Cats Cradle - Cats Cradle is technically in Carrboro, but is the largest venue in the Chapel Hill area. It is a popular venue for upcoming musicians, particularly ones college students favor. The Cradle is over 40 years old and has hosted Nirvana, Public Enemy, John Mayer, Iggy Pop, and many others over time. Its max capacity is 750, but the Cradle is concerned an intimate space based on the acts it brings in. See [http://www.catscradle.com/ Cat Cradle's website] for dates and prices. *King's Barcade - Raleigh. Offers high-quality groups in an intimate setting. *Lincoln Theatre - Raleigh. Larger with more standing room than anything close to Chapel Hill. *Chapel Hill Underground - Chapel Hill *Red Hat Ampitheater - Raleigh ===Instruments for use on Campus=== * '''Pianos''' - Pianos can be found in a number of dorms. Additionally, Hill Hall has small music practice rooms in the basement that include many pianos. Kenan Music Building also has pianos in the basement studios, Hall 1201, and in classroom upstairs (although these are generally more restricted). Graham Memorial has a piano that can be used when students are not napping. Skilled players can also use the grand piano in the lobby of the UNC hospitals to calm and entertain visitors. [[File:Kenan Basement.JPG|thumb|Instruments for use in Kenan Music Building's basement]] * '''Drums''' - Complete drum sets can be found in the Kenan Music Building. Key access is needed *'''Woodwinds and Brass''' - Various wind instruments are available for use from the Music staff in Hill Hall and Kenan Music Building. *'''Recording''' - Recording equipment can be found in the Basement of Hill Hall. Also, Hall 1201 in Kenan Music Building is wired to its own studio that can be used for recording live concerts and masterclasses. Digital recording equipment can be checked out for class projects from the MRC in the basement of the Undergraduate Library. The Beasley Lab in Graham Memorial also provides recording and video editing services. ===Pianos in Dorms=== *Cobb - 1st Floor Lobby - Small Interior Lounge *McIver - 1st Floor Parlor *Spencer - 1st Floor Parlor *Ruffin - 1st Floor Lounge *Parker - Basement Parlor *Craige - 1st Floor - Carolina Room *Ehringhaus - Ground floor - Mailroom *Morrison - 1st Floor - Multi-Purpose Room *Hinton James - 1st Floor - Game Room *Odum Community Center - 2nd Floor *Horton - first floor in study wing ==Meeting Points:UNC Students and Organizations== Student life at UNC has numerous opportunities to be involved with the community and plenty of places to host the numerous student organizations on campus. ===Student Led Organizations=== [[File:UNC- Chapel HIll ASA Beach Trip Diversity.Jpeg|thumb|ASA is made of people interested in the many aspects of Asian Culture.]] *UNC ASA (Asian Student Association) Generally has a booth in the pit once or twice a week during lunch hours/afternoon hours for varying reasons such as Asia focused charities or information events. *UNC Club Tennis (OEC courts) Sign up is available during fall fest and practices are held at the OEC. *UNC Clef Hangers is an all male a cappella group who performs several concerts every year and has a house located at 207 McCauley Street. ===Meeting Places=== *The Pit *The Student Union *Teague Hall Basement *Peabody Hall *Sitterson Lecture Halls ==Napping Spots== [[File:Student in Davis napping.JPG|thumb|left| A Student Taking a quick nap in Davis Library]] ===Graham Memorial Hall=== *Graham Memorial Hall is located in the upper right quad of North campus. Filled with several couches, large chairs, and dim lighting, Graham memorial is ideal for a nap close to Franklin Street. Make sure you make note of what day it is before you go: Graham is closed on Saturday and Sunday, and closes at 5:00pm on Friday. On weekdays, it is open from 7:30 am until 10:00 pm. ===Spots in Libraries=== *Undergraduate Library Basement *Davis Library study rooms and second floor reclining chairs *Wilson Library chairs (Quietest spot to nap out of all libraries) ===Coker Arboretum=== *Located at the corner of Country Club Road and Raleigh Street. Plenty of benches and grassy areas to nap when the weather is nice. Some students even bring blankets or hammocks for a comfortable summer snooze. The Arboretum is open dawn to dusk daily, year-round. Coker Arboretum is located next to the Morehead Planetarium & Science Center on the UNC campus, at the corner of Country Club Road and Raleigh Street. (For GPS navigation, enter the address 399 E. Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill.) <ref>http://ncbg.unc.edu/coker-arboretum/</ref> ===Dormitory=== *Your bed *Your friend's bed *The floor *The place you lay your head ===Sitterson Hall=== *Located in the bowels of Sitterson Hall, the semi-secretive Hacker Space contains many comfy couches and dim lighting to provide rest to tired computer science students. *Located on the top floor of Sitterson, the graduate lounge is a great place for graduate students and certain undergraduates to hang out and play ping pong or kick it back and take a nap. ==References== {{reflist}} ==Further reading== [http://www.unc.edu/ UNC Chapel Hill Home Page] [[Wikipedia:University of North Carolina|Wikipedia's article on UNC Chapel Hill]] [[Category:Universities in the United States]] jcaxw12xk3tkz16g34y09s730i3wif4 0 171135 2834102 2305692 2026-09-21T02:43:30Z Michael Ten 654933 fix spacing 2834102 wikitext text/x-wiki Sexual assault is defined as “the sexual exploitation, forcible penetration, or an act of sexual contact on the body of another person, male or female, without his or her consent” (Appalachian State, 2015). Currently, at least 1 in 4 women will experience it and more than 70% of them will be assaulted by somebody they know (Sarah Lawrence, 2014). Female sexual assault cases are typically heard of more often than male, but this issue does occur with both sexes. The focus of this paper will be on sexual assaults that happen on college campuses. For a sensitive topic like this, it’s very hard to determine the exact cause(s). Society tells women not to wear revealing clothes or act in a suggestive manner, which leads to victim-blaming. With victim-blaming comes the resulting issue of unreported assault cases. In fact, less than 5% of attempted and completed assaults are reported to authorities (Lam). Victims feel they will be blamed for the situation no matter what, so they don’t step forward, which puts their health in jeopardy. Others say it is completely the fault of the perpetrator. There is an extremely fine line between the two. Then there’s the issue of alcohol consumption, which is an increasing problem with college sexual assaults. 89% of assaults are due to incapacitated individuals who are unable to consent or get away from an offender (Lam). Many colleges try to sweep sexual assaults under the rug. This is a big issue, especially for the victims. Only 17% of students found guilty of sexual assault are expelled and 26% are suspended. These numbers are a problem, considering that there are guilty students being let off the hook. David Lisak of the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s survey found that 6% of men who committed forced sexual acts were undetected, repeat offenders. (Kingkade, 2014) Students not being punished for doing this are let loose to do it again! Campaigns against sexual assault have normally been aimed towards students directly, essentially telling them to keep their hands to themselves. However, a new angle is to target onlookers in an attempt to enforce bystander intervention. Bystanders are defined as “individuals who observe violence or witness the conditions that perpetuate violence. They are not directly involved but have the choice to intervene, speak up, or do something about it.” (Stop Sexual Violence) Even the White House released a PSA asking students to step in if they suspect another student is in sexual danger. The National Institute of Justice found that almost 2,500 colleges included in a study did not have a policy in place to deal with sexual assault (RAINN, 2009). Thanks to the Obama Administration, there has also been a larger push for policies and enforcing regulations regarding sexual assault on college campuses nationwide. If sexual assault is not recognized as a serious problem and efforts aren’t made to solve it, college campuses won’t have fully safe learning environments. The push for bystander intervention could be the spark needed to get everyone’s attention. This not only helps take the blame away from the victim, but it tells all students they have a personal responsibility to help their fellow peers in dangerous situations. They don’t have to directly get involved, but they should be prepared to call somebody else who can help. Greek organizations on campuses have also started taking action against sexual violence during associated events. The University of Virginia has proposed the idea of sober workers during parties. The idea is that there will be at least three members from the fraternity walking around to and monitoring everyone’s activities. If they sense someone is in danger or too intoxicated to make decisions, they can intervene. Sober working has picked up on other college campuses as well. ==References == Campus Safety | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.rainn.org/public-policy/campus-safety Smith, T. (2014, Nov. 21). Colleges Straddle Line Between Assault Prevention And Victim-Blaming. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2014/11/21/365460145/colleges-straddle-line-between-assault-prevention-and-victim-blaming Lam, M. (n.d.). Here's Your Talking-Points Memo on Campus Sexual Assault. Retrieved from http://www.aauw.org/resource/campus-sexual-assault-talking-points/ Kingkade, T. (n.d.). Fewer Than One-Third Of Campus Sexual Assault Cases Result In Expulsion. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/campus-sexual-assault_n_5888742.html Sexual Assault and College Campuses - Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.slc.edu/offices-services/security/assault/statistics.html Stop Sexual Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.health.ny.gov/publications/2040 Gray, E. (2015, Jan. 13). Why UVA's New Frat Rules May Not Make Much Difference. Retrieved January from http://time.com/3663956/uva-rape-frat-rules-rolling-stone/ 7uoyca9bckpwirfl93ip40iuk84a02m 2834103 2834102 2026-09-21T02:44:01Z Michael Ten 654933 fix spacing and formatting 2834103 wikitext text/x-wiki Sexual assault is defined as “the sexual exploitation, forcible penetration, or an act of sexual contact on the body of another person, male or female, without his or her consent” (Appalachian State, 2015). Currently, at least 1 in 4 women will experience it and more than 70% of them will be assaulted by somebody they know (Sarah Lawrence, 2014). Female sexual assault cases are typically heard of more often than male, but this issue does occur with both sexes. The focus of this paper will be on sexual assaults that happen on college campuses. For a sensitive topic like this, it’s very hard to determine the exact cause(s). Society tells women not to wear revealing clothes or act in a suggestive manner, which leads to victim-blaming. With victim-blaming comes the resulting issue of unreported assault cases. In fact, less than 5% of attempted and completed assaults are reported to authorities (Lam). Victims feel they will be blamed for the situation no matter what, so they don’t step forward, which puts their health in jeopardy. Others say it is completely the fault of the perpetrator. There is an extremely fine line between the two. Then there’s the issue of alcohol consumption, which is an increasing problem with college sexual assaults. 89% of assaults are due to incapacitated individuals who are unable to consent or get away from an offender (Lam). Many colleges try to sweep sexual assaults under the rug. This is a big issue, especially for the victims. Only 17% of students found guilty of sexual assault are expelled and 26% are suspended. These numbers are a problem, considering that there are guilty students being let off the hook. David Lisak of the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s survey found that 6% of men who committed forced sexual acts were undetected, repeat offenders. (Kingkade, 2014) Students not being punished for doing this are let loose to do it again! Campaigns against sexual assault have normally been aimed towards students directly, essentially telling them to keep their hands to themselves. However, a new angle is to target onlookers in an attempt to enforce bystander intervention. Bystanders are defined as “individuals who observe violence or witness the conditions that perpetuate violence. They are not directly involved but have the choice to intervene, speak up, or do something about it.” (Stop Sexual Violence) Even the White House released a PSA asking students to step in if they suspect another student is in sexual danger. The National Institute of Justice found that almost 2,500 colleges included in a study did not have a policy in place to deal with sexual assault (RAINN, 2009). Thanks to the Obama Administration, there has also been a larger push for policies and enforcing regulations regarding sexual assault on college campuses nationwide. If sexual assault is not recognized as a serious problem and efforts aren’t made to solve it, college campuses won’t have fully safe learning environments. The push for bystander intervention could be the spark needed to get everyone’s attention. This not only helps take the blame away from the victim, but it tells all students they have a personal responsibility to help their fellow peers in dangerous situations. They don’t have to directly get involved, but they should be prepared to call somebody else who can help. Greek organizations on campuses have also started taking action against sexual violence during associated events. The University of Virginia has proposed the idea of sober workers during parties. The idea is that there will be at least three members from the fraternity walking around to and monitoring everyone’s activities. If they sense someone is in danger or too intoxicated to make decisions, they can intervene. Sober working has picked up on other college campuses as well. ==References == * Campus Safety | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.rainn.org/public-policy/campus-safety * Smith, T. (2014, Nov. 21). Colleges Straddle Line Between Assault Prevention And Victim-Blaming. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2014/11/21/365460145/colleges-straddle-line-between-assault-prevention-and-victim-blaming * Lam, M. (n.d.). Here's Your Talking-Points Memo on Campus Sexual Assault. Retrieved from http://www.aauw.org/resource/campus-sexual-assault-talking-points/ * Kingkade, T. (n.d.). Fewer Than One-Third Of Campus Sexual Assault Cases Result In Expulsion. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/campus-sexual-assault_n_5888742.html * Sexual Assault and College Campuses - Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.slc.edu/offices-services/security/assault/statistics.html * Stop Sexual Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.health.ny.gov/publications/2040 * Gray, E. (2015, Jan. 13). Why UVA's New Frat Rules May Not Make Much Difference. Retrieved January from http://time.com/3663956/uva-rape-frat-rules-rolling-stone/ j0jsd70maartobritv8hu5f6z15qjf9 0 193694 2834100 2323232 2026-09-21T02:40:57Z Michael Ten 654933 ==Discussion questions, essay ideas, and learning related AI prompt ideas== * Do some adults who went through "wilderness therapy" as teens find the wilderness "therapy" to have been abusive? If yes, how common is this, and why do they claim this? What is their lived experience that they express as adults based on their teenage experience? 2834100 wikitext text/x-wiki {{psych-stub}} '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is the use of wilderness expeditions for the purpose of therapeutic interventions. There are a range of different types of wilderness therapy programs, with different models and approaches. Some grow out of a survival approach and some out of an Outward Bound approach. ==Discussion questions, essay ideas, and learning related AI prompt ideas== * Do some adults who went through "wilderness therapy" as teens find the wilderness "therapy" to have been abusive? If yes, how common is this, and why do they claim this? What is their lived experience that they express as adults based on their teenage experience? ==Related terms== * [[Bush adventure therapy]] * [[Outdoor behavioural health-care]] * [[Adventure therapy]] ==See also== *[[w:Wilderness therapy|Wilderness therapy]] (Wikipedia) *[[Adventure therapy research]] ==External links== * [[google:"wilderness+therapy"|Wilderness therapy]] (Google search) [[Category:Outdoor education]] [[Category:Psychological therapies]] [[Category:Therapy]] djidohmqn7eqft4de9mi0dskje7wglc 0 231005 2834111 1784024 2026-09-21T05:56:20Z Michael Ten 654933 /* See also */ fixing link text more 2834111 wikitext text/x-wiki === '''Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)''' === GAAP is main U.S. standard for Financial Reporting. It is concern with establishing when an item is recorded on financial statements, how an item is recorded on financial statements and disclosing additional information not specifically on the financial statements. # GAAP history and organizations #* In 1933 congress formed the SEC with the authority to establish GAAP, The SEC delegates this responsibility to the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board). The SEC though is the enforcement entity of GAAP with the Full weight of the US government. #* FASB set the standards for GAAP and its mission is to improve the usefulness of financial reporting, addressing deficiencies, and promoting international convergence. # How does FASB establish GAAP standards #*# A new project is added to the agenda #*# they conduct research and issues a discussion memorandum #*# they hold public hearings on the topic #*# they evaluate research and comments from interested parties (industry expert's) and then issue a exposure Draft, this is the first version of the new standard #*# they request additional comments from the community and modify the exposure draft #*# they then vote on the matter majority being 4 out of 7 FASB members. If approved a new standard is added to the codification as an Accounting standard Update (ASU) # Two types of GAAP #*# Authoritative the formal filing of standards which is includes the FASB Accounting standards Codification. Which the SEC is consider as authoritative guidance for public companies. #*# Non-Authoritave which cover new and emerging issues with in accounting these can come in the form of FASB Concepts, AICPA issue papers, IFRS. ==See also== * [[Portal:Accounting]] 37uqkn6yn3cmu0dyc1qsylq51plvfsi 5 255115 2834126 2812770 2026-09-21T07:09:03Z Jtneill 10242 /* My thoughts about this user group */ reply to Codename Noreste: What is the standard inactivity policy? (-) ([[mw:c:Special:MyLanguage/User:JWBTH/CD|CD]]) 2834126 wikitext text/x-wiki == Implementation == Interface administrator rights were initially discussed at [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/August_2018#Mediawiki_JavaScript_and_CSS_Editor_Role]. I'll repeat my summary comment from that discussion: :Based on the most recent description, and the (lack of) frequency of editing the user interface, this doesn't seem to be something that anyone needs on a regular basis. In a typical computing environment, users would have different accounts for different roles, only logging in as an administrator when necessary. In this environment, we have one account, but can adjust the roles when needed. My preference is for no one to have the role on a permanent basis. I'd rather see us take one of two approaches: # Interface administrator can be added on request for a short period of time (1 day or perhaps 1 week) to allow the changes to be made, and then the right expires again. It is up to the bureaucrat considering the request as to whether or not the user making the request is qualified to make the change. # We can have a formal approval process for who is allowed to make user interface changes. Bureaucrats would only be able to authorize one of these users for a period of time (1 week - longer shouldn't be necessary). There are two reasons for my hesitation to add the role permanently. 1) The role was created because this is a security risk. Accounts become compromised. The fewer rights someone has, the less risk is involved. 2) Requiring request and approval ensures that anyone wanting to make a user interface change runs their idea past a bureaucrat for review. There have been three instances I can recall of users requesting user interface changes since the new role took effect 14 months ago. In two of the requests, the user was granted rights to make the changes. In the third request, I granted myself rights to make the change on behalf of the user. This has worked well with minimum delay and, from my perspective, proper oversight and control. I would advocate for the first option, with bureaucrats adding the role on request and a 24-hour expiration, which may be extended as needed for further testing. [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 14:47, 20 October 2019 (UTC) :Thanks for the link; I missed that thread. Above sounds good. Given how infrequent the need is we should have a simple process. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 17:32, 20 October 2019 (UTC) ::As per discussion on [[Wikiversity:Request_custodian_action#Interface_admin_needed]] I am just adding a couple of points. As indicated by the recent request, to receive Interface Admin rights according to the [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interface_administrators WM:Meta Policy] the user needs to have set up [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Two-factor_authentication Two-factor authentication]. This is because of the high security risk for this user right. On Wikispecies we have a semi permanent Interface Administrator as per [https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikispecies:Interface_administrators Wikispecies Local Policy] The user has the rights for maximum of 12 months at a time and is a highly trusted member of the Wikimedia Foundation. However, I do not think this is necessary and granting this right temporaily for a period of 24 hours to a maximum of 2 weeks is reasonable but should still be restricted to trusted users, they will usually have at least some administrative role already, demonstrate knowledge of CSS / Java whatever they are intending to do. They must also have the necessary security login as mentioned above. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 15:33, 24 October 2019 (UTC) == Musing from DannyS712 == {{archive top}} The outstanding phab request is now resolved (see [[phab:T238967]]) and this discussion is closed as having '''support''' from the community. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:54, 26 November 2019 (UTC) Hi. I thought I should share my own views, given the discussion at [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action#Interface admin needed]]. I tried to be conservative in my proposal. # Bureaucrats have the technical ability to grant interface adminship to all users. It ''can'' be granted either temporarily or permanently. ## For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship '''may only be granted temporarily''' by bureaucrats (not to exceed 2 weeks without discussion) ## To provide a second set of eyes, bureaucrats '''may not grant themselves interface adminship''' - it must be granted by a different bureaucrat ### Exception: If no other bureaucrats are available within a reasonable amount of time, and other uninvolved support staff agree that the request is reasonable, a bureaucrat may grant themselves the rights ## Interface adminship should not be granted to non-support staff (non-custodian, non-curator) without prior discussion # Bureaucrats have the technical ability to revoke interface adminship from all users. ## Since interface adminship ''should'' only be granted temporarily, this shouldn't be needed much ## A bureaucrat may, without prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if it is being used to edit against the community's wishes, or otherwise being used improperly. The bureaucrat must then open a discussion. ## A bureaucrat may, after prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if there is consensus among support staff that it should be revoked. ## A bureaucrat may, at the request of any interface administrator, revoke their interface adminship ## '''Proposal:''' Any interface administrator should be able to '''revoke their own''' interface adminship, in case they have finished the task faster than expected. # Interface administrators have the following technical abilities ## <code>editusercss</code>, and <code>edituserjs</code> - the ability to modify the css/js of other users. This may be used ### To perform uncontroversial maintenance ### To edit user scripts that are used by others, if the owner is inactive and unresponsive ## <code>editsitecss</code>, and <code>editsitejs</code> - the ability to modify the css/js/json of the site. This may be used ### To perform uncontroversial maintenance ### To edit sitewide gadgets, following consensus (or, in lower-stakes cases, no objections) regarding the edits ## <code>edituserjson</code>, <code>editsitejson</code>, and <code>editinterface</code> - the ability to edit user json, site json, pages in the mediawiki namespace. These rights are granted to all custodians, and non-custodian interface administrators should follow the same guidance as custodians ## <code>oathauth-enable</code> - the ability to enable two factor authentication. All interface administrators are required to activate 2fa. # Additional proposals ## Requests for interface adminship, and discussions regarding revoking such rights, should be made publicly in well-watched areas, such as at [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]] or [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action]] Thoughts? Thanks, --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 22:15, 13 November 2019 (UTC) *Thanks {{at|DannyS712}}. I like your layout here, also agree with and support your proposal that Interface Admins can revoke their own rights when done. This particular set of tools is a bit of a double edge. Its one that in all honesty only people who actually need it would likely ask for, hence it should not come up often and will almost always be by trusted users, however, the double edge is it is one that ca do a lot of harm because of the ability to edit javascript etc. As such it should only be a temporary one and as you say they must have the 2fa activated. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 01:30, 14 November 2019 (UTC) * {{At|DannyS712}} I agree. This is good work. Thanks! -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 15:00, 14 November 2019 (UTC) ** In a few days, if no one objects, I'll file a phabricator task for interface admins to be able to remove their own interface admin rights. --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 17:15, 14 November 2019 (UTC) *** {{At|DannyS712}} I've added a site notice. Please give it seven days, just so we're consistent. Thanks! -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 17:38, 14 November 2019 (UTC) **** I've added a note about where discussions should be held --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 18:50, 14 November 2019 (UTC) * I think it looks fine. Thanks for writing this up. I'd say that if we adopt this on the attached page we should also include the explanatory info from meta. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 04:23, 20 November 2019 (UTC) ** If there is consensus to adopt it I can write it up as actual prose, and include explanatory info and related. Just ping me once its decided --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 05:12, 20 November 2019 (UTC) **{{At|DannyS712}} agree with this, I think it will be helpful that certain terms such as 2fa, are linked to their meta pages apart from the explanatory notes and other links to policies etc. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 06:46, 20 November 2019 (UTC) * {{At|DannyS712}} Support for this looks fine. Maybe use cases can be extended to cross language support. Sometimes I appreciate some element in the english wikiversity that I miss in the german wikiversity. For [[Wiki2Reveal]] I decided for piloting and proof of concept to create a [https://niebert.github.io/Wiki2Reveal GitHub-Repository] to have that available language indepentently in the German and English Wikiversity and just fetch the wiki sources and convert on the client side for this proof of concept. --[[User:Bert Niehaus|Bert Niehaus]] ([[User talk:Bert Niehaus|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Bert Niehaus|contribs]]) 04:56, 21 November 2019 (UTC) ;Update Okay, its been a week; I've created a new policy page. Can someone else please verify that this follows the consensus here and tag it as a policy? Thanks, --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:48, 22 November 2019 (UTC) :{{ping|DannyS712}} I added a couple of links for JS and CSS for those unfamiliar with the terms. (Feel free to point to a better description, if you know of one.) Is there a phab request id or were you waiting for closure to open that? In any case, I've added {{tl:policy}} as there is a clear consensus. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:18, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :: Phab task for what? --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:34, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :::"In a few days, if no one objects, I'll file a phabricator task for interface admins to be able to remove their own interface admin rights."[https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiversity_talk:Interface_administrators&diff=2093191&oldid=2093157] Just inquiring if you've added that task. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:36, 23 November 2019 (UTC) ::::[[phab:T238967]] and [[gerrit:552615]] --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:53, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :::::Thanks, I highly support this request. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 02:05, 23 November 2019 (UTC) {{archive bottom}} == Restriction on self-granting == Pinging users who participated above: {{ping|Dave Braunschweig|Mu301|Faendalimas|Bert Niehaus}} The policy specifies that bureaucrats should not grant themselves these rights (unless no one else is around). This be enforced at the technical level, and, if no one else is around to grant it, requests be filed with stewards. This helps to ensure that a compromised bureaucrat account doesn't cause as much damage. If there is support for such a technical requirement, I have already written the code, and we just need to convince the developers that it would be useful; see [[phab:T44072]]. Thoughts? --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 06:51, 15 December 2019 (UTC) *{{support}} yes this makes sense, crats are also accountable and there is the safety aspect for compromised account. Getting another crat or a steward to do it is not difficult. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 12:12, 15 December 2019 (UTC) * {{comment}} Seems like locking a screen door. It keeps honest people honest, but probably doesn't do anything in terms of improving security. A compromised account could be used to promote a secondary account very quickly. Then you have to add policies for how old is the account that is being promoted, etc. I think there's more to this than just self-granting. If WMF wants to implement this Wikimedia-wide, that's fine. But I don't see it being necessary just for Wikiversity. -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 19:27, 15 December 2019 (UTC) == My thoughts about this user group == Because it is a sensitive user group, if this can be granted permanently, it may be granted only to [very] few curators and custodians who have a demonstrated need for it, and they must pass an RFA-like process (with a process listed at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Interface Adminship]]). A notification may be posted to well-watched areas or through the site notice. And importantly, there must be at least no less than two IAs for mutual accountability, as close as the two CU/OS member requirement. My other thought is, why doesn't this project have a current need for interface administrators? [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 17:56, 3 June 2026 (UTC) : Agree with all of the above suggested policy and procedure changes including to remove the first part of, and update, "For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship may only be granted temporarily by bureaucrats (between 14 and 120 days based on discussion, at the discretion of that bureaucrat and perceived need)" so that it could be possible to have permanent IAs. : What inactivity rule(s) would apply? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:20, 4 June 2026 (UTC) :: I would suggest applying the standard inactivity policy only, if that is proposed. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 13:01, 4 June 2026 (UTC) ::: What is the standard inactivity policy? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:09, 21 September 2026 (UTC) enpthbqdtfuowvglwn6mcrfqljf5c7t 2834127 2834126 2026-09-21T07:12:42Z Jtneill 10242 /* My thoughts about this user group */ reply ([[mw:c:Special:MyLanguage/User:JWBTH/CD|CD]]) 2834127 wikitext text/x-wiki == Implementation == Interface administrator rights were initially discussed at [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/August_2018#Mediawiki_JavaScript_and_CSS_Editor_Role]. I'll repeat my summary comment from that discussion: :Based on the most recent description, and the (lack of) frequency of editing the user interface, this doesn't seem to be something that anyone needs on a regular basis. In a typical computing environment, users would have different accounts for different roles, only logging in as an administrator when necessary. In this environment, we have one account, but can adjust the roles when needed. My preference is for no one to have the role on a permanent basis. I'd rather see us take one of two approaches: # Interface administrator can be added on request for a short period of time (1 day or perhaps 1 week) to allow the changes to be made, and then the right expires again. It is up to the bureaucrat considering the request as to whether or not the user making the request is qualified to make the change. # We can have a formal approval process for who is allowed to make user interface changes. Bureaucrats would only be able to authorize one of these users for a period of time (1 week - longer shouldn't be necessary). There are two reasons for my hesitation to add the role permanently. 1) The role was created because this is a security risk. Accounts become compromised. The fewer rights someone has, the less risk is involved. 2) Requiring request and approval ensures that anyone wanting to make a user interface change runs their idea past a bureaucrat for review. There have been three instances I can recall of users requesting user interface changes since the new role took effect 14 months ago. In two of the requests, the user was granted rights to make the changes. In the third request, I granted myself rights to make the change on behalf of the user. This has worked well with minimum delay and, from my perspective, proper oversight and control. I would advocate for the first option, with bureaucrats adding the role on request and a 24-hour expiration, which may be extended as needed for further testing. [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 14:47, 20 October 2019 (UTC) :Thanks for the link; I missed that thread. Above sounds good. Given how infrequent the need is we should have a simple process. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 17:32, 20 October 2019 (UTC) ::As per discussion on [[Wikiversity:Request_custodian_action#Interface_admin_needed]] I am just adding a couple of points. As indicated by the recent request, to receive Interface Admin rights according to the [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interface_administrators WM:Meta Policy] the user needs to have set up [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Two-factor_authentication Two-factor authentication]. This is because of the high security risk for this user right. On Wikispecies we have a semi permanent Interface Administrator as per [https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikispecies:Interface_administrators Wikispecies Local Policy] The user has the rights for maximum of 12 months at a time and is a highly trusted member of the Wikimedia Foundation. However, I do not think this is necessary and granting this right temporaily for a period of 24 hours to a maximum of 2 weeks is reasonable but should still be restricted to trusted users, they will usually have at least some administrative role already, demonstrate knowledge of CSS / Java whatever they are intending to do. They must also have the necessary security login as mentioned above. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 15:33, 24 October 2019 (UTC) == Musing from DannyS712 == {{archive top}} The outstanding phab request is now resolved (see [[phab:T238967]]) and this discussion is closed as having '''support''' from the community. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:54, 26 November 2019 (UTC) Hi. I thought I should share my own views, given the discussion at [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action#Interface admin needed]]. I tried to be conservative in my proposal. # Bureaucrats have the technical ability to grant interface adminship to all users. It ''can'' be granted either temporarily or permanently. ## For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship '''may only be granted temporarily''' by bureaucrats (not to exceed 2 weeks without discussion) ## To provide a second set of eyes, bureaucrats '''may not grant themselves interface adminship''' - it must be granted by a different bureaucrat ### Exception: If no other bureaucrats are available within a reasonable amount of time, and other uninvolved support staff agree that the request is reasonable, a bureaucrat may grant themselves the rights ## Interface adminship should not be granted to non-support staff (non-custodian, non-curator) without prior discussion # Bureaucrats have the technical ability to revoke interface adminship from all users. ## Since interface adminship ''should'' only be granted temporarily, this shouldn't be needed much ## A bureaucrat may, without prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if it is being used to edit against the community's wishes, or otherwise being used improperly. The bureaucrat must then open a discussion. ## A bureaucrat may, after prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if there is consensus among support staff that it should be revoked. ## A bureaucrat may, at the request of any interface administrator, revoke their interface adminship ## '''Proposal:''' Any interface administrator should be able to '''revoke their own''' interface adminship, in case they have finished the task faster than expected. # Interface administrators have the following technical abilities ## <code>editusercss</code>, and <code>edituserjs</code> - the ability to modify the css/js of other users. This may be used ### To perform uncontroversial maintenance ### To edit user scripts that are used by others, if the owner is inactive and unresponsive ## <code>editsitecss</code>, and <code>editsitejs</code> - the ability to modify the css/js/json of the site. This may be used ### To perform uncontroversial maintenance ### To edit sitewide gadgets, following consensus (or, in lower-stakes cases, no objections) regarding the edits ## <code>edituserjson</code>, <code>editsitejson</code>, and <code>editinterface</code> - the ability to edit user json, site json, pages in the mediawiki namespace. These rights are granted to all custodians, and non-custodian interface administrators should follow the same guidance as custodians ## <code>oathauth-enable</code> - the ability to enable two factor authentication. All interface administrators are required to activate 2fa. # Additional proposals ## Requests for interface adminship, and discussions regarding revoking such rights, should be made publicly in well-watched areas, such as at [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]] or [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action]] Thoughts? Thanks, --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 22:15, 13 November 2019 (UTC) *Thanks {{at|DannyS712}}. I like your layout here, also agree with and support your proposal that Interface Admins can revoke their own rights when done. This particular set of tools is a bit of a double edge. Its one that in all honesty only people who actually need it would likely ask for, hence it should not come up often and will almost always be by trusted users, however, the double edge is it is one that ca do a lot of harm because of the ability to edit javascript etc. As such it should only be a temporary one and as you say they must have the 2fa activated. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 01:30, 14 November 2019 (UTC) * {{At|DannyS712}} I agree. This is good work. Thanks! -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 15:00, 14 November 2019 (UTC) ** In a few days, if no one objects, I'll file a phabricator task for interface admins to be able to remove their own interface admin rights. --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 17:15, 14 November 2019 (UTC) *** {{At|DannyS712}} I've added a site notice. Please give it seven days, just so we're consistent. Thanks! -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 17:38, 14 November 2019 (UTC) **** I've added a note about where discussions should be held --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 18:50, 14 November 2019 (UTC) * I think it looks fine. Thanks for writing this up. I'd say that if we adopt this on the attached page we should also include the explanatory info from meta. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 04:23, 20 November 2019 (UTC) ** If there is consensus to adopt it I can write it up as actual prose, and include explanatory info and related. Just ping me once its decided --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 05:12, 20 November 2019 (UTC) **{{At|DannyS712}} agree with this, I think it will be helpful that certain terms such as 2fa, are linked to their meta pages apart from the explanatory notes and other links to policies etc. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 06:46, 20 November 2019 (UTC) * {{At|DannyS712}} Support for this looks fine. Maybe use cases can be extended to cross language support. Sometimes I appreciate some element in the english wikiversity that I miss in the german wikiversity. For [[Wiki2Reveal]] I decided for piloting and proof of concept to create a [https://niebert.github.io/Wiki2Reveal GitHub-Repository] to have that available language indepentently in the German and English Wikiversity and just fetch the wiki sources and convert on the client side for this proof of concept. --[[User:Bert Niehaus|Bert Niehaus]] ([[User talk:Bert Niehaus|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Bert Niehaus|contribs]]) 04:56, 21 November 2019 (UTC) ;Update Okay, its been a week; I've created a new policy page. Can someone else please verify that this follows the consensus here and tag it as a policy? Thanks, --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:48, 22 November 2019 (UTC) :{{ping|DannyS712}} I added a couple of links for JS and CSS for those unfamiliar with the terms. (Feel free to point to a better description, if you know of one.) Is there a phab request id or were you waiting for closure to open that? In any case, I've added {{tl:policy}} as there is a clear consensus. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:18, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :: Phab task for what? --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:34, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :::"In a few days, if no one objects, I'll file a phabricator task for interface admins to be able to remove their own interface admin rights."[https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiversity_talk:Interface_administrators&diff=2093191&oldid=2093157] Just inquiring if you've added that task. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:36, 23 November 2019 (UTC) ::::[[phab:T238967]] and [[gerrit:552615]] --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:53, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :::::Thanks, I highly support this request. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 02:05, 23 November 2019 (UTC) {{archive bottom}} == Restriction on self-granting == Pinging users who participated above: {{ping|Dave Braunschweig|Mu301|Faendalimas|Bert Niehaus}} The policy specifies that bureaucrats should not grant themselves these rights (unless no one else is around). This be enforced at the technical level, and, if no one else is around to grant it, requests be filed with stewards. This helps to ensure that a compromised bureaucrat account doesn't cause as much damage. If there is support for such a technical requirement, I have already written the code, and we just need to convince the developers that it would be useful; see [[phab:T44072]]. Thoughts? --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 06:51, 15 December 2019 (UTC) *{{support}} yes this makes sense, crats are also accountable and there is the safety aspect for compromised account. Getting another crat or a steward to do it is not difficult. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 12:12, 15 December 2019 (UTC) * {{comment}} Seems like locking a screen door. It keeps honest people honest, but probably doesn't do anything in terms of improving security. A compromised account could be used to promote a secondary account very quickly. Then you have to add policies for how old is the account that is being promoted, etc. I think there's more to this than just self-granting. If WMF wants to implement this Wikimedia-wide, that's fine. But I don't see it being necessary just for Wikiversity. -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 19:27, 15 December 2019 (UTC) == My thoughts about this user group == Because it is a sensitive user group, if this can be granted permanently, it may be granted only to [very] few curators and custodians who have a demonstrated need for it, and they must pass an RFA-like process (with a process listed at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Interface Adminship]]). A notification may be posted to well-watched areas or through the site notice. And importantly, there must be at least no less than two IAs for mutual accountability, as close as the two CU/OS member requirement. My other thought is, why doesn't this project have a current need for interface administrators? [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 17:56, 3 June 2026 (UTC) : Agree with all of the above suggested policy and procedure changes including to remove the first part of, and update, "For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship may only be granted temporarily by bureaucrats (between 14 and 120 days based on discussion, at the discretion of that bureaucrat and perceived need)" so that it could be possible to have permanent IAs. : What inactivity rule(s) would apply? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:20, 4 June 2026 (UTC) :: I would suggest applying the standard inactivity policy only, if that is proposed. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 13:01, 4 June 2026 (UTC) ::: What is the standard inactivity policy? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:09, 21 September 2026 (UTC) : What are your thoughts about [[#Implementation|Implementation|Dave Braunschweig cautionary note]] above about IA implementation? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:12, 21 September 2026 (UTC) ry9g3rsfa5p13oiei3x11ly8ddf5b85 2834128 2834127 2026-09-21T07:13:11Z Jtneill 10242 /* My thoughts about this user group */ 2834128 wikitext text/x-wiki == Implementation == Interface administrator rights were initially discussed at [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/August_2018#Mediawiki_JavaScript_and_CSS_Editor_Role]. I'll repeat my summary comment from that discussion: :Based on the most recent description, and the (lack of) frequency of editing the user interface, this doesn't seem to be something that anyone needs on a regular basis. In a typical computing environment, users would have different accounts for different roles, only logging in as an administrator when necessary. In this environment, we have one account, but can adjust the roles when needed. My preference is for no one to have the role on a permanent basis. I'd rather see us take one of two approaches: # Interface administrator can be added on request for a short period of time (1 day or perhaps 1 week) to allow the changes to be made, and then the right expires again. It is up to the bureaucrat considering the request as to whether or not the user making the request is qualified to make the change. # We can have a formal approval process for who is allowed to make user interface changes. Bureaucrats would only be able to authorize one of these users for a period of time (1 week - longer shouldn't be necessary). There are two reasons for my hesitation to add the role permanently. 1) The role was created because this is a security risk. Accounts become compromised. The fewer rights someone has, the less risk is involved. 2) Requiring request and approval ensures that anyone wanting to make a user interface change runs their idea past a bureaucrat for review. There have been three instances I can recall of users requesting user interface changes since the new role took effect 14 months ago. In two of the requests, the user was granted rights to make the changes. In the third request, I granted myself rights to make the change on behalf of the user. This has worked well with minimum delay and, from my perspective, proper oversight and control. I would advocate for the first option, with bureaucrats adding the role on request and a 24-hour expiration, which may be extended as needed for further testing. [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 14:47, 20 October 2019 (UTC) :Thanks for the link; I missed that thread. Above sounds good. Given how infrequent the need is we should have a simple process. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 17:32, 20 October 2019 (UTC) ::As per discussion on [[Wikiversity:Request_custodian_action#Interface_admin_needed]] I am just adding a couple of points. As indicated by the recent request, to receive Interface Admin rights according to the [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interface_administrators WM:Meta Policy] the user needs to have set up [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Two-factor_authentication Two-factor authentication]. This is because of the high security risk for this user right. On Wikispecies we have a semi permanent Interface Administrator as per [https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikispecies:Interface_administrators Wikispecies Local Policy] The user has the rights for maximum of 12 months at a time and is a highly trusted member of the Wikimedia Foundation. However, I do not think this is necessary and granting this right temporaily for a period of 24 hours to a maximum of 2 weeks is reasonable but should still be restricted to trusted users, they will usually have at least some administrative role already, demonstrate knowledge of CSS / Java whatever they are intending to do. They must also have the necessary security login as mentioned above. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 15:33, 24 October 2019 (UTC) == Musing from DannyS712 == {{archive top}} The outstanding phab request is now resolved (see [[phab:T238967]]) and this discussion is closed as having '''support''' from the community. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:54, 26 November 2019 (UTC) Hi. I thought I should share my own views, given the discussion at [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action#Interface admin needed]]. I tried to be conservative in my proposal. # Bureaucrats have the technical ability to grant interface adminship to all users. It ''can'' be granted either temporarily or permanently. ## For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship '''may only be granted temporarily''' by bureaucrats (not to exceed 2 weeks without discussion) ## To provide a second set of eyes, bureaucrats '''may not grant themselves interface adminship''' - it must be granted by a different bureaucrat ### Exception: If no other bureaucrats are available within a reasonable amount of time, and other uninvolved support staff agree that the request is reasonable, a bureaucrat may grant themselves the rights ## Interface adminship should not be granted to non-support staff (non-custodian, non-curator) without prior discussion # Bureaucrats have the technical ability to revoke interface adminship from all users. ## Since interface adminship ''should'' only be granted temporarily, this shouldn't be needed much ## A bureaucrat may, without prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if it is being used to edit against the community's wishes, or otherwise being used improperly. The bureaucrat must then open a discussion. ## A bureaucrat may, after prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if there is consensus among support staff that it should be revoked. ## A bureaucrat may, at the request of any interface administrator, revoke their interface adminship ## '''Proposal:''' Any interface administrator should be able to '''revoke their own''' interface adminship, in case they have finished the task faster than expected. # Interface administrators have the following technical abilities ## <code>editusercss</code>, and <code>edituserjs</code> - the ability to modify the css/js of other users. This may be used ### To perform uncontroversial maintenance ### To edit user scripts that are used by others, if the owner is inactive and unresponsive ## <code>editsitecss</code>, and <code>editsitejs</code> - the ability to modify the css/js/json of the site. This may be used ### To perform uncontroversial maintenance ### To edit sitewide gadgets, following consensus (or, in lower-stakes cases, no objections) regarding the edits ## <code>edituserjson</code>, <code>editsitejson</code>, and <code>editinterface</code> - the ability to edit user json, site json, pages in the mediawiki namespace. These rights are granted to all custodians, and non-custodian interface administrators should follow the same guidance as custodians ## <code>oathauth-enable</code> - the ability to enable two factor authentication. All interface administrators are required to activate 2fa. # Additional proposals ## Requests for interface adminship, and discussions regarding revoking such rights, should be made publicly in well-watched areas, such as at [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]] or [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action]] Thoughts? Thanks, --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 22:15, 13 November 2019 (UTC) *Thanks {{at|DannyS712}}. I like your layout here, also agree with and support your proposal that Interface Admins can revoke their own rights when done. This particular set of tools is a bit of a double edge. Its one that in all honesty only people who actually need it would likely ask for, hence it should not come up often and will almost always be by trusted users, however, the double edge is it is one that ca do a lot of harm because of the ability to edit javascript etc. As such it should only be a temporary one and as you say they must have the 2fa activated. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 01:30, 14 November 2019 (UTC) * {{At|DannyS712}} I agree. This is good work. Thanks! -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 15:00, 14 November 2019 (UTC) ** In a few days, if no one objects, I'll file a phabricator task for interface admins to be able to remove their own interface admin rights. --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 17:15, 14 November 2019 (UTC) *** {{At|DannyS712}} I've added a site notice. Please give it seven days, just so we're consistent. Thanks! -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 17:38, 14 November 2019 (UTC) **** I've added a note about where discussions should be held --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 18:50, 14 November 2019 (UTC) * I think it looks fine. Thanks for writing this up. I'd say that if we adopt this on the attached page we should also include the explanatory info from meta. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 04:23, 20 November 2019 (UTC) ** If there is consensus to adopt it I can write it up as actual prose, and include explanatory info and related. Just ping me once its decided --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 05:12, 20 November 2019 (UTC) **{{At|DannyS712}} agree with this, I think it will be helpful that certain terms such as 2fa, are linked to their meta pages apart from the explanatory notes and other links to policies etc. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 06:46, 20 November 2019 (UTC) * {{At|DannyS712}} Support for this looks fine. Maybe use cases can be extended to cross language support. Sometimes I appreciate some element in the english wikiversity that I miss in the german wikiversity. For [[Wiki2Reveal]] I decided for piloting and proof of concept to create a [https://niebert.github.io/Wiki2Reveal GitHub-Repository] to have that available language indepentently in the German and English Wikiversity and just fetch the wiki sources and convert on the client side for this proof of concept. --[[User:Bert Niehaus|Bert Niehaus]] ([[User talk:Bert Niehaus|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Bert Niehaus|contribs]]) 04:56, 21 November 2019 (UTC) ;Update Okay, its been a week; I've created a new policy page. Can someone else please verify that this follows the consensus here and tag it as a policy? Thanks, --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:48, 22 November 2019 (UTC) :{{ping|DannyS712}} I added a couple of links for JS and CSS for those unfamiliar with the terms. (Feel free to point to a better description, if you know of one.) Is there a phab request id or were you waiting for closure to open that? In any case, I've added {{tl:policy}} as there is a clear consensus. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:18, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :: Phab task for what? --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:34, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :::"In a few days, if no one objects, I'll file a phabricator task for interface admins to be able to remove their own interface admin rights."[https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiversity_talk:Interface_administrators&diff=2093191&oldid=2093157] Just inquiring if you've added that task. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 00:36, 23 November 2019 (UTC) ::::[[phab:T238967]] and [[gerrit:552615]] --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 00:53, 23 November 2019 (UTC) :::::Thanks, I highly support this request. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] ^{[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]} 02:05, 23 November 2019 (UTC) {{archive bottom}} == Restriction on self-granting == Pinging users who participated above: {{ping|Dave Braunschweig|Mu301|Faendalimas|Bert Niehaus}} The policy specifies that bureaucrats should not grant themselves these rights (unless no one else is around). This be enforced at the technical level, and, if no one else is around to grant it, requests be filed with stewards. This helps to ensure that a compromised bureaucrat account doesn't cause as much damage. If there is support for such a technical requirement, I have already written the code, and we just need to convince the developers that it would be useful; see [[phab:T44072]]. Thoughts? --[[User:DannyS712|DannyS712]] ([[User talk:DannyS712|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/DannyS712|contribs]]) 06:51, 15 December 2019 (UTC) *{{support}} yes this makes sense, crats are also accountable and there is the safety aspect for compromised account. Getting another crat or a steward to do it is not difficult. Cheers [[User:Faendalimas|<span style="color: #004730">Scott Thomson</span>]] (<small class="nickname">Faendalimas</small>) ^{[[User talk:Faendalimas|<span style="color: maroon">talk</span>]]} 12:12, 15 December 2019 (UTC) * {{comment}} Seems like locking a screen door. It keeps honest people honest, but probably doesn't do anything in terms of improving security. A compromised account could be used to promote a secondary account very quickly. Then you have to add policies for how old is the account that is being promoted, etc. I think there's more to this than just self-granting. If WMF wants to implement this Wikimedia-wide, that's fine. But I don't see it being necessary just for Wikiversity. -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 19:27, 15 December 2019 (UTC) == My thoughts about this user group == Because it is a sensitive user group, if this can be granted permanently, it may be granted only to [very] few curators and custodians who have a demonstrated need for it, and they must pass an RFA-like process (with a process listed at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Interface Adminship]]). A notification may be posted to well-watched areas or through the site notice. And importantly, there must be at least no less than two IAs for mutual accountability, as close as the two CU/OS member requirement. My other thought is, why doesn't this project have a current need for interface administrators? [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 17:56, 3 June 2026 (UTC) : Agree with all of the above suggested policy and procedure changes including to remove the first part of, and update, "For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship may only be granted temporarily by bureaucrats (between 14 and 120 days based on discussion, at the discretion of that bureaucrat and perceived need)" so that it could be possible to have permanent IAs. : What inactivity rule(s) would apply? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:20, 4 June 2026 (UTC) :: I would suggest applying the standard inactivity policy only, if that is proposed. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 13:01, 4 June 2026 (UTC) ::: What is the standard inactivity policy? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:09, 21 September 2026 (UTC) : What are your thoughts about [[#Implementation|Dave Braunschweig cautionary note]] above about IA implementation? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:12, 21 September 2026 (UTC) tqs337blqpq5vx3c9cxzthf0jw62kgw 4 256577 2834123 2825898 2026-09-21T07:04:39Z Jtneill 10242 /* How does one become an interface administrator? */ + 2FA abbreviation 2834123 wikitext text/x-wiki {{policy|WV:IA}} {{2FA-required|enforced=yes}} [[File:Wikiversity Interface administrator.svg|right|130px|link=]] A Wikiversity '''interface administrator''' is a trusted user who has the technical ability to edit the [[w:Wikipedia:User scripts|JavaScript]] and [[w:Help:Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] of all users. == What can interface administrators do? == Interface administrators may use their rights as described below:<ref group=n>Interface administrators may '''never''' [[:w:WP:WHEEL|wheel war]] or [[:w:WP:Edit warring|edit war]] using their rights, even if they are editing according to policy. Doing so is grounds for immediate removal of access. Instead, open a discussion.</ref> {| class="wikitable" |+Interface administrator rights ! scope="col" | Right ! scope="col" | Description ! scope="col" | Can be used for |- |scope="row"| <code>editusercss</code> | Edit other users' CSS files | rowspan="2" | *To perform uncontroversial maintenance *To edit user scripts that are used by others, if the owner is inactive and unresponsive<ref group=n>Interface administrators are ''not'' permitted to edit a user's pages against the wishes of the user in question</ref> |- |scope="row"| <code>edituserjs</code> | Edit other users' JavaScript files |- |scope="row"| <code>editsitecss</code> | Edit sitewide CSS | rowspan="2" | *To perform uncontroversial maintenance *To edit sitewide gadgets, following consensus<ref group=n>Or, in lower-stakes cases, no objections</ref> regarding the edits |- |scope="row"| <code>editsitejs</code> | Edit sitewide JavaScript |- |scope="row"| <code>edituserjson</code> | Edit other users' JSON files | rowspan="3" | *These rights are already granted to custodians, and may be used in line with custodian guidelines |- |scope="row"| <code>editsitejson</code> | Edit sitewide JSON |- |scope="row"| <code>editinterface</code> | Edit the user interface<ref group=n>Specifically, this grants the ability to edit normal pages in the <code>MediaWiki:</code> namespace.</ref> |- |scope="row"| <code>oathauth-enable</code> | Enable two-factor authentication | *All interface administrators are required to enable two-factor authentication<ref group=n>Custodians also have the <code>oathauth-enable</code> right, and should activate two-factor authentication ''before'' requesting interface administrator rights.</ref> |} {{reflist|group=n}} == Access == ===How does one become an interface administrator?=== [[Wikiversity:Bureaucratship|Bureaucrats]] have the technical ability to grant interface administrator access, but should do so only in the manner described here. * For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship '''may only be granted temporarily''' by bureaucrats (between 14 and 120 days based on discussion, at the discretion of that bureaucrat and perceived need). * Bureaucrats '''may not grant themselves interface adminship'''—it must be granted by a different bureaucrat. ** Exception: If no other bureaucrats are available within a reasonable amount of time, and other uninvolved [[Wikiversity:Support staff|support staff]] agree that the request is reasonable, a bureaucrat may grant themselves the rights. * Interface adminship should not be granted to non-support staff (non-custodian, non-curator) without prior discussion. * Users seeking interface adminship must enable two-factor authentication (2FA). ===Losing access=== Bureaucrats have the technical ability to remove interface administrator access. They should do so in the manner described here, but in an emergency are empowered to act with discretion. * A bureaucrat may, without prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if it is being used to edit against the community's wishes, or otherwise being used improperly. The bureaucrat must then open a discussion. * A bureaucrat may, after prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if there is consensus among support staff that it should be revoked. * A bureaucrat may, at the request of any interface administrator, revoke their interface adminship. ==Discussions== * Requests for interface adminship, and discussions regarding revoking such rights, should be made publicly in well-watched areas, such as [[Wikiversity:Colloquium]] or [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]]. * If a bureaucrat removes interface administrator rights without discussion in an emergency, they must promptly initiate a discussion for the community to review their actions. ** The bureaucrat must leave a note with the user in question, alerting them to the removal of access and the discussion. ** The bureaucrat must explain ''why'' they have removed access. ** While a discussion is open, another bureaucrat may not restore the rights. == See also == * [[:meta:Interface administrators]] * [[:meta:Help:Two-factor authentication]] * [[Special:ListGroupRights]] {{Official policies}} [[Category:Wikiversity administration]] [[Category:Wikiversity user roles]] mv3qgzdrapoorqmgig0802pzrkx4hot 2834124 2834123 2026-09-21T07:06:22Z Jtneill 10242 /* Discussions */ + [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Interface Adminship]] 2834124 wikitext text/x-wiki {{policy|WV:IA}} {{2FA-required|enforced=yes}} [[File:Wikiversity Interface administrator.svg|right|130px|link=]] A Wikiversity '''interface administrator''' is a trusted user who has the technical ability to edit the [[w:Wikipedia:User scripts|JavaScript]] and [[w:Help:Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] of all users. == What can interface administrators do? == Interface administrators may use their rights as described below:<ref group=n>Interface administrators may '''never''' [[:w:WP:WHEEL|wheel war]] or [[:w:WP:Edit warring|edit war]] using their rights, even if they are editing according to policy. Doing so is grounds for immediate removal of access. Instead, open a discussion.</ref> {| class="wikitable" |+Interface administrator rights ! scope="col" | Right ! scope="col" | Description ! scope="col" | Can be used for |- |scope="row"| <code>editusercss</code> | Edit other users' CSS files | rowspan="2" | *To perform uncontroversial maintenance *To edit user scripts that are used by others, if the owner is inactive and unresponsive<ref group=n>Interface administrators are ''not'' permitted to edit a user's pages against the wishes of the user in question</ref> |- |scope="row"| <code>edituserjs</code> | Edit other users' JavaScript files |- |scope="row"| <code>editsitecss</code> | Edit sitewide CSS | rowspan="2" | *To perform uncontroversial maintenance *To edit sitewide gadgets, following consensus<ref group=n>Or, in lower-stakes cases, no objections</ref> regarding the edits |- |scope="row"| <code>editsitejs</code> | Edit sitewide JavaScript |- |scope="row"| <code>edituserjson</code> | Edit other users' JSON files | rowspan="3" | *These rights are already granted to custodians, and may be used in line with custodian guidelines |- |scope="row"| <code>editsitejson</code> | Edit sitewide JSON |- |scope="row"| <code>editinterface</code> | Edit the user interface<ref group=n>Specifically, this grants the ability to edit normal pages in the <code>MediaWiki:</code> namespace.</ref> |- |scope="row"| <code>oathauth-enable</code> | Enable two-factor authentication | *All interface administrators are required to enable two-factor authentication<ref group=n>Custodians also have the <code>oathauth-enable</code> right, and should activate two-factor authentication ''before'' requesting interface administrator rights.</ref> |} {{reflist|group=n}} == Access == ===How does one become an interface administrator?=== [[Wikiversity:Bureaucratship|Bureaucrats]] have the technical ability to grant interface administrator access, but should do so only in the manner described here. * For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship '''may only be granted temporarily''' by bureaucrats (between 14 and 120 days based on discussion, at the discretion of that bureaucrat and perceived need). * Bureaucrats '''may not grant themselves interface adminship'''—it must be granted by a different bureaucrat. ** Exception: If no other bureaucrats are available within a reasonable amount of time, and other uninvolved [[Wikiversity:Support staff|support staff]] agree that the request is reasonable, a bureaucrat may grant themselves the rights. * Interface adminship should not be granted to non-support staff (non-custodian, non-curator) without prior discussion. * Users seeking interface adminship must enable two-factor authentication (2FA). ===Losing access=== Bureaucrats have the technical ability to remove interface administrator access. They should do so in the manner described here, but in an emergency are empowered to act with discretion. * A bureaucrat may, without prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if it is being used to edit against the community's wishes, or otherwise being used improperly. The bureaucrat must then open a discussion. * A bureaucrat may, after prior discussion, revoke interface adminship if there is consensus among support staff that it should be revoked. * A bureaucrat may, at the request of any interface administrator, revoke their interface adminship. ==Discussions== * Requests for interface adminship, and discussions regarding revoking such rights, should be made at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Interface Adminship]], with notification in well-watched areas, such as [[Wikiversity:Colloquium]] or [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]]. * If a bureaucrat removes interface administrator rights without discussion in an emergency, they must promptly initiate a discussion for the community to review their actions. ** The bureaucrat must leave a note with the user in question, alerting them to the removal of access and the discussion. ** The bureaucrat must explain ''why'' they have removed access. ** While a discussion is open, another bureaucrat may not restore the rights. == See also == * [[:meta:Interface administrators]] * [[:meta:Help:Two-factor authentication]] * [[Special:ListGroupRights]] {{Official policies}} [[Category:Wikiversity administration]] [[Category:Wikiversity user roles]] asi9s3zq15iih5zxeeh666icu3i5uh3 0 264277 2834046 2833919 2026-09-20T22:10:51Z Scogdill 1331941 /* February 1890 */ 2834046 wikitext text/x-wiki [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1840s|1840s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1850s |1850s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1860s | 1860s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1870s | 1870s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1880s | 1880s Headlines]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1890s | 1890s Headlines]] 1890 [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1891 | 1891]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1892 | 1892]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1893 | 1893]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1894 | 1894]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1895 | 1895]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1896 | 1896]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1897 | 1897]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1898 | 1898]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1899 | 1899]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1900s|1900s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1910s|1910s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1920s-30s|1920s-30s]] ==January 1890== Sometime in January 1890, [[Social Victorians/People/Horniman|Annie Horniman]] was initiated into the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 144). Sometime in 1890 Annie Besant and [[Social Victorians/People/Helena Blavatsky|Helena Blavatsky]] founded the Working Women's Club in the East End (Besant Chronology.pdf). Maye Dilke was a member (Crawford 170). [[Social Victorians/People/Frank Harris|Frank Harris]] says,<blockquote>One day in 1890 I had George Meredith, Walter Pater and [[Social Victorians/People/Oscar Wilde|Oscar Wilde]] dining with me in Park Lane and the time of sex-awakening was discussed. Both Pater and Wilde spoke of it as a sign of puberty. Pater thought it began about thirteen or fourteen and Wilde to my amazement set it as late as sixteen. Meredith alone was inclined to put it earlier.<ref>Harris, Frank. ''My Life and Loves''.</ref></blockquote> ===1 January 1890, Wednesday, New Year's Day=== <blockquote>Sharp frost was experienced over the East of England yesterday morning, and in South London the thermometer had been as low as 27deg., and 28deg. in Hyde-park. It rose during the day to 41deg., but in the evening frost again set in. Later the thermometer rose again to 32deg., and there was an appearance as of coming rain.<ref><cite>The Morning Post. 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): P. 4, Col. F.</cite></ref></blockquote>Influenza is spreading all over Europe. According to the "Court Circular: Orders for Court Mourning" in the Morning Post,<blockquote>A second supplement to the Gazette, issued last night, contains the following: — "Lord Chamberlain's Office, January 1. "Orders for the Court's going into mourning on Thursday next, the 2d instant, for her late Majesty the Empress of Brazil, viz." — "The ladies to wear black dresses, white gloves, black or white shoes, feathers, and fans, pearls, diamonds, or plain gold or silver ornaments. The gentlemen to wear black Court dress, with black swords and buckles. "The Court to change the mourning on Thursday, the 16th instant, viz.: — [new paragraph] The ladies to wear black dresses, with coloured ribbons, flowers, feathers, and ornaments, or grey or white dresses, with black ribbons, flowers, feathers, and ornaments. The gentlemen to continue the same mourning. "And on Thursday, the 23d instant, the Court to go out of mourning."<ref><cite>"Court Circular: Orders for Court Mourning." The Morning Post, 2 January 1890 (No. 36,676): page 5 Col. G.</cite></ref></blockquote> ===9 January 1890, Thursday=== ==== The York Hunt Ball ==== This account is from the ''Irish Society'', which explains which women's costumes are the focus:<blockquote>The fashionable world and his wife are out of town just now, having good times at country houses. They shed the light of their brilliant presence on those annual functions known as county balls, and enjoy themselves also at those popular and picturesque entertainments to which they are bidden by the masters and members of the various hunts. One of the smartest dances of last week took place at York on Thursday evening. It was in fancy costume, and was in aid of funds for the York County Hospital. Once upon a time the journey from London to the Minster City of the North was a far cry, and one not lightly undertaken. Now it is luxurious and short. In consequence this hall presented the appearance of one in town in mid-season. There was conspicuous for height and handsomeness the familiar figure and face of Countess de Grey. Lady Helen Duncombe, too, who shares with her Grace of Leinster, and Lady Cynthia Graham, the family beauty of the House of Feversham, was seen in the marvellously becoming (to her) costume of the Empire period. Lady Lilian Wemyss, a lady "divinely tall,” and appropriately fair, was garbed in pink and white of a fashion hailing from the Empire. A "square;” in which the lady dancers were all gowned empirically, was the event of the evening. An event worth remembering it was. The costumes were superb, but their attractions were nowhere in comparison with the charms the [Col. 1c–2a] wearers. These were all tall and each one handsome. Lady de Trafford’s pretty face and fine figure showed to great advantage in her gown of white satin, veiled with gold-bordered ''chiffon'', and with an Empire trained cloak from her shoulders of Rose du Barri velvet lined with white satin, and bordered with gold galon. The colour of the velvet in what is seen in the half-yellow, half-scarlet petals of the soft textured nasturtium bloom. [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Mrs Algernon Bourke]] looked a picture in a Gainsborough gown. The white satin skirt was flounced with sable and veiled with ''chiffon'', the setuage of which was left to show without being hemmed up. There was a broad sash of rose-pink silk and each buttonhole was filled round with crimped lisse. One might go on for long enough describing costume after costume, and then leave them half out. Therefore, we shall, like the judge "sum up” and "charge” for a verdict of the utmost brilliancy.<ref>"Our London Letter." ''Irish Society'' (Dublin) 11 January 1890, Saturday: 17 [of 24], Col. 1b–2a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001939/18900111/042/0017. Same print title, p. 29.</ref></blockquote> ===16 January 1890, Thursday=== <blockquote>About two hundred members of the newly formed Dulwich Literary and Scientific Association attended the conversazione given on Jan. 16 at Surrey House Museum, Forest Hill, when Mr. Horniman, F.R.G.S., acted as cicerone round the rooms, richly stored with historical relics, ornithological curiosities, and art treasures.<ref>''Illustrated London News'' (London, England), Saturday, January 25, 1890; pg. 120; Issue 2649, Col. 3.</ref></blockquote> ==February 1890== === 1890 February 5, Wednesday === Wedding of <blockquote> On Wednesday morning, the Brompton Oratory was crowded to witness the nuptials of Miss Clarita de Murietta, daughter of the Marques and Marquesa de Santurce, of Wadhurst Park, Sussex, and Carlton House terrace, and the Duc de Santona. The event was invested with considerable interest to Kent and Sussex, the bride being connected by the marriage of her sister to Lord W. Nevill, with the families of Nevill, Gathorne-Hardy, Brassey, and Egerton. The Oratory was beautifully decorated with palms and ferns and white flowers. The service was fully choral and during the celebration of the nuptial mass selected music was rendered. The Prince of Wales, attended by Colonel Teesdale, was present. The Bishop or Southwark, assisted by Father Gordon and the Fathers of the Oratory, officiated. The bridge [sic] was conducted to the high altar by her father, the Marques de Santurce, who gave her away. A cousin of the bride, Mr Francis de Murietta, accompanied the Duc de Santona as best man. The bridesmaids wore dresses of soft cream crêpon, with sleeves and vests in vert pomme velvet edged with gold braid, straight skirts edged with the same, and slashes of pale mauve moiré. Two of the bridesmaids wore bonnets and the other four hats of green velvet  ornamented with gold braid and green ostrich feathers. The bridegroom's presents were a diamond arrow piercing a diamond and sapphire horseshoe, surmounted by ducal coronet in rubies and diamonds, and a "good-year" bouquet of lilies of the valley and green orchids tied with mauve streamers. The bridesmaids were Mdlle. Mara [?] Mitzans, slater of the bridegroom, Miss Constance Barrow, daughter of Captain and Mrs Barrow, Miss Ivan Marion Nevill, daughter of Lord and Lady H. G. R. Nevill, Miss Violet Gathorne-Hardy, daughter of the Hon. C. G. and Lady Cicely Louisa Gathorne-Hardy, the Hon. Muriel Agnes Brassey, and the Hon. Marie Adelaide Brassey, daughters of Lord Brassey. The bride's dress was of rich white Venetian brocade, with long train, the front being bordered with fringes and bouquets of orange blossoms. The bodice had a high collar of lace, and a fichu of lace and fine muslin, softly draped. She wore a small crown of real orange blossoms, surmounted by a fine tulle veil. After the ceremony, the wedding party proceeded to 18, Carlton House terrace, the town residence of the Marques and Marquisa de Santurce, where a déjeuner and reception were held, the Hungarian band playing selected airs on the grand staircase. The honeymoon is to be spent at Wadhurst Park. The bride's going away dress was of a delicate shade of grey velvet, draped with Siciliéune, and trimmed with rich steel passementerie, with hat to match. The following is a list of the more important presents:— [Col. 6b–c] To the Bride. —<ref>"Marriage of Miss de Murietta." ''Tunbridge Wells Journal'' 6 February 1890, Thursday: 2 [of 8], Col. 6b–c [of 6]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004632%2F18900206&page=2&article=036&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.</ref> [gifts list below set as unordered list to make it easier to read] * From the Prince and Princess of Wales, moonstone heart brooch, set with rubies and diamonds; * Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, and the Duke of Fife, a set of silver-gilt salt cellars; * the Empress Eugénie, a large silver mirror; * the bridegroom, a magnificent sapphire and diamond necklace, a sapphire and diamond bracelet, ruby and diamond ring, pearl double-heart brooch, diamond pin, diamond and pearl brooch, gold and pearl studs, and gold-handled hunting crop; * the Marques and Marquesa de Santurce, a magnificent diamond tiara; * Marquesa de Santurce, diamond half-loop ring; * M. Mitzans, father of the bridegroom, three rows of large pearls, with diamond and emerald clasp; * Marquesa de Manzanedo, mother of bridegroom, ruby and diamond cluster necklace; * Lord and Lady William Nevill, handsome dressing bag with tortoiseshell and gold fittings, and enamel and diamond watch bracelet; * Mr Christobal and Mr Adriano de Murietta, diamond aigrette, and two pairs of carriage horses; * Mr Muriano de Murietta, silver-gilt tea service and tray, three sliver-gilt candelabras, and set of silver-gilt dessert plates; * the Duc and Duchesse de Vistahamosa, complete set of silver-gilt dessert forks, knives and spoons, and four pairs of old English silver candlesticks; * Mr Francis and Mr C. J. de Murietta, pair of large silver-gilt repoussé dishes; * Marquess de Ia Torreville, diamond double-heart brooch; * M. Calderon, set of diamond hairpins; * Marchioness of Abergavenny, black point lace and tortoiseshell fan, with monogram in rubies and diamonds; * Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, diamond and emerald watch-bracelet; * Mr Alfred de Rothschild, diamond and pearl bracelet; * Lord and Lady Sandhurst. Sold " leWt"  sleeve links; Millie. Maria llitrans. large carbuncle mad  diamond pendant; the Ambassador. mix sliver c flea  cups; Duchess of Manchester. pair of silver-gilt-toPped  bottles; Duchess Leinster, old china b3x; lion. Hobert  Mn Spencer. divniond pin • Marquess of writing  met and candlestick; of Denbigh. embroidered silk  blotting book; Lady Altos Marian& silver ram Inrd Richard  pigskin luncheon bag, with complete silver fittings;  Hon. than.. and Lady Idlna gamey. imt.Mr carriage raid'  ease with gold mountings and monogram; Lord sled  Brooke, Dutch silver ornament; Viscount an.l Lady Violet  D "igen. old pointed snuff bon; Sir CISCAY Clayton. of  silver ad, trays; fair William Gordon Cumming.  owl went brittle; -unless Mandeville, small green bather  Inns-riling bag; Pin Coupland. silver crucifix • Canon Searle.  lonelier; Lady firouglisui and Visas. old golltnowited  ; Lady Clifford and Miss Towneley. silver looking-Riau:  Lord Asidnirton. silver bon lady Algernon Gordon  inlaid tortoiseshell bit; Dowager Dischess of Newcastle, silver  tran Lord mid Lady Charles Beresford. emelt X"  table; Sir Frederick and Lady 1111ner, silver tray; Sir  Cunard. &omit bottle with gold top set . diamond.; 161. , ••  Cavendish•Sentick. pair of old saws: Mr and Mrs  Edward china inkstand; Mr J. 8. and La -i l  Leigh, Chippendale table; Lord and Lady Beset  complete silver t/..4 set; Mr Horace r' - !^ mhar, two ginuid - d-i ;  Colonel Vivian, umbrella wit I. •.d handle; the  at Park and in, - • aose large slier  solver , .1w liVad burst tenants arid trariesmen. large cop;  orst Park sta , lememsdrlving whip and lanoline/crop.  Ti, OW Hri.legrouni.—Froni the brido, turquoise and diamond  It,. ruby and .11miond ring ; Marquess de Santurce, •  hr ,ugioun, sapphite and diamond ruby and damond  horseshoe 1,1,1; Mr C. and Mr A. de Murietta. pair of On";  L rd and lady William Nevin, net of crystal and sliver Sourer  and hod les crystal and silver tray;  sinermiounted peter knife; de Alba. Plixel 4°. ; M r  Grenfell. silver cigarette case; Lord kielaM Nevin, lead. ,  box, eont•ii, cm counters, So. ; Sir W. ( r ondo.' j  old silver box; de Adam,. set of ; H. and did".  kacandon, sapp h ire and diamond phi; Count EstradOs. 'd  match box.  --  Ccitay.—A very interesting 132 rigs lllus•  trawl on Deafness. Noises in the bead. how  may be cur:d at your liorne.—Post free.—Address, Dr  NICHOL/ON. 21. Bedford square, London.  NOLLOwAY'SALWANAC FAMILY IF9O Who  tratel),6 now ready. It contains 32 pi.gem, demyBe o . ol  useful information and descriptive illustratiotia of Mitten  Song hirde, and may be obtained gratis on appliccion to  any chemist, or will be forwarded by the  Thomas Roll •way, B , Now Oxford street, London,  on receipt of stamp to cover postage.  A world-wide favourite is CADSORY'S COCOA—i/ ii at.  aolutely pure.—Tins and its high quality have placed it in  the rank of beverages.  THROAT •Fltfit. , , ,, •,171 f ': 01 1  imtatiou of tin awl will be  at the .moat hooserhatri relief aftorded by Um am. of  tt7ourshial Trochee' These famous “loseagee" are Dow mid by  moa reepectatiii, cOamista I c this country at Is Per  reop.s trocaleci with •• backlog cough," a alight LlP  brouoi affectic, s. too moa,aa  it to program, result la widow Poi  Aer-ctiOsA Pee that the words .11rown's Ilmeshial ?rock m  this Ptamo Un old:bY  Cho Pr Sex. </blockquote> === 1890 February 8, Saturday === Recent arrivals in Brighton are listed:<blockquote>Though a good many people have left Brighton, still fresh visitors arrive, and the front is crowded when the weather is a little kind. Amongst the most recent arrivals may be mentioned the Countess of Strafford, Lady Susan Byng, Lady Chelmsford, Lord and Lady Seaton, Lady Jane Grimston, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lord Mandeville]], Lord Romilly and the Hon. John Romilly, Viscount and Viscountess Hampden, the Hon. R. Somerset, the Hon.  Thomas Dundas, the Hon. Sidney Greville, the Hon. A. W. Verney Cave, Lady Elizabeth Cartwright, Colonel Sir Alfred and Lady Kirby, Mr. Bazley White, M.P., and Lady Bazley White, Sir Hugh Montgomery, Sir Frederick and Lady Perkins, Lady Ellis, General Seymour, &c., &c.<ref>Dorothy. "Brighton Notes." ''Lady's Pictorial'' 8 February 1890, Saturday: 51 [of 60], Col. 3a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005980%2F18900208&page=51&article=671&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title, p. 203.</ref></blockquote> === 12 February 1890, Wednesday === ==== Lady Constance Leslie's Reception ==== <blockquote>On Wednesday last Lady Constance Leslie had an evening party at her residence in Stratford-place. The numerous guests included Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe, Princess Victor of Hohenlohe, and the Countesses Gleichen, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Count Mensdorf, Count and Countess Henry Lützow, Mr. and Mrs. Henry White, Baroness de Brienen and Mdlles de Brienen, the Duke of Abercorn, the Duchess of Cleveland, the Marchioness of Blandford and Lady Frances Spencer Churchill, Earl and Countess of Portarlington, Earl Stanhope, the Earl of Northbrook, the Earl and Countess of Arran, the Earl and Countess of Erne and the Ladies Cole, Julia Countess of Jersey and Mr. Brandling, Viscount Clifden, Viscountess Bary, Viscount Torrington, Viscount and Viscountess Castlerosse and Lady Louisa Beauclerk, Viscount and Viscountess de Vesci and Lady Sarah Spencer, Viscountess Galway, and Mr Caryl Ramsden, Lord de L'Isle and Dudley, Lord Alcester, Lord and Lady Wantage, Lord Ashbourne, Lady Henry Grosvenor and Lady G. Ogilvy, Lady Cloncurry, Lord Morris and Mr. M. Morris, Lady Charles Beresford, Lord Rowton, Lady Blanche Hozier, Lady Colville, Lady Rayleigh, Lady Constance Lytton and Mr. Charles Earle, Lady Evelyn Sutton, Lady Ernest Seymour and Ladies Fortescue, Lord and Lady Sandhurst, Lady Mary Lloyd, Lady Tweedmouth, Lady Windsor, Lord and Lady William Seymour, Lady Guy Campbell, Lady Egerton, Lady Fitzgerald, Baron d'Erlanger and Mr. Charles Derenberg, Hon. R. C. Spencer, M.P., and Mrs. Spencer, Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Hon. W. Mansfield, Hon. Lionel Ashley, Hon. A. Hood, Hon. William Lowther and Miss Lowther, Hon. Sydney Greville, Hon. Fitzroy and Mrs. Stewart, Hon. Frederick Leveson Gower, Hon. Kenneth Howard, Hon. Francis Villiers, Hon. Francis Bertie, Hon. Arthur Walsh, Colonel the Hon. Charles Edgcumbe, General Hon. John Bourke, General and Hon. Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. R. Sneyd and Miss Ellis, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Algernon and Mrs. Bourke]], Hon. Alan and Hon. Evan Charteris, Hon. Alexander Yorke, Hon. Derek Keppel, General Sir Dighton Probyn, Hon. Percy Wyndham, Hon. Everard Baring and Hon. Susan Baring, Hon. Mrs. Brett, Hon. Claud Hay, the Right Hon. Henry Matthews, Sir George Arthur, Sir George Maude, Sir Philip Currie, C.B., Sir Redvers and Lady Audrey Buller, Sir Charles Grant, Sir Mackenzie Wallace, Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P., Sir Oscar Clayton, Sir Robert Gresley, Sir Algernon West and Mr. Horace West, Sir George and Lady Russell and Miss Brackenbury, Sir Henry and Lady Longley, the Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, General Crealock, General Charles Fraser, Colonel Saunderson, M.P., and Hon. Mrs. Saunderson, Colonel and Mrs. Stewart and Miss Streatfeild [siv], Colonel and Miss Balfour, Colonel and Mrs. Stanley Clarke and Miss Clarke, Colonel R. Baring, Captain and Mrs. Jekyll, Captain and Mrs. J. Bagot, Captain Lambert Ward, Captain A. Bagot, Mr. Charles Hall, Q.C, M.P., Mr[.] Hussey Walsh, M.P., Mr and Mrs. W. Hartpole Lecky, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Combe, Mr Henry Foley, Mrs. Arbuthnot and Miss Guthrie, Mr. and Mrs. Heseltine and Miss Dorothy Heseltine and Lord Cantelupe, the Miss Stopford Brooke, Mr. and Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie, Mr Edmund Byng, Mr. and Mrs. Wilton Phipps, Professor Sidney Colvin, Mr. and Miss Tennant, Mr. Godfrey Webb, Mr. and Mrs. Turton and Mr. Sidney Ponsonby, Mrs. Adare, Mrs Cecil Paget and Mr. Hugo Wemyss, Mrs. L. Drummond, Mr. and Mrs E. Hope, Mrs. L. Seymour and Miss Seymour, Mr. Guy Repton, Mr. and Mrs. Julian Sturgis and Miss Beresford, Mr. Poynter, R.A., Mrs. Daniel Cooper, Mr. Hamilton Aïdé, Mr. Alwyne Maude, Mrs. C. Bentinck, Mrs. Bingham Mildmay, Mr. Philip Habord, Mr. and Mrs. George Bulteel, Mrs. Beerbohm Tree and Miss Julia Neilson, Mr. Hallé [Halle?], Mr. Rudolph Lehmann and Miss Lehmann, [[Social Victorians/People/Fanny Ronalds|Mr. R. Ronalds]], Mr. Ellice, Mr. Arthur, Madame Blumenthal, Miss Julia Leslie, Mr. and Mrs. Jeune, Mr and Mrs. Charles Stuart-Wortley and Misses Millais, Mrs. Arkwright, Mr Joachim, Mr. Gillett, Mr. Pulteney (Scots Guards), Colone| Cuthbert Larking, Mr. Harry Higgins, M. Tividar Nachez, Mr. G. Ross, Herr Johannes Woolff, Mrs. Charles Bagot and Miss Bagot, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Mr. Henry Petre, Miss Balch, Mr. and Lady Maud Ramsden, Mr. Adolphus Liddell, Mr Knowles, Mr. Grenfell, Mr. Edward Hamilton, Mrs. Henry Gordon and Miss Gordon, Mr. Henry James, Mr. St. Leger, Mrs. Dacre Hamilton and the Misses Nugent, Mr. Harbord, Mr Somerset, Mr. Ruggles-Brise, Mr. and Miss Hughes of Kinmel, Mr. and Mrs Douglas Freshfield, Mrs. Homer, Mr. W. H. Mallock, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Benson, Mr. H. Seymour, Mr. Ernest Law, Mr. Hugh Grimston, Mr. Lionel Cust, Mr. Chappell, Mr. and Mrs. Du Maurier, Mr. Boughton, R.A., and Mrs. Boughton, Mr. R. Roche, Mr. Montagu Wilson, Mr. Herbert Hope, &c.<ref>"Lady Constance Leslie's Reception." ''Morning Post'' 15 February 1890, Saturday: 2 [of 8], Col. 5c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900215/008/0002. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> === 24 February 1890, Monday === Lilly Langtry starred in Shakespeare's ''As You Like It'' at the St. James's Theatre. The Daily Telegraph had a long review and mentioned more names:<blockquote> The motto of Petronius, which is said to have adorned the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare's time, "Totus mundus agit histrionem," and which is reproduced in Jaques' famous speech, may be said to have received a novel illustration in the brilliant audience which completely filled the St. James's Theatre last evening. A very distinguished section of the world "played the actor" in the stalls, boxes, and dress-circle, and evinced the keenest dramatic interest in the long-deferred production of "As You Like It." The Prince and Princess of Wales, with the Duchess of Fife, surveyed the scene from the Royal box, while amongst the many who secured seats for the first were the Austrian Ambassador, the [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Duchess of Manchester]], Countess de Grey, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Lady Colin Campbell, Lord Wolverton, Lord and Lady Coleridge, Sir Charles Russell, Sir Edward and Lady Guinness, Baroness de Stern, and Mr. Alfred Rothschild. Naturally enough there was much curiosity in seeing once more on the London stage an actress who has since her last appearance devoted so much serious study to her profession, and gained so much success both before American and provincial audiences; while the sympathy evoked by her recent severe illness, delaying for four weeks the production of the comedy, added an almost pathetic note to the general excitement and enthusiasm. In the second scene of the first act, when the tenderly attached cousins make their earliest appearance on the stage, Celia's first words, "| pray thee, Rosalind, sweet, my coz, be merry," answered by Rosalind’s "Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of," were almost drowned in the applause which accompanied the recognition of Mrs. Langtry. From time to time, whenever opportunity served, enthusiasm broke out anew, culminating in the triumph of plaudits which formed the fit ending to the gracefully-delivered epilogue with which Rosalind takes her farewell of her audience. There can be no doubt that, with all due allowance for the inevitable nervousness which accompanied a first production before a critical though sympathetic house, the revival of the immortal comedy was generally pronoanced to be a success. The fancifally-named "As You Like It" — where even in nomenclature the author confesses his indebtedness to the romance of Thomas Lodge — with greater dullness than is usually the case with Shakespeare's plays. Indeed interest is hardly aroused till the scene before the Duke's Palace, where Rosalind and Celia witness the wrestling — which after a few more performances will probably go less stagily than it did last night — between Charles and Orlando. It is only when we are transported to the Forest of Arden that Shakespeare's romantic fancy allows itself full course, and it was only when she was accoutred in the doublet and hose that Mrs. Langtry exercised her full charm upon the audience. The difficulty for the actress in the character of Rosalind is the contrast between the early abandon of her frankly-expressed love for the son of Rowland de Bois and the subsequent archness and reserve with which she plays with her lover in the forest. Orlando goes through precisely an opposite change. From the careless desperateness of a man who is out of favour with fortune in the opening scene, he changes to the sentimental devotion of a "love-shaked fancy-monger" in the sylvan glades. If that interchange of parts be missed much is lost in the sprightly  contrasts of the drama. Unfortunately, no sooner did Orlando enter on the wrestling-ground last night, than he started and caught at his heart in obvious suggestion of love at first sight. Much is lost of the utter wonderment at Rosalind’s unexpected graciousness in giving him her chain, which keeps him tongue-tied later, if he betrays so early the fatal ravages of Cupid — a betrayal which is hardly likely in a man whom neglect and misery have driven to the last stage of reckless hardihood. Rosalind must love her champion before her winning thanks for his prowess have made the starred younger brother first marvel at and then adore the frank and generous advances of his benefactress. In the fine words, "My father was no traitor," Mrs. Langtry rose to the full height of the character she was depicting. Throughout the greater part of the first act there was grace, loveableness, charm, but also a kind of flatness, or, at all events, an even and somewhat uninteresting level of characterisation which did not convey the promise of all that this loveliest creation in Shakespeare's gallery could do, when the Court life was exchanged for the freer and less conventional existence in the woods. All the more praise, therefore, is Mrs. Langtry’s due, that when she finds herself in the Forest of Arden, she brings before us a truer Rosalind. The beautiful first scene between the disguised Ganymede and her amorous swain showed Mrs. Langtry at her best. The quick and nimble wit, the archness and pretty coquetry of a girl who is sick at heart with love and feeds her passion in a playful and adorable tyrannising over the unconscious lover, were depicted with a reality which won instant recognition from the spectators. For the rest, however, Mrs. Langtry’s Rosalind was an unequal performance, now rising with unexpected force into the regions of pure comedy, now sinking to an ordinary level of  uncomfortably-disguised womanishness. There were bright patches of power in the midst of a somewhat dull and colourless expanse. Much of this was, no doubt, due to the excitement and fatigue of a first night, to which also may be attributed possibly the sameness of some of her gestures and a restlessness which was something more than Rosalind's anxiety to win in her own incomparable way the happiness of which she was in search. A few nights hence firmness of carriage and self-control of manner will fill in the details of a character which was most graphically and sympathetically sketched in outline at the St. James’s last night. Mr Laurence Cautley as Orlando made most favourable impression on his audience. Through all the earlier scenes — with the exception of that wholly unnecessary lapse into amorousness on the lawn of Duke Frederick, which has been already noted — he sustained the character of a picturesque and youthful gallant with considerable success, though, possibly, a stronger dash of manly independence might not have come amiss to the Shakespearean hero. Touchstone is a more difficult part to play. Indeed, in some respects, he is the most difficult of all Shakespeare's clowns. He is on the borderland between the earlier, more conventional style of Costard, Launce, and Launcelot, and the far more elaborate and important clowns in "Twelfth Night" and "King Lear." He is not so clever as Feste, not so human and real as that inimitable and tender-hearted Edgar who tries to solace the wild ravings of his discrowned king. He is halfway between such farcical beings as Kempe and Tarlton probably depicted, and that witty, self-conscious, irresponsible Jester, which Shakespeare ultimately made an entirely new creation on Elizabethan boards. It is no discredit to Mr. Sugden that he failed to realise so ingenious a conception. He presented a Touchstone who was full of amusing quips, and he went through all the catalogue of points in the Book of Honour in the fifth act with admirable skill; the Touchstone of "As You Like It" we are probably not likely to see often on the modern stage. Mr. Bourchier’s Jaques was a far higher piece of portraiture, grave and bitter and cynical as that early disciple of Schopenhauer should be, with touches of humour which only serve to show the depths of a naturally perverse and misanthropical nature. The celebrated "Seven Ages" speech  was capitally delivered, with a conscientious care and easy mastery which are rare enough in an actor who has so lately left the ranks of the amateurs. For the rest, the Adam of Mr Everill, and the Andrey of Miss Marion Lea seemed to give most pleasure to the audience, though she was sometimes — espectally in the pronunciation of the word "poetry" — inclined to represent the boorishness of the wench with an accent  which reproduced simulated inebriation rather than native clumsiness. Miss Armbruster as Hymen also deserves a word of praise. The piece was produced under the direction of the Hon. Lewis Wingfield, and the scenery, which in the Forest Glade of Acts II., III., and IV., formed a beautiful stage picture, was designed by Messrs. Perkins and Bruce Smith. After all, was any one ever wholly satisfied with the representaton of one of Shakespeare's comedies? No thing is further from the truth as a general statement than the pedant’s theory that Shakespeare is for the study, and not for the boards. If ever, however, the paradox be true that a great dramatic artist suffers when his plays gain a dramatic representation, it is when "As You Like It," "Twelfth Night" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" are brought face to face with a modern audience and amid nineteenth century surroundings. It ts not with impunity that the light that never was on sea and land is parodied by the glare of the footlights. For, honest stage-craftsman as Shakespeare was, in the full spring-tide of his poetic genius there was a divine and masterful intolerance of the real and the commonplace, a reckless flight into an ideal world, peopled by beings coined in the mint of his dainty imagination — aerial and disembodied creations whose actions and characters refuse to submit themselves to the narrow rules of the every-day world. In such a sphere banished lovers shall be predestined to meet and cement their happy unions, and lions and snakes shall be the habitual denizens of a forest where shepherds and shepherdesses prattle their erotic strains, and even a crafty Oliver shall repent of his past sins and fall in love with gentle Celia, owing to the poetic exigencies of Cloud Cuckoo Land. How can one  see all these things with the cynical eye of the modern ''Fin de Siècle'' and not feel an inevitable shock of dissatisfaction and surprise? How is it possible to avoid the jarring sense of discord when the dream picture is realised in the setting of prosaic reality? For Shakespeare's comedy is a romantic work of the mind, a refuge for all those delightful improbabilities which an indolent or whimsical fancy strings together to construct a series of complications and incidents which interest us, while they elude the sober tests of reason and judgment. But we must not carry this vein of thought too far. It is true that we have in such plays comedies of incident rather than of character. Yet Shakespeare is too and heart-whole to linger only at the Ivory gate. He throws even into these merry plots the force of that instinctive knowledge of human nature which produces real personages, tricked out in witty and imaginative guise. Shakespeare was able to pour everything into his comedies which he did into his tragedies, though in the one there is only suggestion, while in the other there is the elaboration of that is deep and tragic as well as humorous in life. Rosalid, Orlando, Touchstone, and Jaques are none the less real because they are ideal; and it is on these grounds that we can praise the conscientious and capable artists who presented these characters in flesh and blood on the St. James's stage. Nor does Shakespeare, as some have thought, intend in this play to preach [Col. 1c–2a]  any polemic against the life of the town, or compose any passionate encomium for the simple graces of the country. He is too great to be didactic on such narrow issues. Wherever men and women live, there they can be happy; or, as Touchstone says to Corin, when he expresses ignorance of the Court, one-sided enthusiasts for either streets or hedge-rows are truly damned, "like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side." Equanimity, such that of the Duke and old Adam, carries with it, wherever it be, the gracious gentleness of an eternal Eden.<ref>"St. James's Theatre." ''Daily Telegraph & Courier'' (London) 25 February 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 12], Col. 6a–7a [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001112%2F18900225&page=5&article=048&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''The Daily Telegraph'', p. 5. </ref></blockquote> The ''St. James's Gazette'' reported:<blockquote> We came intending to like it very much, and we succeeded in our intention. Indeed, we spent a really pleasant evening at the St. James's Theatre, Many of us knew one another to nod to, and some of us had bowing acquaintance with the author of the play; so it was all very sociable and comfortable. There were just enough shop-window celebrities to give an air of distinction to the rest of the audience, and everybody had a right to hope that his neighbours were wondering who he was. The critics were quite at their ease, having nothing to criticise except the acting; not being expected to suggest any slight alterations in the play (such as cutting out Acts I., III., and V., and rewriting Acts II. and IV.), but just to accept it as it stood, without even tracing it back to the French vaudeville from which it was, no doubt, originally adapted. The performance had many individual merits, but it also had two general faults. The first and least striking fault was that the interludes were  slurred over instead of being played up to. Now, the plot of "As You Like It" is so loose that a lengthy interlude (provided it be pretty) does not check the flow of interest; indeed, it gives a welcome rest and allows you to pick up your thoughts again. The other fault is one which may be, and is likely to be, remedied the play goes on. But at present it is neither smart nor spontaneous: the parts do not hang well together, and there is none of the enthusiasm which helps to pass off the interior performances of less skilful actors. The deficiency which we have noted was probably due to the serious illness from which Mrs. Langtry had been suffering and from which it was evident last night that she had not made a complete recovery. She worked very hard as Rosalind, and worked very well, and several times she made a really good hit; she was, perhaps, at her best in her indignant appeal to the usurper Duke against his unexpected and unjust decree of banishment. She was charming, again, in her embarrassment (as Miss Litton was charming before her) when she had her first meeting with her unconscious lover and she suggested very cleverly the absence of her skirts. She did her love-making archly and merrily; but though the pretended pretence gave her a right to go beyond the limits of maiden coyness, she seemed occasionally to assume the masculine Initiative when the feminine Suggestive would have been prettier. it was a pleasant though uneven performance, with plenty of grace in it and plenty of brains. The Touchstone of Mr. Sugden was in every way admirable — crisp, humorous, and distinctive. That his clowning was occasionally tedious was no fault of his. The palate of a modern audience does not relish these long-drawn pedantries of buffoonery. Our sense of humour is not more refined — it is different, and that's the end of it. But in the scenes with Audrey (and Miss Marion Lea made a capital Audrey — open-mouthed and innocently wicked or wickedly innocent) Mr. Sugden had a better opportunity and he made the most of it. There the humour was not conventional, and the audience enjoyed a laugh which was not scholarly. A word of praise must given to Mr. Brodie for his conscientious and effective rendering of the difficult and ungrateful part of the moonstruck lover of the wayward Phoebe. The first appearance of Mr. Bourchier in London attracted much interest. As an amateur at Oxford and elsewhere he was believed Iikely to to great things upon the stage, and his performance of Jaques was by no means a disappointment. The fault of it was that he did not suggest either the melancholy or the sententiousness which we associate with the character. The melancholy was but skin-deep, and the sententiousness simply was not there. But every actor has a right to read a part in his own way if it is a good way. And there is much to said for Mr. Bourchier's interpretation of Jaques. The temptation is to be stagy; Mr. Bourchier's tendency is to be natural. And he carried it out with great success in speaking the lines of the Seven Ages of Man. He caught up the Duke's phrase just as if it had dropped in the course of an ordinary conversation; and he played with it for a time until it seemed of itself to suggest to his mind the famous soliloquy. Certainly Mr. Bourchier’s method was effective, as it drew one of the heartiest rounds of applause in the whole evening. Among the company were noticed the following well known persons:— His  Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Fife, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], Lord De Grey, Mr. Alfred De Rothschild, Lord Lurgan, Sir Charles Russell, Sir Edward Guinness, Lady Colin Campbell, Lady Curzon, Lady Londonderry, Lady Hothfield, Hon. Alan Charteris, Mr. Oscar Wilde, Mr. Akers Douglas, M.P., Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P., Sir Allen Young, Lord and Lady Coleridge, the Austrian Ambassador, the Spanish Ambassador, Lady Hozier, Mr. George Lewis, Mr. Whistler, Lady Greville [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/People/Lady Violet Greville|Lady Violet Greville]]?].<ref>"As You Like It."  ''St James's Gazette'' 25 February 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 16], Col. 1b–c [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001485%2F18900225&page=5&article=027&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p. </ref></blockquote> This report is from ''Blalud, The Bath Society Paper'':<blockquote>Happily, there was no disappointment in store for the friends and admirers of Mrs. Langtry, who gathered on Monday night at the St. James’s Theatre in great force, to welcome this popular lady back to London and receive her with an extra warmth of cordiality in token of satisfaction at her recovery from her recent severe illness. Eight years have elapsed since she last played Rosalind in London. Since then she has travelled much, both at home and abroad, and followed the study and practice of her art with unfailing spirit and determination. She returns to the character which all leading actresses aspire to play in Shakespeare’s glorious dream of the Court of Duke Frederick and the forest of Arden a far riper artist, and, says the ''Daily News'', she presented us on Monday with an impersonation which compared to her former efforts is as the finished portrait to the crude sketch. Her performance may lack the great high tide of girlish impulsiveness, but first nights before an exceptionally critical audience and some remains of the languor of her recent indisposition doubtless contributed to rob her acting of something of its force and impulse. But her ''Rosalind'' remains a most winning and beautiful performance. A handsomer ''Rosalind'', or one that has worn the doublet and hose with more grace and picturesqueness (Mrs, Langtry, we may here note, scorns the modern heresy of boots, and appears in the more orthodox hose cross-gartered), has certainly not been seen in our time. The performance is full of good points; as when at the words, "here on the skirts of this forest like the fringe of a petticoat," she remembers with a momentary touch of maidenly shyness that petticoats no longer form part of her attire. Again, when in bantering her lover, who exhibits so strange an inability to recognize the voice and features of the woman whom he passionately loves, she pauses at "a beard neglected," and pointing at ''Orlando’s'' smooth chin bursts into uncontrollable laughter; again, when in the mock marriage scene, with ''Celia'' for the priest, her mind for the moment seems to wander away into such a dream as this mockery might suggest to one so deeply in love. The distinguishing feature of the impersonation, indeed, is the subtle suggestion of serious passion that underlies the frolicsome and bantering moods, and exhibits itself again and again in many subtle forms. The play is beautifully put on the stage, and if some of the performers fall a long way short of ideal excellence there are several impersonations that stand forth in strong relief and are of far more than common excellence. The ''Phœbe'' and ''Silvius'' of Miss Beatrice Lamb and Mr. Matthew Brodie deserve special note: but the most brilliant success of all in the case of the minor characters was undoubtedly the ''Audrey'' of Miss Marion Lee, whose hoydenish, but not ungraceful antics, whose happy, contented ignorance, whose mingled wonderment and admiration at ''Touchstone's'' philosophical utterances were admirable. Everything that taste can suggest has been done to embellish the play; the musical features are strengthened by an efficient chorus, and the costumes designed by the Hon. Lewis Wingfield are rich and handsome. Perhaps it might be objected that Mrs. Langtry’s beautiful green velvet doublet, with its slashes, tags, and laces, her cinnamon jerkin, her black cap and jewelled buckle, and her rich and massive cloak were hardly suited to her daring enterprise on the highways and in the forests of the Duke’s dominions. The restoration of Hymen, gracefully represented by Miss Violet Armbruster, and the final morris dance in honour of the nuptials, gave the crowning fanciful touch to the performance, and prepared the spectators for the playful epilogue, which was spoken by Mrs. Langtry, in her simple nuptial white robe and leopard skin, with rare elocutionary grace and effect,. [sic] The audience which greeted Mrs. Langtry was at once distinguished and interesting. The Royal box was occupied by the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Fife, the Princesses Victoria and Maud of Wales, and the Duke of Fife. Among the representatives of "Society" were Lady Londonderry, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], Lord de Grey, Lord and Lady Coleridge, Lady Curzon, Lady Hothfield, Lord Lurgan, Lady Greville [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/People/Lady Violet Greville|Lady Violet Greville]]?], Lady Hozier, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Sir Charles Russell, Sir Edward Guinness, Mr. Coningsby Disraeli, Mr. Akers Douglas, M.P., Mr. Justin M‘Carthy, M.P., Sir Allen Young, Lady Colin Campbell, Lady Monckton, Mrs. Labouchere, and the Austrian and Spanish Ambassadors. Pictorial art was represented by Mr. Whistler; music by Mdme. Antoinette Sterling; dramatic writing by Mr. H. A. Jones; and theatrical interests by Mrs. Bancroft, Miss Genevieve Ward, Mr. and Mrs. John Lart, Mrs. John Hare, Mr. M. L. Mayer, Mr. Augustus Harris, &c.<ref>"Mrs. Langtry." ''Bladud'' 26 February 1890, Wednesday: 9 [of 16], Col. 2b–c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005771%2F18900226&page=9&article=055&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Blalud, The Bath Society Paper'', p. 9.</ref></blockquote> === 25 February 1890, Tuesday === On 5 March, the ''World'' reports on a party hosted by Mrs. Adair that must have been held the week before:<blockquote>Many smart people were present at Mrs. Adair's party in Curzon Street on Tuesday night. The rooms, lighted by electricity, looked their prettiest with floral decorations consisting entirely of tulips, the hostess appearing in a gown of terra-cotta velvet trimmed with dark fur. The Austrian Ambassador and Madame Waddington were among those who listened to Miss Damian’s rendering of a new song by Tosti, and to the glees sung by Mr. Avon Saxon's American quartet; and among others present were Lady Charles Beresford, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], the Duchess of Marlborough, Lady Fanny Marjoribanks, who brought her sister, Lady Sarah Churchill, Sir Arthur Sullivan (just back from his annual sojourn at Monte Carlo), Lord and Lady Wharncliffe, Lady Howe and Lady Edith Curzon, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Mrs. Cavendish-Bentinck, General Charles Fraser, Lady Conyers, Madame de Brienen, and Sir Philip Currie.<ref>"What the World Says." ''The World'' 5 March 1890, Wednesday: 19 [of 44], Col. 2a [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0006339%2F18900305&page=19&article=061&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote>The ''Daily Telegraph'' covered the party with a few additional names:<blockquote>A casual passer-by in Curzon-street last night might almost have imagined from the long string of carriages assembled there that, in spite of the cold east wind blowing, the London season had already begun. Mrs. Adair had together to hear some beautiful music, including a celebrated quartette of American singers, a large and fashionable crowd, composed of the ''élite'' of London society, comprising among many others, the Austrian Ambassador, the French Ambassadress, the Marquis and Marchioness of Tweeddale, Lady Charles Beresford, Lady Fanny Marjoribanks and Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill, Earl and Countess of Wharncliffe, Countess Howe and Lady Edith Curzon, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Lord George Nevill, Viscount and Viscountess Curzon, Countess of Sefton and Lady Rose Molyneux, Viscountess Mandeville, Julia Countess of Jersey and Mr Brandling, Viscount and Viscountess Bury and the Hon. Mary Keppel, the Countess of Crawford, the Earl of Clonmell, the Countess of Antrim and Lady Louisa Beauclerk, Viscountess Melgund, Lady Conyers, Hon. Lady Cotterell and Miss Cotterell, Lord Alington, Lord Alcester, Lord Greenock, Viscount de Vesci, Lady Hilda Brodrick, Hon. W. Lowther, M.P., and Mrs. Lowther, Hon. Mrs. Bampfylde, Hon. Hallyburton Campbell, Mrs. and Miss Campbell, Hon. Kenneth Howard, Hon. Derek Keppel, Hon. FitzRoy and Mrs. Stewart, Lady FitzGerald, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Madame de Brienen, Lieutenant-General Sir Seymour Blane, General C. Fraser, M.P., Mr. Chamberlain, M.P., Mr. Howard Vincent, M.P., and Mrs Vincent, Mr. Charles Hall, M.P., Mrs. Cavendish-Bentinck, Sir C. Rivers Wilson, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir Philp Currie.<ref>"London Day by Day." ''Daily Telegraph & Courier'' (London) 26 February 1890, Wednesday: 5 [of 8], Col. 4a [of 8]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001112%2F18900226&page=5&article=094&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''The Daily Telegraph'', p. 5. </ref></blockquote>The ''Sporting Gazette'' also had a report, on 1 March:<blockquote>Mrs. Adair's party in Curzon-street on Tuesday night was, as usual, exceedingly smart and dressy. The "smarties" turned out strong for this Anglo-American function, and wore their best frocks and jewels. Lady Tweeddale, Lady Howe, with Lady Edith Curzon, Lady Fanny Majoribanks chaperoning her younger sister, Lady Sarah Churchill, Lady Curzon, Lady Antrim with Lady Louisa Beauclerk, Lady William Nevill with some lovely diamonds, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], Lord Alington, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mrs Cavendish Bentinck, and others. The singing of an American quartette was ''the'' feature of the evening.<ref>"The Man About Town." "The County Gentleman." ''Sporting Gazette'' 1 March 1890, Saturday: 6 [of 38], Col. 2b [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002525%2F18900301&page=6&article=053&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title, p. 274.</ref></blockquote> ==March 1890== === 10 March 1890, Monday === The Prince and Princess of Wales hosted a ball in celebration of their wedding anniversary. This report from the ''Bedfordshire Mercury'' is very brief:<blockquote> The Prince and Princess of Wales, in celebration of the anniversary of their wedding on March 10, 1863, gave a dance at Marlborough House on Monday night. The Danish Minister and Madame de Falbe were among the company invited, also the Earl and Countess Brownlow, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Lord Alwyne Compton, Baron F. de Rothschild, &c.<ref>"Notes of the Aristocracy." ''Bedfordshire Mercury'' 15 March 1890, Saturday: 7 [of 8], Col. 4b [of 6]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001290%2F18900315&page=7&article=073&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> The report from the ''Morning Post'' suggests that this was a smaller party than usual for the Prince and Princess of Wales:<blockquote>In celebration of the anniversary of the Prince and Princess of Wales's wedding day, their Royal Highnesses gave an evening party (dancing) at Marlborough House last night. His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice (Princess Henry of Battenberg) and his Royal Highness Prince Henry of Battenberg, her Royal Highness the Princess Louise of Wales (Duchess of Fife) and the Duke of Fife, his Royal Highness Prince George of Wales, her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria of Wales, her Royal Highness the Princess Maud of Wales, her Royal Highness the Princess Mary Adelaide (Duchess of Teck), and his Highness the Duke of Teck and her Serene Highness the Princess Victoria of Teck and his Serene Highness Prince Francis of Teck, and their Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess Victor of  Hohenlohe-Langenburg and the Countess Victoria Gleichen were present. The following had the honour to receive invitations, but some amongst them were unavoidably prevented from attending: — The French Ambassador (M. Waddington) and Madame Waddington, the German Ambassador (Count Hatzfeldt) and the Countess Marie Hatzfeldt, the Turkish Ambassador (Rustem Pasha), the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador (Count Deym) and the Countess Deym, the Italian Ambassador  (Count Tornielli), the Countess Tornielli, and Mademoiselle Virginia dei Conti Lazzari, the Danish Minister (M. de Falbe) and Madame de Falbe, the Russian Chargé d'Affaires (M. Bontineff), his Serene Highness Prince Louis Esterhazy, M. A. Kroupensky, M. A. de Stoeckl, Count Leyden, Count Albert Mensdorff, Count Reventlow, Mr. and Mrs. Henry White, M. de Soveral, the Marques and Marquesa de Santurce, Mr. A. de Murrieta, Mr. C. de Murrieta. The Duke and Duchess of Leeds and Lady Alice Osborne, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the Duke and Duchess of Portland, the Duke and Duchess of Westminster, the Marchioness of Blandford and Lady Frances Spencer Churchill, the Marquis and Marchioness of Granby, the Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ormonde, the Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury and Lady Gwendolen Cecil, the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, Count Gleichen, the Earl and Countess Brownlow, the Earl and Countess Cadogan and Lady Emily  Cadogan, the Earl and Countess of Clarendon, the Earl of Chesterfield, the Earl of Clonmell, the Earl of Dudley, the Earl and Countess of Dunraven and Lady Florence Wyndham Quin, the Earl and Countess Granville and Lady Victoria Leveson Gower, the Earl and Countess of Hardwicke, the Earl and Countess Howe and Lady Evelyn Curzon, the Earl and Countess of  Kilmorey, the Earl and Countess of Lathom and Lady Alice Wilbraham, the Earl and Countess of Lucan and Lady Rosalind Bingham, the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and Lady Albertha Edgcumbe, the Earl and Countess of Romney and Lady Florence Marsham, the Earl and Countess of Rosebery, the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Stradbroke, the Earl and Countess of Sefton and Lady Gertrude Molyneux, the Earl and Countess Spencer, Viscount Drumlanrig, Lord and Lady Randolph Spencer Churchill, Lord Frederick Hamilton, Lord Ernest Hamilton, Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Lord Charles Montagu, Viscount Chelsea, Viscount and Viscountess Coke and the Hon. Violet White, Viscount Curzon, Lady Georgina Curzon and Lady Sarah Spencer Churchill, Viscount Fincastle, Viscount Royston, Viscount Valletort, Lord and Lady Brooke, Lord Burghersh, Lord Capell, Lord and Lady Norreys and the Hon. Coralie Glyn, Lady Charles Beresford, Lord Marcus Beresford, Lord Alwyne Compton, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Lord Richard Nevill, Lord Henry Paulet, Lord Henry Vane Tempest, Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, Admiral Lord Alcester, Lady Ampthill and the Hon. Constance Russell, Lord Alington and the Hon. Winifred and Hon. Mildred Sturt, Lord and Lady Colville of Culross  and the Hon. Blanche Colville, Lord and Lady De  Ramsey, Lady Hastings, Lord and Lady Hindlip, Lord Lurgan, Lord and Lady Revelstoke and the Hon. Susan Baring, Lord and Lady Rothschild,  Lord Rowton, Lord Suffield and the Hon. Judith and Hon. Eleanor Harbord, Lord and Lady Wimborne and the Hon. Frances Guest, Lord Wolverton, Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, Captain the Hon. Maurice Bourke, R.N., Colonel the Hon. Henry Byng and the Misses Byng, the Hon. Alan Charteris, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. C. Edgcumbe, the Hon. Sir Spencer and Lady Ponsonby Fane, the Hon. Sidney Greville, Colonel the Hon. Oliver Montagu, the Hon. C. R. and Mrs. Spencer, the Hon. S. M'Donnell, the Hon. Alexander Yorke, the Hon. H. and Lady Feodora Sturt, the Hon. Arthur Walsh, the Hon. R. Winn, the Right Hon. W. E. and Mrs. Gladstone and Miss Gladstone, the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, the Right Hon. H. Chaplin, the Right. Hon. Sir Henry James, the Right Hon. Sir C. L. Wyke, the Hon. S. C. Colville, the Hon. Assheton Harbord, the Hon. Julia Stonor, the Hon. H. Stonor, the Hon. E. Stonor, Captain the Hon. Henry White, Sir Edward and Lady Guinness, Sir Charles Hartopp, Sir Frederick Johnstone, Sir John and Lady Lister Kaye, Sir James and Lady  Mackenzie, Colonel Sir Nigel and Lady Emily Kingscote, Admiral Sir R. and the Hon. Lady Macdonald and Miss Macdonald, General Sir Dighton and Lady Probyn, Sir Francis and the Hon. Lady Knollys, Major-General Sir Christopher Teesdale, Sir Oscar Clayton, Sir Allen Young, Lieutenant-General Bateson, Lieutenant-General Charles Fraser, Major-General and the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Ellis and Miss Ellis, Colonel J. P. Brabazon, Colonel and Mrs. Stanley Clarke and the Misses Clarke, Captain H. F. Stephenson, R.N., Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Poore, Lieutenant-Colonel R. Vivian, Major C. Swaine, Captain Douglas Dawson, Captain C. H. A. Hervey, the officers of the Queen's Guard, St. James's Palace, Mr. G. Byng, Mr. Henry Calcraft, Mr. Victor Cavendish, Mr. Henry Ellis, Mr. Horace Farquhar, Mr. and Mrs. George Forbes and Miss Forbes, Mr. Montagu Guest, Mr. Charles Hall, Mr. E. W. Hamilton, Mr. and Lady Hilda Higgins, Mr. Holzmann, Miss Knollys, Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Knollys, Mr. Ronald Moncrieffe, Mr. Alfred Montgomery, Mr. Arnold Morley, Mr. Henry Petre, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Mr. and Mrs. Leopold de Rothschild, Mr. Reuben Sassoon and Miss Sassoon, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon, Mr. Edgar Sebright, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Sneyd, Mr. Christopher Sykes, and Mr. O. G. St. George Williams. Messrs. Coote and Tinney's band was in attendance.<ref>"Marlborough House." ''Morning Post'' 11 March 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 8]. Col. 6b–c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000174%2F18900311&page=5&article=055&stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p. </ref></blockquote> ==April 1890== Arnold Dolmetsch took out a three-day ticket to the Reading Room in April 1890 (Campbell 22). === 9 April 1890, Wednesday === ==== The New Forest United Hunt Ball ==== <blockquote>This annual ball was beld at the New Forest Hall, Lyndhearst, on Wednesday night, and was a most brilliant gathering, upwards of 200 being present, not only the New Forest but also neighbouring hunts being well represented. Among those present were Earl and Countess of Londesborough, Lady Mildred Denison, Lady Lilian Denison, Hon. Louis Johnstone, Hon. Gerald and Mrs Lascelles, Major Downman, Capt. Sandbach, R.H.A., Col. and Mrs Sinkins, Col. Fitzroy Smyth, Lady Thursby and party, Mr Stanley Pearce (Master of the Foxhounds), Mr F. Lovell (Master of the Deerhounds) and party, Lady Adela Goff and party, Hon. Miss St. Leger Glyn and party, Mr A. H. Jeffreys, M.P., and Mrs Jeffreys, Hon. Mrs A. Peter, Mr Somerset H. Onslow, Mr Lancelot Orde, Lord Garioch, Mr and Mrs C. K. Francis, the Countess of Normandy, Lady Mary Agar, Lord Montagu, Hon. John Scott Montagu, Viscount Cantelupe, Prince Dhuleep Singh, Hon. D. Keppel, Col. Charles Needham (1st Life Guards), [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]], Mrs Cornwallis West, Mr and Mrs Shelley Bontein, Col. Gridley, Col. Newton, Col. Elliot, R.H.A., Lady Meyrick and party, Sir W. Jervois, Lady Jervois and party, &c.<ref>"The New Forest United Hunt Ball." ''The Sportsman'' 11 April 1890, Friday: 2 [of 4], Col. 5c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001055/18900411/024/0002. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> ==May 1890== Leonora Braham appeared at the Opera Comique as Ruth Ferns in ''Gretna Green''. ===21 May 1890, Wednesday=== It was his pupil the young Countess Valda Gleichen who found a sponsor for Dolmetsch's first but brief appearance at a London concert on 21 May 1890, when the 'Magpie Minstrels' … gave one of their bi-annual performances at the Princes' Hall" (Campbell 30). ==June 1890== === 3 June 1890, Tuesday === ==== Dinner and Concert Hosted by Mrs. Arthur Williams and Ball by Mrs. Menzies ==== <blockquote>Yesterday evening society passed a large proportion of time on wheels, and the number of receptions was more than the most inveterate could get through wvith comfort. ... Meanwhile, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale dined with Mrs. Arthur Wilson in Grosvenor-place, and a small and select concert followed. The Duchess of Leinster was, as ever, the most beautiful among many beauties, the Hon. Helen Henniker, after her long mourning, was warmly greeted by swarms of friends, and the Countess of Lovelace, in grey satin, chaperoned her débutante niece, Miss Milbank. Prince "Eddie" went from Mrs. Arthur Wilson's hospitable mansion to that of Mrs. J. Graham Menzies. It is unusual to find mother and daughter entertaining this illustrious young man on the same evening. Mrs. Menzies, who has succeeded Lord Suffield in his beautiful house in Upper Grosvenor-street, had one of the smartest and most successful balls of the present season. The Blue Hungarians played with immense vigour and owing to the postponement of Lady Carnarvon's ball, there was no competition for men and married women. Countess Howe, Lady Brougham and Vaux, Lady Aveland and Miss Willoughby, Viscountess Stormont, the Hon. Lady Grey Egerton and Miss Egerton, the Duchess of Buccleuch, the [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs. Algernon Bourke]], the Earl of Craven, Countess of Coventry, Mrs. Mackay, Lady Sykes, the Marchioness of Granby, Mrs. Hwfa Williams, Lord Garioch, Sir Savile and Lady Crossley, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lawson, and many others were present.<ref>"Yesterday Evening Society." ''Pall Mall Gazette'' 4 June 1890, Wednesday: 4 [of 8], Col. 3a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000098/18900604/015/0004. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> ==== Münster-Hay Wedding ==== Account of the wedding of Count Alexander Münster and Lady Muriel Henrietta Constance Hay. Count Bismarck sent a gift.<blockquote>St. Andrew's Church, Wells-street, was completely filled yesterday afternoon on the occasion of the marriage of Count Alexander Münster, son of Count Münster, German Ambassador in Paris, with Lady Muriel Henrietta Constance Hay, younger daughter of the Earl and Countess of Kinnoull. The ceremony was fixed for half-past two o'clock, but all the seats in the body of the church were occupied long before that time by invited guests. The rood screen was hidden with white flowers, and a number of tall palms were skilfully arranged in and about the chancel. The bridegroom was early in his place, and wore the splendid white and gold uniform of the Garde du Corps of the Emperor; his best man, Prince Hans Heinrich Pless, wearing the scarlet and gold uniform of the Garde Hussars. The six bridesmaids were Lady Mildred Denison, Lady Dorothea Stewart Murray, Hon. Marie Hay, Hon. Marjory Murray, Miss Rosalind Lovell, and Miss Gladys Hadow (niece of the bride). They wore pretty dresses of pale blue satin, veiled with white chiffon; the skirts were edged with a frill, and the bodices finished with quaint fichus of the chiffon, fastened in front with a bunch of forget-me-nots. They wore drawn hats of the chiffon, covered with forget-me-nots, and their posies were of the same flowers, intermixed with pink roses, and tied with narrow pink ribbons. Each wore a gold bangle with centre forming the initials "A.M.," and a single turquoise drop. The bride entered the church at half-past two, and was received by her father, who led her to the chancel steps, preceded by the choristers singing a nuptial hymn. The bride's dress was of ivory satin made with a very long train. The front was fringed round the hem with orange blossoms and veiled with old Brussels lace, the gift of her mother; the bodice was entirely covered with beautiful old lace, and finished at the neck on one side with a cluster of orange blossoms. She wore a small wreath of orange blossoms and myrtle arranged in the hair at the back and a tulle veil falling almost to the end of the train and held by diamond stars, the gift of the bridegroom. The bride's other jewels included two diamond drop hairpins, the gift of Count Münster; an emerald and diamond brooch, from the bridegroom; enamel and diamond heartsease brooch, from Lady Mary Mills; a diamond and emerald bracelet, from the Duke of Beaufort; and a diamond bracelet, from the Duke and Duchess of Athole. Her train was held by her two little nephews, Masters Roland and Patrick Hadow, wearing Scotch dress with lace ruffles. The service, which was fully choral, was performed by the Rev. Provost Rorison, of St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, assisted by the Rev. W. T. Houldsworth, rector of St. Andrew's. The Earl and Countess of Kinnoull afterwards entertained the bridal party at the residence of the Earl of Londesborough, uncle of the bride, in Grosvenor-square. Among the numerous guests were the Russian Ambassador and Madame de Staal, the German Ambassador, the Austrian Ambassador and Countess Deym, Count Münster and the Countesses Marie, Julia, and T. Münster, Prince Pless, Prince Louis Esterhazy, Count Donhoff, Baroness von Beckendorff-Hindenburg, Baron E. Fürstenberg, Count Paul Metternich, Geheimrath Schmettau, Countess Valentin, [[Social Victorians/People/de Soveral|M. de]] [[Social Victorians/People/de Soveral|Soveral]], Captain Hasenclever, Count Leyden, Herr von Rath, Count Francis Deym, Baron and Baroness Deichmann, Count Mensdorff, Herr Pilgrim Baltazzi, Count and Countess Henry Lützow, Baroness d' Erlanger [?], Herr von Kemnitz, Baron Cramm, Vicomte de Janzé, the Duke of Beaufort, the Duchess of Athole, and the Ladies Stewart Murray, the Marchioness of Downshire, the Marchioness of Stafford and Lady Sybil St. Clair Erskine, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, the Countess of Dunraven and Ladies Wyndham Quin, the Countess of Kilmorey, the Countess of Galloway and Miss Stewart, the Countess of Dudley and Lady Edith Ward, the Countess of Strathmore and Lady Constance Lyon, the Earl and Countess of Roden, Lady Willoughby de Eresby and Hon. Miss Willoughby, the Countess of Westmorland. Viscount and Viscountess Raincliffe, Viscountess Coke, Viscountess Stormont and Hon. MabeI Murray, Viscountess Malden and Hon. Miss Capel, Lord Hay of Kinfauns [?], Lady Delamere and Miss Cholmondeley, Lady Brougham, Lady Esher, Lord Saye and Sele and Hon. Maud and Hon. Gertrude Fiennes, Lady Helen MacGregor and Miss MacGregor, Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox and Lady Angela St. Clair Erskine, Lady Raglan, Lord Charles Innes Ker, Lady Elizabeth Bertie, Lady Frances Pratt and Lady Clementine Pratt, Lady Geraldine Somerset, Lady Dalton Fitzgerald and Miss Payne, Lady Mary Mills and Miss Pereira, Lady Dorchester, Lady Louisa Moncreiffe and Misses Moncreiffe, Lady Norreys, Lady Petre, Lady Jane Trefusis, Lord Frederic Hamilton, Baroness de Brienen and Miss de Brienen, Helen Lady Forbes and the Misses Forbes, Lady Scott, Miss Scott and Mrs. Green, Lord Zouche and Hon. Miss Curzon, Mr. and Lady Constance Hadow, Hon. Lady Campbell, Lady William Nevill and Miss Bannerman, Hon. Alastair and Mrs. Hay, Hon. Miss Greville, Captain Hon. Randolph Stewart, Hon. FitzRoy and Mrs. Stewart, Hon. Charles Walsh, Hon. William Walsh, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs. Algernon Bourke]], Colonel Hon. Charles and Mrs. Hay and Miss Maude Hay, Hon. Mrs. Greville Nugent, Hon. Mrs. Colville and Miss Streatfeild [sic], Hon. Claude Hay, Sir Charles and Lady Forbes of Newe, Laely Borthwick, Sir Francis Montefiore, Sir Henry Hoare, Sir George Arthur, Sir William Gordon Cumming, General and Mrs. Wilkinson, Colonel and Mrs. Chaine, Colonel Arthur Paget, Colonel H. M. Hozier, the Provost of St. Ninian's, Major Finch, Major Candy, Colonel Lloyd, Captain and Mrs. Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. Hay Drummond, Captain and Mrs. Lloyd, Mr. William Gillett, Mr. Hulse, M.P., and Mrs. Hulse, Captain Lumley, Captain Barrow, Major Anstruther, Mrs. Hwfa Williams, Mr. Arthur Hay, Mr. Raglan Somerset, Mr. and Mrs. George Cavendish Bentinck, Mrs. Villiers, Mr. Henry Petre, Mrs. Keighley, Mrs. E. Balfour and Miss Balfour and Miss Ellice, Mrs. Dick Cunynghame and Miss A. M'Gregor, Rev. C. Weidemann, Miss Balfour and Miss E. Balfour, Mrs. and Miss Halford, Mr. and Mrs. Toler, Mrs. and Miss Townley, Rev. Dr. M'Ewan, Mr. A. F. Levita, Mr. F. Stephens, Mrs. and Miss Leigh, Mr. and Mrs. George Forbes and Miss Forbes, Mrs. Luke Wheeler, Mrs. J. Beerbohm, Dr. and Mrs. W. M. Collins, Mrs. and Miss Orde, Mrs. Murray, Miss Glyn, Mrs. Godfrey Pearse, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Leopold Goldberg, Mr. and Miss Oswa d [Oswald], Mr. and Mrs. C. Bulteel, Mrs. Brydges Wyllyams, Mr. H. Balfour, the Misses Codrington, Miss Finch, Mrs. Barron and Miss Sullivan, Mr. Hamilton Aidé, Mr. Granville and Miss Berkeley, Mr. M'Gregor, Mrs. and Miss Needham, Mr. and Mrs. A. Consett and Miss Consett, Mrs. Herbert Naylor LeyIand, Mr. and Mrs. A. Darby, Mrs. Montefiore, Mrs. Charles Murray and Miss Murray, Mrs. Thomas Legh, the Rev. John F. Mitchell, Mr. and Mrs. Claud Hay, Mr. Fiztalan Manners, Mr. Albert Stopford, Mr. Hervey Pechell, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Orde. Later in the day Count Alexander Münster and his bride left for Hillingdon Court, Uxbridge, the residence of the Hon. A. Mills, where they will pass the early days of the honeymoon, and then proceed to Chàlet Sans Souci, Bellaggio, Lake of Como, lent by Mr. Hervey Pechell. They will afterwards go to Wiesbaden, and thence to Count Münster's German country seat, where a great reception awaits them. The wedding presents were very numerous. Count Munster presented the bride with a diamond necklace and pair of diamond drop hairpins. The bridegroom's gifts to his bride included a tiara of three diamond stars, a brooch formed of an emerald of unusual size set in diamonds, large pearl pendant, gold bracelet set with turquoises, and diamond and turquoise ring. The Duke of Beaufort presented Lady Muriel with an emerald and diamond bracelet. The Earl and Countess of Kinnoull's presents included a quantity of plate and other articles. Prince Henry of Battenberg sent a large silver-mounted claret jug; Count Bismarck, a silver box; the Marchioness of Waterford, gold snake bracelet, with pearl head and ruby eyes; the Duke and Duchess of Athole, diamond "M" bangle; Lady Ermyntrude Malet, massive silver bowl; Countess Marie Münster, silver tea set and tray; Baron E. Fürstenberg, pair of gold-mounted claret jugs; Baron and Baroness Erlanger, large silver bowl; Baron and Baroness Gungberg, pair of antique silver mounted jugs.<ref>"Marriage of Count Alexander Münster and Lady Muriel Hay." ''Morning Post'' 4 June 1890, Wednesday: 7 [of 12], Col. 7a–c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900604/064/0007. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> ===4 June 1890, Wednesday=== Derby Day. According to the Morning Post, <quote>Lady Thurlow's first dance. / Mrs. Coddington's Ball. / The Fourth of June celebration at Eton. / ... Royal Society of Literature — Paper on "Early England," by Mr. Carmichael, S. </quote> ("Arrangements for This Day." The Morning Post Wednesday, 4 June 1890: p. 7 [of 12], Col. 6A). ===13 June 1890, Friday=== ? or on the 12th? Arnold Dolmetsch had a concert at which his students performed (Campbell 31). It was reviewed very positively in the 13 June Daily Graphic, especially Helene Dolmetsch's performance. They did Purcell's Fairy Queen. They used a harpsichord. ===26 June 1890, Thursday=== There was apparently a regular celebration of [[Social Victorians/People/Arthur Collins|Arthur Collins]]' birthday, 26 June, by Bret Harte, George Du Maurier, [[Social Victorians/People/Arthur Sullivan|Arthur Sullivan]], Alfred Cellier, Arthur Blunt, and John Hare (Nissen, Axel. Brent Harte: Prince and Pauper: 239. [http://books.google.com/books?id=WEDewmUnapcC]). Choosing 1885–1902 as the dates because those apparently are the dates of the close relationship between Harte and Collins, ending in Harte's death in 1902. ==July 1890== ===3 July 1890, Thursday=== <blockquote>On July 3, 1890, Besant’s house at 19 Avenue Road, St. John’s Wood, was inaugurated as a new center of Theosophical work, serving as the European headquarters of the [[Social Victorians/Theosophical Society|Theosophical Society]] and as HPB’s residence. That house became also the meeting place of HPB’s Inner Group, twelve of her students who were eager for more intense training than was feasible in a larger, more general gathering.</blockquote>That Inner Group is different from the Esoteric Section.<ref>"Esoteric World Chapter 23." ''The Theosophical Society of America, Online Resources''. http://www.theosophical.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=23&id=1725&Itemid=53</ref><blockquote>The hall had a seating capacity of about 200. On the opening night [July 3, 1890] [sic] the room was crammed, and many were unable to gain admission. The speakers were Mrs. Besant, Mr. Sinnett, a Mrs. Woolff (of America), and Mr. [Bertram] Keightley. HPB was present but said nothing, on account of the critical state of her health.<ref>"23a. Henry S. Olcott, July 1890, London [Olcott 1931, 4:254–6]." Esoteric World Chapter 23. ''The Theosophical Society of America, Online Resources''. http://www.theosophical.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=23&id=1725&Itemid=53.</ref></blockquote> === 4 July 1890, Friday, 11 p.m. === ==== The Queen's State Ball at Buckingham Palace ==== The Prince and Princess of Wales were hosts of this ball, as Queen Victoria was not present. Many of the Queen's children and their spouses were present.<ref>"State Ball at Buckingham Palace." ''Morning Post'' 5 July 1890, Saturday: 5 [of 8], Col. 5a–7b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900705/038/0005. Same print title and p.</ref> The dancing commenced shortly after the Prince and Princess of Wales arrived at 11:00. === 1890 July 15, Tuesday === ==== Garden Party at Marlborough House to Meet the Queen ==== The beginning of the ''Morning Post'' article, which is followed by a very long list of people invited:<blockquote>Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales gave a garden party at Marlborough House yesterday afternoon to meet the Queen. Her Majesty was accompanied by their Royal Highnesses the Princesses Victoria and Margaret of Prussia, and was attended by the Duchess of Roxburghe, Miss M'Neill, the Hon. Evelyn Moore, the Hon. Bertha Lambert, and Major-General Sir Henry Ewart and Major F. A. Bigge. Madlle. De Perpigna was in attendance on the Princesses Victoria and Margaret. The following were present: — Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Prince Alfred, and the Princesses Marie, Victoria, Alexandra, and Beatrice of Edinburgh; their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Prince Arthur, and the Princesses Margaret and Patricia of Connaught; their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Sonderburg-Augustenburg and Princess Victoria and Princess Louisa of Schleswig-Holstein, her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, and the Marquis of Lorne. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Albany, her Royal Highness the Princess Frederica and the Baron von Pawell-Rammingen, his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, her Royal Highness Princess Mary Adelaide Duchess of Teck and his Highness the Duke of Teck and Princess Victoria of Teck, his Royal Highness the Duke d'Orleans and Princess Hélène d'Orleans, his Imperial Highness Don Pedro Augustus of Coburg and Braganza, his Serene Highness the Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, his Serene Highness the Prince of Leiningen and their Serene Highnesses Prince and Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and the Countesses Gleichen, and Count Gleichen.<ref>"Garden Party at Marlborough House." ''Morning Post'' 15 July 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 8], Col. 3a–7c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900715/044/0005. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> === 19 July 1890, Saturday === ==== Wedding of James Francis Harry St. Clair-Erskine and Violet Aline Vyner ==== This report from the ''Fife Free Press'' is missing a big piece of the 2nd paragraph, where the bridesmaids' and bride's dresses are described, because the page was damaged. The digitized copy is also generally poor.<blockquote>On Saturday forenoon, in Michael’s Church, Chester Square, London, was celebrated the marriage of Lord Loughhorough, eldest son of the Earl of Rosslyn with Miss Violet Aline Vyner, younger daughter of Mr R. C. Vyner, of Fairfield, Yorkshire. The chancel was beautifully decorated with palms and a profusion of lilies most artistically arranged. The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge. Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess and the Duke of Teck, and Princess Victoria, and the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone were among those present. The wedding party began to arrive at 11 o’clock, the bridesmaids being early in attendance. They were the Ladies Sybil and Angela St Clair Erskine, sisters of the bridegroom; Lady Anne Lambton, Miss Musgrave, Miss Rachel Gurney, and Miss Fleming. They were charmingly dressed in soft cream crepon, with violet velvet Zoave jackets, forming half sleeves and capes at the back, and pretty turn-down collars and cravats of white mosseline [mousseline?] chiffon, and the skirts were very plainly made. They wore large white hats lined with a band of violet velvet near the face, and trimmed on the crown with white ostrich plumes, a bunch of violets fastening the brim at the back. Each wore a brooch — the St Clair cross in rubies and diamonds set in a circle of the latter, and surmounted by a baron’s cornet of the same precious stones — the gift of the bri[degroom]; and carried a bouquet of Marechal Niel [roses?] ...ging sprays of the same, and tied w... ribbons. The bride entered the ... eleven o’clock, being received at ... father, who led her to the cha... her away. The service be... procession was preceded up ... choir, who sang "The voic..." The bride’s dress was ... with a long court train, ... white velvet being embro... ...und the train, and fasten... ...ver true lover’s knot. The picture... ...gh silver waistband, had full slee... mousseline chiffon; and a small ... blossoms was most becomingly arra... with a long tulle veil. The Earl of Chesterfield discharged the duties of best man. The Rev. Canon Fleming, Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen and Vicar of St Michael's, performed the marriage rite, assisted by the Rev. Edgar Sheppard, Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, and the Rev. J. Thomson, of Rosslyn, near Edinburgh. The hymn “Thine for ever! For of love,” was sung the end of the service. Canon Fleming afterwards delivered a most impressive address. After the benediction the clergy and bride and bridegroom passed to the vestry, the Prince of Wales following with Mrs Vyner. Pretty wedding favours of orange blossoms, Parma violets, and white heather were then distributed amongst the congregation. Mr and Mrs Vyner afterwards welcomed the wedding party at Ashburnham House, Dover-street. The ''dejeuner'' was served in three rooms, one being reserved for the bride and bridegroom and the Royal party. The table in the latter room was decorated with several of Mr Vynet's racing trophies. The band of the Grenadier Guards performed in the garden during the reception. The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Teck and Princess Victoria were present at the breakfast, and among the general company were Count Munster and Countess Maria Munster, the Marchese and Marchesa de Montagliari, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ripon, the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, the Marquis of Cholmondeley, the Marquis of Northampton, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, the Dowager Marchioness of Conyngham and Lady Blanche Conyngham, the Marchioness of Downshire, the Countess of Rosslyn, Earl and Countess Compton, the Earl of Feversham, the Earl of Durham, the Countess of Coventry and the Ladies Coventry, Countess Howe and Ladies Curzon, the Countess of Yarborough, the Earl of Clonmell, the Earl and Countess of Loudoun, the Countess of Kilmorey, Countess de Grey, Viscount Molyneux, the Bishop of Gibraltar and Mrs Sandford, Viscountess de Labrosse and Mdles. de Labrosse, Lord Greenock, Lord and Lady Algernon Lennox, Lady Lilian Wemyss, Lady Julia Wombwell and Miss Wombwell, Hon. Lady Campbell of Blythswood, Lady Constance Harris, Lady Florence Harris, Lord and Lady Burghley, Lady Dorchester, Lord Houghton, Lady Curzon, Lady Brougham and Vaux and Miss Musgrave, Baron de Hirsch, Helen Lady Forbes and the Misses Forbes, Baroness Burdett Coutts and Mr Burdett Coutts, M.P., Lady Astley, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Lord and Lady Brooke and Hon. Leopold and Hon. Marjorie Greville, Lady Dalton Fitzgerald and Miss Payne, Lord Elcho, Lady Willoughby de Eresby and the Misses Willoughby, Lady Ewart, Lady Hindlip, Lady Cecilia Rose, Lord Rowton, Lord Capell, Lady Mabel Compton, Lord and Lady Herries, Lady Sykes, Lord and Lady Alwyne Compton, Lady Ventry and Hon. Miss de Moleyns, Hon. Lady Knollys, Lady Manners, Hon. Lady Drummond and Misses Drummond, Hon. Sydney Greville, Hon. Assheton Harbord, Hon. Derek Keppel, Hon. Captain Bourke, Hon. Mrs Percy Mitford, Hon. Philip Harbord, Hon. and Rev. L. Tyrwhitt, Hon. Coralie Glyn, Hon. M. Lambton, Hon L. Greville, Hon. Alwyn Greville, Hon[.] Eva Greville, Hon. Frances Dawnay, Hon Evelyn Paget, Hon Mrs Algernon Grosvcnor, Hon and Mrs Lambton. Hon. Mrs Evelyn Pelham, Hon. Fitzroy St Clair Erskine, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]], Hon. W. Maxwell, Hon. G. and Mrs Dawnay, Hon. Captain Lambton, General Sir Seymour Blane, Sir William Gordon Cumming, Sir Archibald and Miss Edmunstone, Sir Henry and Lady Meysey Thompson, Mrs Gladstone, Mr and Lady Margaret Cameron, Mr and Lady Florence Astley, Mr and Lady Elizabeth Melville Cartwright and Miss Melville Cartwright, General and Mrs Duff and Miss Duff, General Owen Williams, Colonel and Mrs Anstruther Thompson, Colonel Stopford Sackville, Colonel Craig, Colonel Brabazon, Colonel Forester, Colonel Stanley Clarke (in attendance on the Prince of Wales) and Miss Clarke, Major Davidson, Canon and Mrs Fleming, Captain St John Mildmay (in attendance on the Duke of Cambridge), Captain and Mrs FitzGeorge, Mrs William Portal, the Sub Dean of the Chapels Royal, Rev. W. M. and Mrs Wollaston, Rev. R. West, Mr and Miss Chamberlain. Mr and Mrs W. H. Grenfell, Mr Christopher Sykes, M.P., Mr Reuben Sassoon, Mr Arthur Sassoon, Mrs Bischoffsheim, Mr and Mrs Herbert Naylor Leyland, Dr and Mrs Anderson, Mrs Oswald, Mr and Mrs Surtees, Mr Fitzgerald, Mr and Mrs Menzies, Miss Willoughby and Miss Gertrude Willoughby, Mr Arthur Paget, Miss Christie, Mr Dowdall, Mrs Eastwood and the Misses Eastwood, Mr Frederick Warre, Mr William Williamson, Mrs Burton, Mrs Chaine, Captain and Mrs Livesey Wardle, Captain A. R. Hill, Miss Helby, Mrs and Miss Winslow, Mr and Miss Oswald, Mr Willoughby, Mr Quintin Hume, Mr F and Miss Fitzherbert, Mrs and Miss F. Hotham, Mr and Mrs Moreton Frewin, Mrs Charles Otway, Mr Calcraft, Mr Watson, Mr Fennick, Mr Montgomery, Mr Cecil Murray, Mr and Mrs Sneyd, Mr Leslie Stephen, Mr Edgar Sebright, Miss Fleetwood Wilson, Mrs and Miss Farmer of Nonsuch, Mr and Mrs Dennistoun and Miss Dennistoun, Mr and Mrs J. R. Lane Fox and Miss Lane Fox, &c. The bride and bridegroom left early in the afternoon for Easton Lodge, Dunmow, the seat of Lord and Lady Brooke, in Essex, where they will spend the honeymoon. The bride travelled in a costume of biscuit coloured armure silk, the top of the bodice and sleeves being of pale pink mousseline de soie, and the lower part of the former inserted with pink velvet ribbons to form a high band, Tuscan straw-hat trimmed with pink crepe de chine, and biscuit feathers. The presents exceeded four hundred in number. The Prince of Wales presented the bride with a trefoil moonstone and diamond brooch and the bridegroom with a sapphire and diamond pin. The Princess of Wales's gift the bridegroom was a silver-necked claret jug. The Duke of Cambridge gave an amethyst and diamond pendant, and the bridegroom a pair of silver gilt candlesticks; and Princess Mary and the Duke of Teck presented the bride with a silver sugar basin. The bridegroom’s gifts to the bride were a diamond and sapphire watch bracelet, a diamond half-hoop ring, diamond brooch with pearl centre, diamond and turquoise brooch, formed of the St Clair badge in rubies and diamonds set in a circle of diamonds, surmounted by a baron’s coronet in the same precious stones, a large salts bottle with two heart-shaped moonstones set with rubies and diamonds and a silver sugar basin. The bride presented Lord Loughborough with a turquoise and diamond stud. The Earl of Rosslyn presented the bride with diamond necklet. The Countess of Rosslyn’s gifts were diamond orchid brooch and a pink feather fan. Mr R. C. Vyner’s gifts to his daughter were a diamond and pearl tiara and gold mounted dressing case, and Mrs Vyner gave her a sapphire and diamond ring. The Marchioness of Stafford gave a ruby and diamond pin; Lady Mary Vyner antique diamond tiara; the Ladies Angela and Sybil Erskine sapphire and diamond bracelet; Hon. Fitzroy St Clair Erskine with "1890" in rubies and diamonds; Lord and Lady A. Compton large diamond star; the Earl of Rosslyn presented his son with a large silver bowl and two silver dishes; the Countess of Rosslyn's present was a travelling bag; Mr Vyner gave him a luncheon basket; Mrs Vyner a silver ''entree'' dish; the Marchioness of Stafford case containing silver coffee and tea pots, urn and stand, sugar basin, and cream jug; Lord and Lady Brooke four antique silver sauce boats; Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon ['''Col. 1c–2a'''] Lennox three antique silver ''entree'' dishes. The Earl of Rosslyn's Fifeshire tenants presented Lord Loughborough with a beautiful antique silver bowl, two antique silver dessert dishes, and two antique sugar castors; and to the bride they gave an antique silver tea service. The congregation of Rosslyn Chapel presented the bridegroom with a complete and elegant writing set, whilst Lord Rosslyn's servants gave him a silver inkstand and pair of silver candlesticks. Mr Vyner's servants presented the bride with a silver salver and six ''liqueur'' cups. The servants of Newby Hall gave a silver coffee pot, and Mr Vyner’s Cheshire tenants presented a case containing silver tea pot, sugar basin, and cream jug. The bride also received from the Duchess of Portland a travelling bag; the Duchess de Luynes, sapphire and diamond ring; the Duke of Westminister, Indian necklace; the Marquis of Northampton, diamond bracelet; the Marquis of Ripon, sapphire and diamond bracelet; the Marchioness of Ripon, turquoise and diamond bangle, the Earl of Durham, a diamond half hoop bracelet; Earl and Countess Cowper, a diamond "V V” brooch; Dowager Viscountess Downe, moonstone and diamond crescent; Lady Skyes [Sykes] ruby and diamond fish brooch; Lady Millbank, sapphire and diamond brooch Lord Douglas Compton, double heart brooch; Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, gold curb chain bracelet set with pearls; Earl and Countess Compton, bangle with “Vi” and “good luck” on it; the Duke and Duchess of St Albans, tea service with table; the Marchioness Conyngham, silver cream jug; the Marchioness of Tavistock, silver vase; the Countess of Rodin, a silver I bowl; the Countess of Yarborough, silver candlesticks; Viscountess Downe, silver tea caddie; Lady de Trafford, gold mounted salts bottle; the Hon. F. Dawnay, large silver candlesticks[;] Hon. F and Lady Lampton, travelling clock; Hon. W. Lambton, silver candlesticks; Sir R. and Lady Graham, silver salver; Sir Roderick and Miss Cameron, two silver dishes; General Williams, diamond bangle; Colonel and Mrs G. FitzGeorge, gold mounted bottle; Major and Mrs Egerton, pair of silver candlesticks; Major Stuart Wortley, diamond Swallow; Major Davidson, heart-shaped brooch in coral and diamonds; Captain and Lady Cecilia Rose, a brougham; Mr Beaumont, silver bowl; Miss Edmonstone, moonstone and diamond hat pins; Mrs Harris, sapphire and diamond bracelet; Mr Egerton, turquoise and diamond brooch; Sir Cecil Murray, sapphire and diamond pin; Mr A. Farquharson, diamond swallow brooch; Mr and Mrs Hulse, two small silver vases; Miss Fleetwood Wilson, diamond bangle; Mrs A. Wilson, tortoiseshell candlestick; Mr Quintin Hume, salts bottle mounted with diamonds and rubies; Miss Helbert, gold violet pin; Mr Chamberlain, pair of silver candlesticks; Hon. Arthur Coventry, gold mounted bottle with "Vi" in diamonds; Mrs Leopold de Rothschild, diamond hand brooch, together with a number of other gifts. Among the presents to the bridegroom were — from the Marchioness of Downshire, antique silver sugar sifter; the Marquis of Exeter, silver sandwich case; the Marchioness of Bath, antique Dutch silver box; the Marquis of Downshire, a gold pencil; Count Munster, cigarette case and match box; Count Alexander Munster, a hunting flask; the Countess of Lindsay, antique silver pen-tray; the Earl of Mar and Kellie, silver matchbox; the Earl and Countess of Loudoun, silver cigarette box; the Earl of Chesterfield, antique silver gilt inkstand; the Countess of Bradford, gold seal with agate; the Countess of Warwick, antique silver bowl; the Earl of Coventry, silver pen-tray; the Countess of Wharncliffe, two silver candlesticks; the Earl and Countess of Cromartie, two antique silver cups; Viscountess of Newport, silver paper knife; Mr and Mrs A. Sassoon, ruby and diamond pin; Lord John Cecil, silver salver; Lord and Lady Willoughby de Eresby, antique silver-mounted cruet stand; Lord William Nevtll, antique brandy carrier; Lady Margaret Spicer, silver match box; Lord Burghley, four silver salt cellars and spoons; Baron de Hirch [Hirsch?], silver inkstand; Lady W. E. Osborne Elphinstone, silver inkstand; Lord Kesteven, silver cream jug; Lord Capell, silver cigarette case; Lord and Lady Gerard, tortoiseshell and silver travelling clock; Lady Lilian Wemyss, silver cigarette case; Dad Alwyne Compton, umbrella containing matchbox and whistle; Lord and Lady Lennox, two antique silver ''entree'' dishes and bacon dish; Lord Burghersh, silver cigarette lighter; Lady Angela 8t Clair Erskine, four silver salt cellars; Lady Randolph Churchill, gold pencil case, with two sapphires; Lord Houghton, antique gold basket; Lady Sybil St Clair Erskine, umbrella; Lord and Lady Dorchester, large crystal seal; Hon. Derek P. Keppel, pair of silver candlesticks; Hon. E. and Mrs Pelham, silver inkstand; Hon. G. N. Curzon, silver gilt bowl; Hon. F. St Clair Erskine, four silver candle-sticks; [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. A. and Mrs Bourke]], four small silver dessert dishes; Hon. Mrs Elliot Yorke, pair of silver candlesticks; Hon. Mr and Mrs L. Greville, tortoise-shell and silver box; Hon. R Somerset, diamond and pearl pin; Hon. G. H. Willoughby, silver ink-stand; Hon. H. and Mrs Grosvenor, umbrella; [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]], enamel and diamond pin; Captain Hon. Maurice Bourke, cigarette case and lighter; Hon. W. Maxwell, silver-backed clothes and hat brushes; Hon. Sidney Greville, saltspoons; Hon. M. C. Maxwell Scott, two silver ''menu'' plates; Hon. W. Edwardes, pin; [[Social Victorians/People/Greville|Captain Hon. A.]] and [[Social Victorians/People/Lady Violet Greville|Mrs Greville]], silver gilt bowl, fork, spoon, and ladle; Sir Frederick Milner, diamond and moonstone pin; Sir George Chetwynd, two long silver flagons; Sir M. and Lady Fitzgerald, two silver saltspoons; Sir N. Gordon Gumming, silver-handled paper knife, &c.<ref>"Marriage of Lord Loughborough with Miss Vyner." ''Fife Free Press'' 26 July 1890, Saturday: 2 [of 8], Col. 1a–2b [of 6]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001110/18900726/015/0002. Same print title and p.</ref> </blockquote> === 24 July 1890, Thursday === ==== Dinner and Dance Hosted by Lord Alington ==== Perhaps the date on this is uncertain, since the article in ''Truth'' would suggest it was held in late May or early June. The newspaper story in the ''Queen'' mentions another occasion in which the flowers were notable as well. From ''Truth'':<blockquote> But not a quarter of a mile distant [from a dinner and dance hosted by Lord Rothschild featuring Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne] a more important event was proceeding, for Lord Alington, having previously walked down the Row and invited his friends right and left to Alington House, South Audley-street, proceeded to give a dance which was honoured by the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princesses Victoria and Maud, the Duke of Clarence, Princess Mary Adelaide, and Princess "May" and Prince and Princess Christian. This without exaggeration, with the exception of Lady Leconfield's, Lady Willoughby de Eresby's, and Lady Cadogan's, was the best ball hitherto given this season, and the prolific way ortolans [small songbirds regarded as a delicacy] were distributed at supper will long linger in the memories of those by whom these delicacies are cherished. One lady displayed her enthusiastic appreciation by devouring five of these, and it is to be hoped her devotion did not endanger her life. As for beauty, seldom before have so many pre-eminent for good looks been present at one gathering, as a mere enumeration of a few of these will prove. Of course the Duchess of Leinster heads the list, followed in quick succession by the Duchess of Portland, Lady de Grey, Lady Randolph Churchill, Lady Dudley, Lady Kilmorey, Lady Brooke, Lady de Trafford, Lady Helen Duncombe, Lady Hilda Dundas, Lady Sybil St. Clair Erskine, Lady Olivia Taylour, Miss Rachael Gurney, Lady Cardross, Miss Bourke, Lady Rose Leigh and her sister-in-law, Miss Leigh, Miss Berens (sister to Lady Cairns), Mrs. Ralph Sneyd, Lady Gerard, and a host of others far too numerous to mention. I often wonder that no painter has yet attempted to give us in one picture a permanent record of the chief beauties of our day. It would make a most interesting and exquisite group of lovely women, such as could not be found probably in any other country than this.<ref>Marmaduke, pseud. "Letters from the Linkman." ''Truth'' 12 June 1890, Thursday: 26 [of 56], Col. 1a–b [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002961/18900612/064/0026. Same print title, p. 1212.</ref></blockquote> From the ''Queen'':<blockquote>The P<small>RINCE AND</small> P<small>RINCESS OF</small> W<small>ALES</small> and the Princesses Victoria and Maud honoured L<small>ORD</small> A<small>LINGTON</small> by their presence at D<small>INNER</small>, at A<small>LINGTON</small> H<small>OUSE</small>, South Audley-street, on the 24th ult., when a distinguished party was present to meet them, including, among others, the Duke and Duchess of Leinster, the Marquis of Hartington, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ormonde, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, Earl and Countess Cadogan and Lady Emily Cadogan, the Earl Countess of Lucan and Lady Rosaline Bingham, the Earl of Hardwicke, the Countess of Dudley and Lady Edith Ward, the EarI of Chesterfield, the Earl of Stradbroke and Lady Hilda Rous, and Earl Annesley. Covers were laid for sixty. Lord Alington afterwards gave a dance to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales and their daughters. As on the previous occasion, the floral decorations were exquisite. The entrance hall and the approaches to the reception rooms were decorated with tall palms and a profusion of lilies, pelargoniums, ferns in every variety, and roses in every imaginable shade. The conservatories at the back were carpeted and furnished luxuriously, and blocks of ice, lighted by fairy lamps, were placed about with artistic effect, serving to keep the atmosphere cool and fresh. Feathery palms, hydrangeos [hydrangeas] and arums were here used freely, and a particularly pretty result was obtained by the windows being framed, one in a fringe of ferns and red pelargoniums, and the other in ferns and fuschias. The ballroom fireplaces were adorned on each side with palms reaching to the ceiling, the mantelpieces being hidden by a delicate arrangement of roses in various shades springing from banks of hydrangeas, calceolarias, pelargoniums, and marguerites, and the walls of the staircase leading from the conservatory to the ball-room were hung with half-balls of floral roses. The supper was served in the dining-room, the tables being embellished with the loveliest orchids and roses of the most delicate tints, intermixed with pancretia; the arrangement was so light and elegant that it was difficult to believe that hands had ever touched the flowers. On those tables with silver candelabra in the centre, the flowers were all pure white, and those having gold candelabra were treated with mauve orchids and the palest pink and yellow roses. A tent, arranged near the conservatory for the Prince of Wales, was draped with Oriental hangings, and outside were groups of flowers and myriads of fairy lamps. The company began to arrive at eleven o'clock, when dancing commenced to the strains of the Blue Hungarian Band. The Princess of Wales was dressed in white striped satin and silk, the front being embroidered in pale shades, and wore handsome diamond ornaments. The Princesses Victoria and Maud wore white tulle over satin, the front being sprinkled all over with tiny sprays of lilies of the valley, each laid on a single leaf. The Duchess of Wellington was in black satin, with a pink sash arranged very prettily across the back of the bodice, and falling to the feet; a cluster of pink flowers and a beautiful diamond spray were fastened in the front of the bodicea and a diamond rivière was arranged in the hair, a diamond necklace being also worn. The Duchess of Westminster was in white satin trimmed with gold embroidery, and veiled in white chiffon. The Marchioness of Ormonde wore white striped brocade and satin trimmed with white lace, and a splendid diamond tiara and other ornaments. Countess de Grey, palest blue satin, with front beautifully embroidered in beads, and a diamond and pearl coronet. Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury, white brocade and lace, with splendid diamond and emerald ornaments. The Marchioness of Bath, cream an violet brocaded velvet, the front being covered with mauve [38, Col. 3c – 39, Col. 1a] violets. Lady Mary Mills, rose-pink satin, with front richly embroidered; Lady Cardross, white satin, trimmed round the bodice and train with silver embroidery; Lady William Nevill, pale yellow brocade, the front veiled with black net, trimmed up the side with jet leaves, and all round the skirt was a bordering of Maréchal Niel roses, over a flounce of black net; Countess Granville wore rich white brocade and beautiful jewels; the Countess of Sefton, black satin and diamonds; Viscountess Dungan, white mousseline de soie, the skirt edged with a deep flounce; Lady Brooke, pale blue satin, trimmed with silver; Lady Emma Crichton, white satin train, with front of white lisse, prettily embroidered in red; Lady Idina Brassey, pale mauve bengaline, with front of chiffon and a handsome diamon coronet; Lady Rose Molyneux, white cross crêpe de Chine, with a pale green sash, and prettily trimmed with pink roses; Lady Wimborne, pale grey satin; the Hon. Miss Guest, pink satin, veiled with white net, sparkling with silver; Lady Sarah Spencer Churchill, white satin, with a chiffon frill; Lady Chesham, white silk, with pink roses; the Countess of Normanton, pale grey satin, with front of fine old lace; Mrs Hulse, handsome white brocade, diamond tiara, &c.; Mrs Bischoffsheim, white silk, embroidered with silver, and trimmed round the bottom of the skirt and train with a ruche of pale yellow crèpe; the Hon. Muriel Brassey, white chiffon, over satin, slightly trimmed with pink; and the [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]] was in pink, with magnificent diamonds.<ref>"Entertainments, Balls, &c." ''The Queen'' 2 August 1890, Saturday: 38, Col. 3c – 39 [of 82], Col. 1a–1c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0002627/18900802/237/0038 and https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002627/18900802/237/0039. Print: ''The Queen, The Lady's Newspaper'', pp. 170–171.</ref></blockquote>This is the story from the ''Morning Post'':<blockquote>The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Princesses Victoria and Maud honoured Lord Alington by their company at dinner last evening at Alington House, South Audley-street. The guests present to meet their Royal Highnesses comprised the Duke and Duchess of Leinster, the Marquis of Hartington, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ormonde, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, Earl and Countess Cadogan and Lady Emily Cadogan, the Earl and Countess of Lucan and Lady Rosaline Bingham, the Earl of Hardwicke, the Countess of Dudley and Lady Edith Ward, the Earl of Chesterfield, Earl Annesley, the Earl of Stradbroke and Lady Hilda Rous, Lord and Lady Gerard, Lady Norreys, Lord Rowton, Lord Calthorpe, Lord Frederick Hamilton, Lord Charles Montagu, Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, Lord Arthur Grosvenor, Lady Lilian Wemyss, Colonel the Hon. Oliver Montagu, Sir John and Lady Lister Kaye, the Hon. Humphrey and Lady Feodore Sturt, the Hon. John Baring, the Hon. Henry and the Hon. Julia Stonor, the Hon. Gilbert Willoughby, Lady Suffield and Major-General Ellis, in waiting on the Prince and Princess of Wales; Sir Henry Calcraft, Mr. and Lady Rose Leigh, General and Mrs. Owen Williams, Mr. Mildmay, M.P., Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon, Mr. Montague Guest, Captain Orr-Ewing, Mrs. Bulkeley, Mr. Ricardo, and Mr. Caryl Craven. Lord Alington afterwards gave a dance expressly to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales. Among the company were— The Russian Ambassador, the Danish Minister, Prince Louis Esterhazy, Comte Costa de Beaunyardt, the Duchess of Buccleuch and Lady Evelyn Fitzmaurice, the Duchess of Westminster, the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough and Lady Sarah Spencer Churchill, the Duchess of Wellington and Lady Cardross, the Marquis and Marchioness of Granby and Miss Bourke, the Marchioness of Stafford and Lady Sybil St. Clair Erskine, the Marchioness of Bath and Lady Beatrice Thynne, the Marquis of Cholmondeley, the Marquese and Marquesa de Santurce and Lady Wilham Nevill, Countess Spencer, Countess Granville and Lady Victoria Leveson-Gower, Countess de Grey, the Earl of Dunraven, the Countess of Lathom and Lady Edith Wilbraham, the Countess of Enniskillen and Lady Christian Cole, the Earl of Ilchester, the Earl of Durham and Lady Anne Lambton, the Earl of Dalkeith and Lord Ernest Scott, the Countess of Sefton and Lady Rose Molyneux, Countess Howe and the Ladies Curzon, the Countess of Normanton and Lady Mary Agar and Miss Mary Liddell, Earl Craven, Viscount Clifden, Viscount Ennismore and Lady Beatrice Hare, Viscount Coke and the Hon. Violet White, Viscount and Viscountess Castlerosse and the Hon. Susan Baring, Viscountess Newport and the Hon. Miss Bruce, Viscount and Viscountess Melgund, Viscount and Viscountess Curzon, Viscount and Lady Violet Dangan and Lady Eva Wellesley, Viscount Dungarvan, Viscount Chelsea, Viscount Royston, Lady Hastings, Lord Capell, Lord and Lady Willoughby de Eresby and Hon. Margaret Willoughby, Lady Cloncurry and Hon. Miss Winn, Lord and Lady Brooke, Lady Wimborne and Hon. Miss Guest, Lord Sandhurst, Lord and Lady Edmund Talbot, Lord and Lady Alwyne Compton and Miss Gurney, Lord and Lady Chesham, Lady Rossmore and Miss Naylor, Lord Kenyon, Lord Garioch, Lady Alice Portal, Lady Margaret Levett and the Ladies Ashley, Lady W. Nevill, Lord Paulet, Lady Charles Beresford, Lady Forbes and Misses Forbes, Lady Claud Hamilton, Lord Carlow, Lady Mary Mills, Lord Lurgan, Lord Henry Vane Tempest, Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox, Lord Richard Nevill, the Hon. W. Coventry, the Hon. G. Joliffe, the Hon. Schomberg M'Donnell, the Hon. H. Coventry, Captain the Hon. E. Dawson, the Hon. Alistair and Mrs. Hay, the Hon. Mrs. Grosvenor, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|the Hon. Algernon and Mrs. Bourke]], the Hon. F. Dawnay, the Hon. E. J. Mills, the Hon. A. Johnstone, the Hon. Claude Hay, the Hon. Sidney Greville, the Hon. Mr. Dundas and Lady Hilda Dundas, the Hon. Thomas and Lady Idina Brassey and the Hon. Muriel Brassey, the Hon. Mr. Mansfield, Colonel the Hon. Henry Byng and Miss Byng, the Hon. Mrs. Oliphant, the Hon. Mr. Harbord, the Right Hon. Henry Chaplin, M.P., the Hon. G. Somerset, Sir William Gordon Cumming, Sir George Arthur, Sir Hubert Miller, Sir Charles Forbes, Sir William and Lady Eden, Sir George Chetwynd, Sir Frederick Johnstone, Sir John D. Poynder, Colonel and Lady Emma Crichton, the Hon. Miss Harbord, Captain and Lady Jane Combe, Colonel Paget, Captain Williams, Captain Ford, Captain Doyle, Captain Hanbury, Captain Campbell, Captain Constable, Captain Kinloch, Captain Longfield, M. Gutmansthal, Mrs. Bingham, Mr. Guthrie, Mrs. Arthur Paget, Mrs. Charles Wilson and Miss Wilson, Mr. Hulse, M.P., and Mrs. Hulse, Mr. de Murrieta, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Mr. Spencer Portal, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Paget, Mr. Leigh and Miss Leigh, Mr. Percy Daniell, Mr. Lister, Mr. Frederick Vincent, Mr. Cazalet, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Mr. John Savile Lumley, Mr. and Mrs Leopold de Rothschild, Mr. and Mrs. Skeffington Smith and Miss Taylor, Mrs. George Cavendish Bentinck, Mr. Alfred Farquhar, [[Social Victorians/People/Fanny Ronalds|Mr. Reginald Ronalds]], Miss Alice Ellice, Mr. George Marjoribanks, Mr. Wyndham, Mr. Dugdale, Mr. Montagu, Mrs. Sneyd, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Edward Hamilton, Mr. Murray Guthrie, Mr. George Lambert, Mrs. Sanford, Miss Mabel Forbes. Mr. Herbert Magniac, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Milner, Mr. Charles Kindersley, Mr. Beaumont, Mr. Walter Hervey, Mr. H. Hoare, Mr. Foley, Mr. Scott Murray, Mr. Coventry, Mr. Bertie, Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. George Cavendish Bentinck, Mr. E. Charteris, Mr. Cholmondeley, Mr. Oswald Magniac, Mr. Cecil Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Oppenheim, Mr. Peploe, Mr. A. Charteris, Mr. Seymour Gore, Mr. Robert Antrobus, Mr. Elliot, M. de Champs, Mr. Wombwell, Mr. Charles Hoare, M.P., and many others.<ref>"Lord Alington's Ball." ''Morning Post'' 25 July 1890, Friday: 3 [of 8], Col. 5 b–c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900725/014/0003. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> ==August 1890== ===6 August 1890, Friday=== ==== Beautiful Women ==== The ''Lancaster Observer and Morecambe Chronicle'' reprinted a story from ''Vanity Fair'' about "Beautiful Women":<blockquote>Beautiful Women. — ''Vanity Fair'' asks what country in the world can show a more beautiful bevy of women than England? When Lady Helen Vincent, with her sister, Lady Cynthia Graham; when Lady Warwick with her sisters, the Duchess of Sutherland and Lady Westmorland; and when Lady Mar and Kellie, Lady de Trafford, Princess Pless, Lady de Gray[,] Lady Naylor-Leyland, the Duchess of Portland, Lady Alington, Lady Sophie Scott, Lady Chelsea, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Lady Algernon Bourke]], Lady Henry Bentinck, Mrs. Willie Grenfell, Mrs. Rupert Beckett, Mrs. Arthur Paget, and Countess Clary are gathered together it is a sight to make an old man young; while Mrs. Gerard Leigh and her sister, Lady Yarborough, and Lady Powis, Lady Norreys, Mrs Farquharson, Mrs. Willie James, Lady Dalkeith, Mrs. Pretyman, Mrs. Gervase Beckett, Lady Rossmore, Lady Sarah Wilson, Lady Colebrook, Lady Hartopp, Mrs. Willie Walker, and Lady Milton are almost equally admired. The many pretty girls include Miss Enid and Miss Muriel Wilson, who still head the list of the unmarried beauties, Lady Beatrice Butler, Lady Alexandra Hamilton, Miss Kennard, Miss Madeline Bourke, and Miss Leila Crichton; while among the debutantes Lady Evelyn Crichton and Lady Vivian's daughters have had a great success, and Lady Alice Montagu, petite and charmingly pretty, has been so much admired. The daughters of Lady Gosford, Lady Verulam, Lady Leitrim, Lady Inchiquin, and Lady Grey have also been admired, as well as Lady Helen Stewart, Lady Katherine Scott, and Miss Chaplin.<ref>"Beautiful Women." ''Lancaster Observer and Morecambe Chronicle'' 6 August 1897, Friday: 2 [of 8], Col. 5b [of 8]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001804/18970806/023/0002. Same print title and p.</ref></blockquote> ===25 August 1890, Monday=== Summer Bank Holiday ==September 1890== ==October 1890== ===22 October 1890, Wednesday=== Arnold Dolmetsch went to the Reading Room (Campbell 22). ===25 October 1890, Saturday=== [[Social Victorians/Loder De Vere Beauclerk Wedding|Loder—De Vere Beauclerk Wedding]] ===31 October 1890, Friday=== Halloween. ==November 1890== ===5 November 1890, Wednesday=== Guy Fawkes Day ===19 November 1890, Wednesday=== Arnold Dolmetsch, with some of his students and his daughter Helene, provided musical illustrations for a lecture given by Dr. Frederick Bridge on "Mozart as Teacher," probably at Gresham College, where Bridges was professor (Campbell 34). ===21 November 1890, Friday=== Dr. Frederick Bridge's last fall 1890 lecture at Gresham College, for which Dolmetsch provided illustration. Campbell says, "it is, in fact, the first record in modern times of music by Byrd, Dr. Bull, Jenkins, Simpson, Lawes, Locke and Purcell being played 'on the instruments for which it was written'" (Campbell 34). ===25 November 1890, Tuesday=== Arnold Dolmetsch got a three-month pass to the Reading Room and "thereafter held yearly tickets until 1916" (Campbell 22). ==== 1890 November 29, Saturday ==== ===== [[Social Victorians/Dudley-Beckwith Wedding 1890-11-29|Wedding of Francis Dudley, Lord Leigh and Héléne Forbes Beckwith]] ===== ==December 1890== Sometimes in December 1890, [[Social Victorians/People/William Robert Woodman|William Woodman]], one of the founding members of the [[Social Victorians/Golden Dawn|Golden Dawn]], died (Gilbert 86 12). === 4 December 1890, Thursday === ==== [[Mure-Portal Wedding 1890-12-04|Wedding of Miss Mure and Mr. S. J. Portal]] ==== ===19 December 1890, Friday=== "The eleventh annual ''Truth'' Toy Exhibition for the children in London hospitals, workhouses, and infirmaries was held at the Grosvenor Gallery, Bond-street, on Dec. 19 and 20. There are over 22,000 children in these institutions, and each of them has a separate toy, besides the large and more expensive toys which are presented for the general use of the inmates. A special feature of the show was the dolls dressed by lady readers of ''Truth''. Several special donations in connection with the fund have been made, the principal of which is that of 10,200 new sixpences sent for distribution by the same liberal donor who has given a similar present on former occasions; while Mr. Tom Smith has had specially made, and has forwarded for distribution, over 22,000 crackers; and Mr. Horniman (as stated in our last issue) has given to the adults in hospitals and workhouses 1200 packets of tea, to be given to them as Christmas boxes." (Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, December 27, 1890; pg. 806; Issue 2697, Col. B) ===20 December 1890, Saturday=== "In order that the adults connected with the hospitals and workhouses may participate in the good things given to the children in the ''Truth'' toy distribution, Mr. F. J. Horniman, of Wormwood-street, City, has sent Mr. Labouchere 1200 packets of tea to be given to them as a Christmas box." (Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, December 20, 1890; pg. 774; Issue 2696, Col. B) From the ''Times'', 22 December 1890, "The Late Sir Edgar Boehm": <blockquote>On Saturday, in accordance with the special request of the Queen, the late Sir Edgar Boehm, R.A., was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the south aisle of the crypt, the spot being known as “The Painters Corner.” [new paragraph] The funeral cortége left the residence of the deceased at about 11 o’clock, there being five mourning and several private carriages. In the first carriage were the chief mourners, Sir Edgar Collins Boehm, the only son of the late baronet, and Mr. Conrad Herapath. The second and third carriages were occupied by Sir Frederic Leighton, P.R.A., Sir Nigel Kingscote, Mr. Richard Mills, Colonel Francis Baring, Mr. Alma-Tadema, R.A., Sir R. H. Collins, Mr. Edward J. Poynter, R.A., and Mr. Duncan MacGregor, all of whom subsequently, at the cathedral, acted as pall bearers. The fourth carriage contained representatives of the Council of the Royal Academy – Mr. Edwin Long, R.A., Mr. J. B. Burgess, R.A., Mr. F. Goodall, R.A., and Mr. Beavis. In the fifth carriage were the following members of the professional staff of the deceased – Mr. R. Glassby, Mr. E. Lantéri, Signor Finili, and Herr Gross. The cortége stopped for a few moments at the Royal Academy, in order that it might be joined by two carriages containing other representatives of the institution. Leaving Piccadilly, the route taken was Waterloo-place, Pall-mall, Cockspur-street, the Strand, Fleet-street, and Ludgate-hill, the cathedral being reached about noon. The procession was met at the great west door by Canon Gregory, the Archdeacon of London, the Rev. Dr. Baker, Minor Canons Milman, Russell, and Kelly, and the choir, who had a few minutes previously left the vestry; by Major Bigge, Equerry to the Queen, representing her Majesty; Colonel Stanley Clarke, who attended on behalf of the Prince and Princess of Wales; and Colonel W. J. Colville, representing the Duke of Edinburgh. The [[Social Victorians/People/Princess Louise|Princess Louise]] (Marchioness of Lorne) attired in deep mourning, and accompanied by [[Social Victorians/People/Arthur Collins|Lieut.-Col. Arthur Collins]] and Lady Sophia Macnamara, arrived at the cathedral a few minutes before 12 o’clock, and was conducted to a seat in the south side of the nave, close to the late Sir Edgar Boehm’s two daughters, upon whom her Royal Highness had called earlier in the morning. As the procession came slowly up the nave towards the chancel, “I am the resurrection of life” and other sentences of the burial service were chanted to music by Dr. Croft. The coffin, which was completely hidden by splendid wreaths, was preceded by the choristers and the clergy. Then followed Sir E. C. Boehm, with Mr. Conrad Herapath and Mr. Alfred Gilbert, A.R.A., the officers and council of the Royal Academy, and members of the deceased’s studio. The coffin was deposited upon a bier, which had been placed under the dome in front of the opening into the crypt, through which the body was subsequently lowered. The mourners having been conducted to the seats which had been reserved for them, and the clergy and choir having proceeded to their places in the chancel, Psalms xxxix. and xc. Were sung to music by Purcell and Felton, followed by Spohr’s anthem, “Blest are the departed,” and the lesson 1 Cor. Xv. 20, which was read by Canon Gregory. Whilst the hymn “Days and moments quickly flying” was being sung the Archdeacon of London and Minor Canon Milman proceeded from the chancel and took up positions by the side of the coffin. The remainder of the service preceding and following the lowering of the body into the crypt was read by Minor Canon Milman, and the collect was impressively recited by Archdeacon Sinclair. The late Dr. Newman’s beautiful hymn, “Lead kindly light,” was afterwards sung by the choir, and the service was brought to a close by Beethoven’s Funeral March, which was played in compliance with the special request of her Majesty, at whose desire also Chopin’s Funeral March had preceded the service. Dr. Martin was the organist. While Beethoven’s march was being played the son and daughters of the late “Sculptor in ordinary to her Majesty,” together with other mourners, descended the crypt by the door near Howard’s monument, and saw the coffin for the last time. It bore the following inscription:- “Joseph Edgar Boehm. Born July 6, 1834; died at his work December 12, 1890. Thy will be done.” The coffin had already been deposited in the brick grave prepared for it, which is next to that of Sir Edwin Landseer. Immediately around it lie the remains of painters and sculptors of bygone days – Sir Joshua Reynolds, James Barry, Benjamin West, Henry Fuseli, Sir Thomas Lawrence, J. M. W. Turner, and John Henry Foley, while within half-a-dozen yards is the tomb of the great architect of the cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren. The coffin as last seen was covered by the floral tributes of loving friends, the symbolic laurel wreath forwarded by her Majesty surmounting them. This bore the inscription, “A tribute of gratitude for many beautiful memorial works executed for her. From Victoria, R. I.” Attached to the beautiful wreath sent by the Prince and Princess of Wales were the words, “A token of sincere regard and friendship.” Wreaths were forwarded by other members of the Royal Family, by Sir John and Lady Millais, Lord and Lady Reay, the Countess Sydney, Lord and Lady de Vesci, Mr. Henry Irving, Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, by members of the council, students and officers of the Royal Academy, the Society of Artistic Sculptors (Vienna), and by the London Hungarian Association." (http://glassby.com/Chapter1.htm) </blockquote> ===24 December 1890, Wednesday=== "The people of South London and adjacent suburbs have to be grateful to Mr. Frederick Horniman, a well-known City merchant residing at Dulwich, for a munificent and beneficial Christmas gift. This gentleman has, during thirty years, formed a collection, worth above £100,000, of specimens of art, European, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese, also of decorative manufactures, and of ethnology and natural history, and rare books and manuscripts, at Surrey House, Forest Hill, which he intends to present to the public. The museum was opened by Sir Morell Mackenzie on Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 24. It already comprises twenty-four rooms, containing many beautiful specimens of horse and chain armour, Elizabethan bed-room furniture, an old English parlour and pantry, an Oriental armoury, a bible and manuscript room, an Egyptian gallery, and ethnographical saloon, a book and embroidery saloon, a porcelain and glass room, and a zoological saloon, with two live Russian bears and a monkey. We may describe the museum further, after another visit. Our Artist has sketched, in the ethnograhical saloon, an idol's shrine, made of cocoanut-fibre, from Fiji. Mr. Horniman, in acknowledging a vote of thanks, said that in an adjoining house he had accumulated a vast library of bibles and entomological works and specimens. It was his intention to build a hall at the back of the present building to contain a thousand persons, while the galleries would contain a library, and a stage would be provided, so that both eye and ear could be amused. He also contemplated buying sufficient land to enable a public body to erect class-rooms and gymnasia. Three cheers were given for Mr. Horniman, and the company proceeded to inspect the museum." "(Mr. F. Horniman's Museum, Forest Hill." Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, January 03, 1891; pg. 7; Issue 2698, Col. C) ===25 December 1890, Thursday=== Christmas Day ===26 December 1890, Friday=== Boxing Day ==Works Cited== *"Besant Chronology.pdf." From Anderson, Nancy Fix, Walter L Arnstein, Deborah Logan, and Susie L Steinbach, Volume Editors. Lives of Victorian Political Figures, Part III: Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, Annie Besant and Millicent Garrett Fawcett by their Contemporaries. Volume 3 of Lives of Victorian Political Figures. Series Editors, Nancy LoPatin-Lummis and Michael Partridge. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2008. *Crawford, Elizabeth. The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866–1928. Google Books. Accessed 14 October 2010. 2f2zse5b0dp8pizx0fk1dw9jzn9v6kx 2 266516 2834021 2833785 2026-09-20T16:18:06Z Alandmanson 1669821 /* Genus Belarnoldus Antropov, 2007Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 PDF */ 2834021 wikitext text/x-wiki <!--Info--> = African wasps of the tribe Oxybelini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976>Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A. S. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World: a Generic Revision. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. pp. 359-370 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/n359/mode/2up</ref> reviewed the tribe worldwide. Antropov (1999-2007) and Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:55-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> reviewed African species.<br> The submarginal cell in the forewing is fused with the discoidal cells; most species have metanotal squamae (paired, scale-like or plate-like projections of the metanotum).<ref name=BohartMenke1976/> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> GL.96 Oxybelus uniglumis m.jpg|An ''Oxybelus uniglumis'' specimen from Finland showing the wing venation typical of the Oxybelini Oxybelus iN 250449990 2024 10 09 - 02.jpg|An ''Oxybelus'' wasp showing the metanotal squamae projecting above the wing </gallery> == Genus ''Belarnoldus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == This genus has a single species, described as ''Belomicrus crassus'' by [[w:George Arnold (entomologist)|Arnold]] in 1936; it differs from other Oxybelini in having a compressed scape with a longitudinal carina on the ventral (lower) side.<ref name=Antropov2007/> *''Belarnoldus crassus'' (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa) == Genus ''Belokohlus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == ''Belokohlus ferrieri'' (Kohl, 1924) (South Africa) == Genus Belomicrinus Antropov, 2000 == Belomicrinus luteosquamatus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) Belomicrinus minutissimus (Arnold, 1936) (Namibia) == Genus Belomicroides Kohl, 1899 == Belomicroides arenarius Arnold, 1960 (Zimbabwe) Belomicroides clypeatus Antropov, 2002 (South Africa) Belomicroides erythrogaster Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides marleyi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides maximiliani Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides pictus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides pictus chrysoptilus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides politus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides rift Antropov, 2002 (Kenya) Belomicroides veronicae Antropov, 2002 (Ethiopia) Belomicroides woji Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) == Genus Belomicrus Costa, 1867 == Belomicrus mirificus Kohl, 1905 (Ethiopia) == Genus Brimocelus Arnold, 1927 == Brimocelus radiatus (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Brimocelus roosevelti Antropov, 2000 (South Africa) Brimocelus schwarzi Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Gessus Antropov, 2001 == Gessus capensis Antropov, 2001 (South Africa) == Genus Minimicroides Antropov, 2000 == Minimicroides perexiguus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Nototis Arnold, 1927 == Nototis bicornutus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Nototis falcidens Antropov, 2007 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelomorpha Brauns, 1897 == Oxybelomorpha braunsii (Kohl, 1923) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha funesta (Arnold, 1929) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha gessi Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha imitans Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha kohlii Brauns in Kohl, 1896 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha nitens Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha pseudosordida Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha pulawskii Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha rhodesiana (Arnold, 1927) (Zimbabwe) Oxybelomorpha rubicunda Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha rufiventris (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha separata Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sgessae Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sordida (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha turneri (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha wojciechi Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelus Latreille, 1796 == Reviewed by Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold-Oxybelus1927>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:76-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> and Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976oxy>https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/364/mode/2up</ref>. Oxybelus acutissimus Bischoff, 1912 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus acutissimus propinquus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus aethiopicus Cameron, 1906 (South Africa) Oxybelus angustus de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus arnoldi Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus bechuanae Arnold, 1936 (Botswana) Oxybelus bicornutus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia, South Africa) Oxybelus braunsi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus congophilus Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus coniferus Arnold, 1951 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus cristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus curviscutis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus dissimilis Arnold, 1934 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus eburneoguttatus Arnold, 1952 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis nyassae Arnold, 1927 (Tanzania) Oxybelus flaviventris Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus fraudulentus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus harraricus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus hessei Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus imperialis Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus lepturus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus limatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus lingula Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus matabele Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus metopias Kohl, 1894 (Mozambique) Oxybelus nasutus Bischoff, 1913 (Namibia) Oxybelus natalensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus neuvillei Magretti, 1908 (Kenya) Oxybelus pallidus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia, Tanzania) Oxybelus paucipunctatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus peringueyi de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus perornatus Arnold, 1945 (Madagascar) Oxybelus pictus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus pilosus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus rubrocaudatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus ruficaudis Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) Oxybelus ruficaudis melanarius Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus solitarius Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus stevensoni Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus subcristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus taschenbergi Kohl, 1875 (South Africa) Oxybelus willowmorensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus woosnami Arnold, 1927 (Botswana, South Africa) Oxybelus zavattarii Guiglia, 1943 (Ethiopia) == Genus Wojus Antropov, 1999 == Wojus inopinatus Antropov, 1999 (South Africa)<br> <br> = South African wasp species of Subtribe Gastrosericina ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= == Genus ''Gastrosericus'' == There are 25 Afrotropical species; four in South Africa. == Genus ''Kohliella'' Brauns, 1910 <ref>http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35572001</ref>== There are three species of ''Kohliella''; two are Afrotropical.<ref>https://www.waspweb.org/Apoidea/Crabronidae/Classification/index.htm</ref> ''Kohliella alaris'' is found in South Africa and Zimbabwe; it hunts tree crickets.<ref>Gess, S.K. & Gess, F.W. 2014. Wasps and bees in southern Africa. SANBI Biodiversity Series 24. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. p. 71-72. https://archive.org/details/waspsbeesinsouth24gess/page/70/mode/2up</ref> == Genus ''Parapiagetia'' == == Genus ''Tachytes'' == There are 79 Afrotropical species; 15 in South Africa. == Genus ''Tachysphex '' == There are 128 Afrotropical species; 41 in South Africa. == Genus ''Larropsis '' == ''Larropsis (Ancistromma) obliqua'' (F. Smith); description in Arnold, 1923b:218 as ''Tachytes obliquus'' == Genus ''Tachytella '' == == Genus ''Prosopigastra'' == == Genus ''Holotachysphex '' == <br> <br> <br> <br> = Southern African wasp species of Tribe Trypoxylini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]]) = == Genus ''Pison'' Jurine, 1808 == Arnold ([http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327574 1924, 1-10]) has a key and descriptions. *''Pison allonymum'' Schulz, 1906 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance 1.5 to 2.5 times the diameter of an ocellus; **Fairly long, whitish or silvery pilosity on head and thorax, more dense on the temples than elsewhere.<ref name=Arnold1924>Arnold, G. (1924) The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part V. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 11:1-4 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327575</ref> *''Pison atrum'' (Spinola, 1808:253) described by Cameron as ''Pison montanum'' (Kenya, South Africa, Zambia) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance not greater than the diameter of an ocellus; **Pronotal collar longer than in ''allonymum''. *''Pison transvaalense'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa to Tanzania and Uganda) **Head and thorax dull; finely and closely punctured; **Distance between the posterior ocelli and the eyes is equal to a third to a half of the diameter of the ocellus. *''Pison auratum'' Shuckard, 1838 (an Australian species; see Pulawski, 2018:85 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Pulawski_2018.pdf) *''Pison denticeps'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; "Transvaal". Two cubital cells; he only record seems to be the description) *''Pison repentinum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison rufitarse'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison scruposum'' Arnold, 1955 (Zimbabwe) == Genus ''Trypoxylon'' Latreille, 1796 == *''Trypoxylon abditum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon algoense'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon arnoldi'' Menke, 1976 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Trypoxylon braunsi'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon capense'' Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon cataractae'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon chirindense'' Arnold, 1936 (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon foveatum'' Cameron, 1904 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon inconstans'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon infimum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon kohli'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon letiferum'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon lissonotum'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon montivagum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon nodosum'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon punctatissimum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon stevensoni'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon stroudi'' Gribodo, 1884 (Ethiopia, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Trypoxylon testaceipes'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon triste'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) = Pompilidae of South Africa = == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly orange to yellow with fuscous (darker or blackish) wing-tips == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Inaturalist 258649905 b.jpg Hemipepsis hilaris - inaturalist 10850475.jpg Cyphononyx decipiens inat 26259647 b.jpg Tachypompilus ignitus inaturalist 311015843 02.jpg Pompilidae 2021 12 12 inaturalist 313386858 04.jpg Pompilidae 2020 04 13 inaturalist 43563902 06.jpg </gallery> *The extent of the fuscous colour can be limited to the apex of the wing beyond the cells, or extend into the cells to a varying extent. * <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings fuscous (black or very dark) == *The wings often have green-blue-violet reflections. <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae 2019 05 01 2835.jpg|Female ''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' Pompilidae inaturalist 124148802 01.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx optimus'' Pompilidae 2021 12 18 iNat 316501919 a.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx obscurus'' Pompilidae 2025 03 14 iNat 266538336 a.jpg|Male ''Hemipepsis vindex'' Pompilidae_2019_05_28_0256.jpg| Spider-hunting Wasp (Hemipepsis) female (12640106905).jpg|''Hemipepsis'' sp. </gallery> <br> === Species with black antennae, legs, head, thorax and abdomen === Some parts may be brown. *''Java atropos'' *''Cyphononyx obscurus'' *''Hemipepsis vindex'' *''Hemipepsis vespertilio'' *''Hemipepsis braunsi'' *''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' <br> === Species with black antennae, head, thorax and abdomen, but legs (or parts of some legs) yellow to red === *''Cyphononyx optimus'' *''Paracyphononyx zonatus'' <br> <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly hyaline to fuscous-hyaline == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae inaturalist 123577538.jpg Pompilidae inaturalist 46961473.jpg Pompilidae iN 144781033 03.jpg </gallery> *With fuscous (darker) wing apex *One or two fuscous bands (faciated or bifaciated) *Hyaline parts can be clouded (whiteish clouding) or coloured (yellow-tinted) <br> == South African Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region: [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 Madl, 2020] *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881; key in Móczár 1986a: 321 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa?, Uganda, Zimbabwe?) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837; key in Móczár 1986b: 125 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904; key in Móczár 1986a: 320 (Lesotho, South Africa) **''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) **''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) **= Hemiceropales scobinifera (Arnold, 1937): Móczár 1986a: 319 *''Ceropales (Bifidoceropales) sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910; key in Móczár 1990: 61 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989: 12 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) <br> ==Afrotropical Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region (Madl, 2020).<ref name=Madl2020>Madl, M. (2020). Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region. Zeitschrift der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Österreichischer Entomologen 72: 73-84. [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 PDF]</ref> Ceropalinae can be defined by:<ref name=Brothers1993>Brothers, D. J. & Finnamore. (1993). Superfamily Vespoidea. In Goulet, H. & Huber, J. T. (Eds.). (1993). Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. 161-278. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259227143</ref><ref name=Waichert2015> Waichert, C., Rodriguez, J., Wasbauer, M. S., Von Dohlen, C. D., & Pitts, J. P. (2015). Molecular phylogeny and systematics of spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae): redefining subfamily boundaries and the origin of the family. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 175(2), 271-287. {{doi|10.1111/zoj.12272}} [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282015793 PDF]</ref> == Genera and species of Afrotropical Ceropalinae == This list is based on that of [https://www.waspweb.org/Pompiloidea/Pompilidae/Ceropalinae/index.htm '''waspweb'''] with changes following the Catalogue of Life (Kroupa & Schmid-Egger, 2025)<ref name=CoL2025> Kroupa, A. S., & Schmid-Egger, C. (2025). Hymenoptera Information System, Pompilidae of the World (version 2019-09). In O. Bánki, Y. Roskov, M. Döring, G. Ower, D. R. Hernández Robles, C. A. Plata Corredor, T. Stjernegaard Jeppesen, A. Örn, T. Pape, D. Hobern, S. Garnett, H. Little, R. E. DeWalt, J. Miller, T. Orrell, R. Aalbu, J. Abbott, C. Aedo, E. Aescht, et al., Catalogue of Life (Version 2025-07-10). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dg9ld-4kv </ref> and [[w:George_Arnold_(entomologist)|papers by Arnold (1932-1962)]].<br> === Genus ''Ceropales'' === *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales arnoldi'' Móczar, 1988 (Namibia) *''Ceropales atra'' Móczar, 1991 (Botswana) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales cribrata maculipes'' Móczar, 1986 (Zambia) *''Ceropales carinitifrons'' Wahis, 1986 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales dayi'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales ferrugo'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales gambiae'' Móczar, 1989 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone) *''Ceropales gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales juncoi'' Giner Mari, 1945 (Chad, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Western Sahara) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales latifasciatus'' Arnold, 1937 (Ethiopia) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales levipleuris'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales maliensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Mali, Senegal) *''Ceropales maroccana'' Beaumont, 1947 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales multipicta'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Namibia) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales ruficollis'' Cameron, 1910 (Kenya, Tanzania) *''Ceropales saegeri'' Móczar, 1988 (Democratic Reublic of Congo) *''Ceropales senegalensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal) **''Ceropales senegalensis mbouri'' Móczar, 1988 (Senegal) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) *''Ceropales seyrigi'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales spinolai'' Móczar, 1988 (Guinea) *''Ceropales subhelvetica'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Senegal. Also Palaearctic: Israel) *''Ceropales sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa, Tanzania) **''Ceropales sulciscutis raymondi'' Móczar, 1990 (Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Ceropales variolosus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, Uganda) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales yemeni'' Móczar, 1988 (Yemen. Also Palaearctic: Israel, Saudi Arabia) <br> === Genus ''Irenangelus'' === *''Irenangelus madescassus'' Wahis, 1988 (Madagascar) <br> ==Eumeninae== Photos of ''Antodynerus'' on GBIF:<br> ''alboniger'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689053 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''hova'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320165802 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''kelneri'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/3762658306 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<br> ''lugubris'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689125 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''seyrigi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1322648015 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''sheffieldi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1318932924 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''silaos'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320574593 (CC0 1.0)<br> ==Ants== '''Subfamilies of Formicidae (WaspWeb)''' Number of iNaturalist records for subfamilies of Formicidae in Africa (2023-05-23) Amblyoponinae 7 Dolichoderinae 630 Dorylinae 1 167 Formicinae 10 396 Camponotus 6 090; Lepisiota 1 046 Myrmicinae 8 484 Crematogaster 1 786; Pheidole 1 468; Messor 1 156 Ponerinae 1 623 Proceratiinae 3 Pseudomyrmecinae 296 Aenictinae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictus'' <br> Aenictogitoninae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictogiton'' <br> Amblyoponinae Five Afrotropical genera <br> Apomyrminae One Afrotropical genus ''Apomyrma'' <br> Cerapachyinae Five Afrotropical genera<br> Dolichoderinae Eight Afrotropical genera<br> Dorylinae One Afrotropical genus ''Dorylus'' <br> Formicinae 20 Afrotropical genera<br> Leptanillinae One Afrotropical genus ''Leptanilla'' <br> Myrmicinae 37 Afrotropical genera <br> Ponerinae 18 Afrotropical genera <br> Proceratiinae Three Afrotropical genera <br> Pseudomyrmecinae One Afrotropical genus Tetraponera <br> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Aenictogiton sp.jpg|''Aenictogiton'' sp., Aenictogitoninae Apomyrma stygia casent0101444 profile 1.jpg|''Apomyrma stygia'', Apomyrminae Cerapachys coxalis casent0173076 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys coxalis'', Cerapachyinae Cerapachys centurio castype12081-02 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys centurio'', Cerapachyinae Tapinoma subtile casent0132840 dorsal 1.jpg|''Tapinoma subtile'', Dolichoderinae Dorylus helvolus, a, Seringveld.jpg|''Dorylus helvolus'', Dorylinae Polyrhachis schistacea00.jpg|''Polyrhachis schistacea'', Formicinae Anoplolepis custodiens, met prooi, a, Krugersdorp.jpg|''Anoplolepis custodiens'', Formicinae AFRICAN THIEF ANT SIX.jpg|''Carebara vidua'', Myrmicinae Millipede Hunter Ant (Plectroctena mandibularis) (11904420373).jpg|''Plectroctena mandibularis'', Ponerinae Discothyrea hewitti sam-hym-c000061a profile 1.jpg|''Discothyrea hewitti'', Proceratiinae Probolomyrmex filiformis casent0102141 profile 1.jpg|''Probolomyrmex filiformis'', Proceratiinae Slender Ant (Tetraponera natalensis) (30538051244).jpg|''Tetraponera natalensis'', Pseudomyrmecinae </gallery> == N-P interactions == Dai, Z., Liu, G., Chen, H., Chen, C., Wang, J., Ai, S., Wei, D., Li, D., Ma, B., Tang, C., Brookes, P.C. and Xu, J., 2020. Long-term nutrient inputs shift soil microbial functional profiles of phosphorus cycling in diverse agroecosystems. The ISME journal, 14(3), pp.757-770. '''Abstract''' Microorganisms play an important role in soil phosphorus (P) cycling and regulation of P availability in agroecosystems. However, the responses of the functional and ecological traits of P-transformation microorganisms to long-term nutrient inputs are largely unknown. This study used metagenomics to investigate changes in the relative abundance of microbial P-transformation genes at four long-term experimental sites that received various inputs of N and P nutrients (up to 39 years). Long-term P input increased microbial P immobilization by decreasing the relative abundance of the P-starvation response gene (phoR) and increasing that of the low-affinity inorganic phosphate transporter gene (pit). This contrasts with previous findings that low-P conditions facilitate P immobilization in culturable microorganisms in short-term studies. In comparison, long-term nitrogen (N) input significantly decreased soil pH, and consequently decreased the relative abundances of total microbial P-solubilizing genes and the abundances of Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria containing genes coding for alkaline phosphatase, and weakened the connection of relevant key genes. This challenges the concept that microbial P-solubilization capacity is mainly regulated by N:P stoichiometry. It is concluded that long-term N inputs decreased microbial P-solubilizing and mineralizing capacity while P inputs favored microbial immobilization via altering the microbial functional profiles, providing a novel insight into the regulation of P cycling in sustainable agroecosystems from a microbial perspective. ==Diptera== ===Wing and leg-waving behavior in flies=== ====Food detection==== *''Rhagio lineola'' and ''R. tringarius'' feed on pollen and/or honeydew, which they locate by sweeping their front legs across the surface of leaves. They have a few fine hairs on their front legs, probably for this purpose. Other Rhagionidae do not have these hairs. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359760392 *It is also possible that some flies sample the air with the chemical sensors on their legs or feet. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage ====Courtship==== *Some Taeniapterinae are thought to wave their white-tipped front legs attract females. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage *''Physiphora clausa'' appear to use leg-waving in courtship displays. **https://www.flickr.com/photos/jean_hort/4663220062 *Waving of forelegs is included in the complex courtship behavior of ''Physiphora demandata'' **https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1979.tb00298.x ====Mimics for defense==== *Stilt-legged flies ''Rainieria antennaepes'' mimic ichneumonid wasps. They extend their fore-legs in front of their head, so they look like wasp antennae. **https://thingsbiological.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/stilt-legged-flies-rainieria-antennaepes/ *Some hover-fly species mimic wasps by mock stinging, leg waving, or wing wagging. **https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/674612 *Wing-waving to mimic salticid spiders. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27373081 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6083895<br> <br> ===Number of iNat records in Acalyptrate fly families=== The [[w:acalyptratae|acalyptrate fly clade]] includes the following superfamilies and families:<br> * '''Carnoidea''' ** Acartophthalmidae 0 ** Australimyzidae 0 ** Braulidae (bee lice) 1 ** Canacidae (beach flies) 3 ** Carnidae (bird flies) 0 ** Chloropidae (frit flies) 259 ** Cryptochetidae 1 ** Inbiomyiidae 0 ** Milichiidae (freeloader flies) 158 <br> * '''Diopsoidea''' ** Diopsidae (stalk-eyed flies) 545 ** Gobryidae 0 ** Megamerinidae 0 ** Nothybidae 0 ** Psilidae (rust flies) 29 ** Somatiidae 0 ** Syringogastridae 0 <br> * '''Ephydroidea''' ** Camillidae 0 ** Campichoetidae 0 ** Curtonotidae (quasimodo flies) 15 ** Diastatidae 0 ** Drosophilidae (vinegar and fruit flies) 312 ** Ephydridae (shore flies) 117 <br> * '''Lauxanioidea''' ** Celyphidae (beetle flies) 0 ** Chamaemyiidae (aphid flies) 24 ** Cremifaniidae 0 ** Lauxaniidae (lauxaniid flies) 710 <br> * '''Nerioidea''' ** Cypselosomatidae 0 ** Fergusoninidae 0 ** Micropezidae (stilt-legged flies) 245 ** Neriidae 109 ** Strongylophthalmyiidae 0 ** Tanypezidae (stretched-foot flies) 0 <br> * '''Opomyzoidea''' ** Agromyzidae (leaf-miner flies) 161 ** Anthomyzidae 3 ** Asteiidae 4 ** Aulacigastridae 2 ** Clusiidae (druid flies) 2 ** Marginidae 0 ** Neminidae 0 ** Neurochaetidae 0 ** Odiniidae 0 ** Opomyzidae 4 ** Periscelididae 1 ** Teratomyzidae 0 ** Xenasteiidae 0 <br> * '''Sciomyzoidea''' ** Coelopidae (kelp flies) 51 ** Conopidae (thick-headed flies) 192 ** Dryomyzidae 1 ** Helcomyzidae 0 ** Helosciomyzidae 0 ** Heterocheilidae 0 ** Huttoninidae 0 ** Natalimyzidae 0 ** Phaeomyiidae 0 ** Ropalomeridae 1 ** Sciomyzidae (marsh flies) 67 ** Sepsidae (black scavenger flies) 269 <br> * '''Sphaeroceroidea''' ** Chyromyidae (golden flies) 19 ** Heleomyzidae (heleomyzid flies) 151 ** Nannodastiidae 0 ** Sphaeroceridae (lesser dung flies) 48 <br> * '''Tephritoidea''' ** Ctenostylidae 1 ** Lonchaeidae (lance flies) 47 ** Pallopteridae (flutter-wing flies) 5 ** Piophilidae (cheese skipper flies) 1 ** Platystomatidae (signal flies) 683 ** Pyrgotidae (scarab-pursuing flies) 119 ** Richardiidae 0 ** Tachiniscidae 2 ** Tephritidae (fruit flies) 1,759 ** Ulidiidae (picture-winged flies) 165 == References == 261comqe41klhdc375limooqkljyf3b 2834022 2834021 2026-09-20T16:23:49Z Alandmanson 1669821 /* African wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Crabronidae) */ 2834022 wikitext text/x-wiki <!--Info--> = African wasps of the tribe Oxybelini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976>Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A. S. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World: a Generic Revision. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. pp. 359-370 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/n359/mode/2up</ref> reviewed the tribe worldwide. Antropov (1999-2007) and Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:55-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> reviewed African species.<br> The submarginal cell in the forewing is fused with the discoidal cells; most species have metanotal squamae (paired, scale-like or plate-like projections of the metanotum) and a mucro (an extension of the propodeum).<ref name=BohartMenke1976/> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> GL.96 Oxybelus uniglumis m.jpg|An ''Oxybelus uniglumis'' specimen from Finland showing the wing venation typical of the Oxybelini Oxybelus iN 250449990 2024 10 09 - 02.jpg|An ''Oxybelus'' wasp showing the mucro projecting above the wing </gallery> == Genus ''Belarnoldus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == This genus has a single species, described as ''Belomicrus crassus'' by [[w:George Arnold (entomologist)|Arnold]] in 1936; it differs from other Oxybelini in having a compressed scape with a longitudinal carina on the ventral (lower) side.<ref name=Antropov2007/> *''Belarnoldus crassus'' (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa) == Genus ''Belokohlus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == ''Belokohlus ferrieri'' (Kohl, 1924) (South Africa) == Genus Belomicrinus Antropov, 2000 == Belomicrinus luteosquamatus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) Belomicrinus minutissimus (Arnold, 1936) (Namibia) == Genus Belomicroides Kohl, 1899 == Belomicroides arenarius Arnold, 1960 (Zimbabwe) Belomicroides clypeatus Antropov, 2002 (South Africa) Belomicroides erythrogaster Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides marleyi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides maximiliani Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides pictus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides pictus chrysoptilus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides politus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides rift Antropov, 2002 (Kenya) Belomicroides veronicae Antropov, 2002 (Ethiopia) Belomicroides woji Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) == Genus Belomicrus Costa, 1867 == Belomicrus mirificus Kohl, 1905 (Ethiopia) == Genus Brimocelus Arnold, 1927 == Brimocelus radiatus (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Brimocelus roosevelti Antropov, 2000 (South Africa) Brimocelus schwarzi Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Gessus Antropov, 2001 == Gessus capensis Antropov, 2001 (South Africa) == Genus Minimicroides Antropov, 2000 == Minimicroides perexiguus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Nototis Arnold, 1927 == Nototis bicornutus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Nototis falcidens Antropov, 2007 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelomorpha Brauns, 1897 == Oxybelomorpha braunsii (Kohl, 1923) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha funesta (Arnold, 1929) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha gessi Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha imitans Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha kohlii Brauns in Kohl, 1896 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha nitens Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha pseudosordida Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha pulawskii Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha rhodesiana (Arnold, 1927) (Zimbabwe) Oxybelomorpha rubicunda Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha rufiventris (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha separata Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sgessae Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sordida (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha turneri (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha wojciechi Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelus Latreille, 1796 == Reviewed by Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold-Oxybelus1927>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:76-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> and Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976oxy>https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/364/mode/2up</ref>. Oxybelus acutissimus Bischoff, 1912 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus acutissimus propinquus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus aethiopicus Cameron, 1906 (South Africa) Oxybelus angustus de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus arnoldi Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus bechuanae Arnold, 1936 (Botswana) Oxybelus bicornutus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia, South Africa) Oxybelus braunsi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus congophilus Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus coniferus Arnold, 1951 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus cristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus curviscutis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus dissimilis Arnold, 1934 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus eburneoguttatus Arnold, 1952 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis nyassae Arnold, 1927 (Tanzania) Oxybelus flaviventris Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus fraudulentus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus harraricus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus hessei Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus imperialis Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus lepturus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus limatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus lingula Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus matabele Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus metopias Kohl, 1894 (Mozambique) Oxybelus nasutus Bischoff, 1913 (Namibia) Oxybelus natalensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus neuvillei Magretti, 1908 (Kenya) Oxybelus pallidus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia, Tanzania) Oxybelus paucipunctatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus peringueyi de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus perornatus Arnold, 1945 (Madagascar) Oxybelus pictus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus pilosus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus rubrocaudatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus ruficaudis Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) Oxybelus ruficaudis melanarius Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus solitarius Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus stevensoni Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus subcristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus taschenbergi Kohl, 1875 (South Africa) Oxybelus willowmorensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus woosnami Arnold, 1927 (Botswana, South Africa) Oxybelus zavattarii Guiglia, 1943 (Ethiopia) == Genus Wojus Antropov, 1999 == Wojus inopinatus Antropov, 1999 (South Africa)<br> <br> = South African wasp species of Subtribe Gastrosericina ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= == Genus ''Gastrosericus'' == There are 25 Afrotropical species; four in South Africa. == Genus ''Kohliella'' Brauns, 1910 <ref>http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35572001</ref>== There are three species of ''Kohliella''; two are Afrotropical.<ref>https://www.waspweb.org/Apoidea/Crabronidae/Classification/index.htm</ref> ''Kohliella alaris'' is found in South Africa and Zimbabwe; it hunts tree crickets.<ref>Gess, S.K. & Gess, F.W. 2014. Wasps and bees in southern Africa. SANBI Biodiversity Series 24. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. p. 71-72. https://archive.org/details/waspsbeesinsouth24gess/page/70/mode/2up</ref> == Genus ''Parapiagetia'' == == Genus ''Tachytes'' == There are 79 Afrotropical species; 15 in South Africa. == Genus ''Tachysphex '' == There are 128 Afrotropical species; 41 in South Africa. == Genus ''Larropsis '' == ''Larropsis (Ancistromma) obliqua'' (F. Smith); description in Arnold, 1923b:218 as ''Tachytes obliquus'' == Genus ''Tachytella '' == == Genus ''Prosopigastra'' == == Genus ''Holotachysphex '' == <br> <br> <br> <br> = Southern African wasp species of Tribe Trypoxylini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]]) = == Genus ''Pison'' Jurine, 1808 == Arnold ([http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327574 1924, 1-10]) has a key and descriptions. *''Pison allonymum'' Schulz, 1906 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance 1.5 to 2.5 times the diameter of an ocellus; **Fairly long, whitish or silvery pilosity on head and thorax, more dense on the temples than elsewhere.<ref name=Arnold1924>Arnold, G. (1924) The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part V. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 11:1-4 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327575</ref> *''Pison atrum'' (Spinola, 1808:253) described by Cameron as ''Pison montanum'' (Kenya, South Africa, Zambia) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance not greater than the diameter of an ocellus; **Pronotal collar longer than in ''allonymum''. *''Pison transvaalense'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa to Tanzania and Uganda) **Head and thorax dull; finely and closely punctured; **Distance between the posterior ocelli and the eyes is equal to a third to a half of the diameter of the ocellus. *''Pison auratum'' Shuckard, 1838 (an Australian species; see Pulawski, 2018:85 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Pulawski_2018.pdf) *''Pison denticeps'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; "Transvaal". Two cubital cells; he only record seems to be the description) *''Pison repentinum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison rufitarse'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison scruposum'' Arnold, 1955 (Zimbabwe) == Genus ''Trypoxylon'' Latreille, 1796 == *''Trypoxylon abditum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon algoense'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon arnoldi'' Menke, 1976 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Trypoxylon braunsi'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon capense'' Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon cataractae'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon chirindense'' Arnold, 1936 (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon foveatum'' Cameron, 1904 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon inconstans'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon infimum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon kohli'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon letiferum'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon lissonotum'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon montivagum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon nodosum'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon punctatissimum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon stevensoni'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon stroudi'' Gribodo, 1884 (Ethiopia, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Trypoxylon testaceipes'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon triste'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) = Pompilidae of South Africa = == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly orange to yellow with fuscous (darker or blackish) wing-tips == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Inaturalist 258649905 b.jpg Hemipepsis hilaris - inaturalist 10850475.jpg Cyphononyx decipiens inat 26259647 b.jpg Tachypompilus ignitus inaturalist 311015843 02.jpg Pompilidae 2021 12 12 inaturalist 313386858 04.jpg Pompilidae 2020 04 13 inaturalist 43563902 06.jpg </gallery> *The extent of the fuscous colour can be limited to the apex of the wing beyond the cells, or extend into the cells to a varying extent. * <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings fuscous (black or very dark) == *The wings often have green-blue-violet reflections. <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae 2019 05 01 2835.jpg|Female ''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' Pompilidae inaturalist 124148802 01.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx optimus'' Pompilidae 2021 12 18 iNat 316501919 a.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx obscurus'' Pompilidae 2025 03 14 iNat 266538336 a.jpg|Male ''Hemipepsis vindex'' Pompilidae_2019_05_28_0256.jpg| Spider-hunting Wasp (Hemipepsis) female (12640106905).jpg|''Hemipepsis'' sp. </gallery> <br> === Species with black antennae, legs, head, thorax and abdomen === Some parts may be brown. *''Java atropos'' *''Cyphononyx obscurus'' *''Hemipepsis vindex'' *''Hemipepsis vespertilio'' *''Hemipepsis braunsi'' *''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' <br> === Species with black antennae, head, thorax and abdomen, but legs (or parts of some legs) yellow to red === *''Cyphononyx optimus'' *''Paracyphononyx zonatus'' <br> <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly hyaline to fuscous-hyaline == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae inaturalist 123577538.jpg Pompilidae inaturalist 46961473.jpg Pompilidae iN 144781033 03.jpg </gallery> *With fuscous (darker) wing apex *One or two fuscous bands (faciated or bifaciated) *Hyaline parts can be clouded (whiteish clouding) or coloured (yellow-tinted) <br> == South African Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region: [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 Madl, 2020] *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881; key in Móczár 1986a: 321 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa?, Uganda, Zimbabwe?) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837; key in Móczár 1986b: 125 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904; key in Móczár 1986a: 320 (Lesotho, South Africa) **''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) **''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) **= Hemiceropales scobinifera (Arnold, 1937): Móczár 1986a: 319 *''Ceropales (Bifidoceropales) sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910; key in Móczár 1990: 61 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989: 12 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) <br> ==Afrotropical Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region (Madl, 2020).<ref name=Madl2020>Madl, M. (2020). Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region. Zeitschrift der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Österreichischer Entomologen 72: 73-84. [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 PDF]</ref> Ceropalinae can be defined by:<ref name=Brothers1993>Brothers, D. J. & Finnamore. (1993). Superfamily Vespoidea. In Goulet, H. & Huber, J. T. (Eds.). (1993). Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. 161-278. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259227143</ref><ref name=Waichert2015> Waichert, C., Rodriguez, J., Wasbauer, M. S., Von Dohlen, C. D., & Pitts, J. P. (2015). Molecular phylogeny and systematics of spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae): redefining subfamily boundaries and the origin of the family. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 175(2), 271-287. {{doi|10.1111/zoj.12272}} [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282015793 PDF]</ref> == Genera and species of Afrotropical Ceropalinae == This list is based on that of [https://www.waspweb.org/Pompiloidea/Pompilidae/Ceropalinae/index.htm '''waspweb'''] with changes following the Catalogue of Life (Kroupa & Schmid-Egger, 2025)<ref name=CoL2025> Kroupa, A. S., & Schmid-Egger, C. (2025). Hymenoptera Information System, Pompilidae of the World (version 2019-09). In O. Bánki, Y. Roskov, M. Döring, G. Ower, D. R. Hernández Robles, C. A. Plata Corredor, T. Stjernegaard Jeppesen, A. Örn, T. Pape, D. Hobern, S. Garnett, H. Little, R. E. DeWalt, J. Miller, T. Orrell, R. Aalbu, J. Abbott, C. Aedo, E. Aescht, et al., Catalogue of Life (Version 2025-07-10). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dg9ld-4kv </ref> and [[w:George_Arnold_(entomologist)|papers by Arnold (1932-1962)]].<br> === Genus ''Ceropales'' === *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales arnoldi'' Móczar, 1988 (Namibia) *''Ceropales atra'' Móczar, 1991 (Botswana) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales cribrata maculipes'' Móczar, 1986 (Zambia) *''Ceropales carinitifrons'' Wahis, 1986 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales dayi'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales ferrugo'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales gambiae'' Móczar, 1989 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone) *''Ceropales gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales juncoi'' Giner Mari, 1945 (Chad, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Western Sahara) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales latifasciatus'' Arnold, 1937 (Ethiopia) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales levipleuris'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales maliensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Mali, Senegal) *''Ceropales maroccana'' Beaumont, 1947 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales multipicta'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Namibia) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales ruficollis'' Cameron, 1910 (Kenya, Tanzania) *''Ceropales saegeri'' Móczar, 1988 (Democratic Reublic of Congo) *''Ceropales senegalensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal) **''Ceropales senegalensis mbouri'' Móczar, 1988 (Senegal) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) *''Ceropales seyrigi'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales spinolai'' Móczar, 1988 (Guinea) *''Ceropales subhelvetica'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Senegal. Also Palaearctic: Israel) *''Ceropales sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa, Tanzania) **''Ceropales sulciscutis raymondi'' Móczar, 1990 (Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Ceropales variolosus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, Uganda) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales yemeni'' Móczar, 1988 (Yemen. Also Palaearctic: Israel, Saudi Arabia) <br> === Genus ''Irenangelus'' === *''Irenangelus madescassus'' Wahis, 1988 (Madagascar) <br> ==Eumeninae== Photos of ''Antodynerus'' on GBIF:<br> ''alboniger'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689053 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''hova'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320165802 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''kelneri'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/3762658306 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<br> ''lugubris'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689125 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''seyrigi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1322648015 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''sheffieldi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1318932924 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''silaos'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320574593 (CC0 1.0)<br> ==Ants== '''Subfamilies of Formicidae (WaspWeb)''' Number of iNaturalist records for subfamilies of Formicidae in Africa (2023-05-23) Amblyoponinae 7 Dolichoderinae 630 Dorylinae 1 167 Formicinae 10 396 Camponotus 6 090; Lepisiota 1 046 Myrmicinae 8 484 Crematogaster 1 786; Pheidole 1 468; Messor 1 156 Ponerinae 1 623 Proceratiinae 3 Pseudomyrmecinae 296 Aenictinae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictus'' <br> Aenictogitoninae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictogiton'' <br> Amblyoponinae Five Afrotropical genera <br> Apomyrminae One Afrotropical genus ''Apomyrma'' <br> Cerapachyinae Five Afrotropical genera<br> Dolichoderinae Eight Afrotropical genera<br> Dorylinae One Afrotropical genus ''Dorylus'' <br> Formicinae 20 Afrotropical genera<br> Leptanillinae One Afrotropical genus ''Leptanilla'' <br> Myrmicinae 37 Afrotropical genera <br> Ponerinae 18 Afrotropical genera <br> Proceratiinae Three Afrotropical genera <br> Pseudomyrmecinae One Afrotropical genus Tetraponera <br> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Aenictogiton sp.jpg|''Aenictogiton'' sp., Aenictogitoninae Apomyrma stygia casent0101444 profile 1.jpg|''Apomyrma stygia'', Apomyrminae Cerapachys coxalis casent0173076 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys coxalis'', Cerapachyinae Cerapachys centurio castype12081-02 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys centurio'', Cerapachyinae Tapinoma subtile casent0132840 dorsal 1.jpg|''Tapinoma subtile'', Dolichoderinae Dorylus helvolus, a, Seringveld.jpg|''Dorylus helvolus'', Dorylinae Polyrhachis schistacea00.jpg|''Polyrhachis schistacea'', Formicinae Anoplolepis custodiens, met prooi, a, Krugersdorp.jpg|''Anoplolepis custodiens'', Formicinae AFRICAN THIEF ANT SIX.jpg|''Carebara vidua'', Myrmicinae Millipede Hunter Ant (Plectroctena mandibularis) (11904420373).jpg|''Plectroctena mandibularis'', Ponerinae Discothyrea hewitti sam-hym-c000061a profile 1.jpg|''Discothyrea hewitti'', Proceratiinae Probolomyrmex filiformis casent0102141 profile 1.jpg|''Probolomyrmex filiformis'', Proceratiinae Slender Ant (Tetraponera natalensis) (30538051244).jpg|''Tetraponera natalensis'', Pseudomyrmecinae </gallery> == N-P interactions == Dai, Z., Liu, G., Chen, H., Chen, C., Wang, J., Ai, S., Wei, D., Li, D., Ma, B., Tang, C., Brookes, P.C. and Xu, J., 2020. Long-term nutrient inputs shift soil microbial functional profiles of phosphorus cycling in diverse agroecosystems. The ISME journal, 14(3), pp.757-770. '''Abstract''' Microorganisms play an important role in soil phosphorus (P) cycling and regulation of P availability in agroecosystems. However, the responses of the functional and ecological traits of P-transformation microorganisms to long-term nutrient inputs are largely unknown. This study used metagenomics to investigate changes in the relative abundance of microbial P-transformation genes at four long-term experimental sites that received various inputs of N and P nutrients (up to 39 years). Long-term P input increased microbial P immobilization by decreasing the relative abundance of the P-starvation response gene (phoR) and increasing that of the low-affinity inorganic phosphate transporter gene (pit). This contrasts with previous findings that low-P conditions facilitate P immobilization in culturable microorganisms in short-term studies. In comparison, long-term nitrogen (N) input significantly decreased soil pH, and consequently decreased the relative abundances of total microbial P-solubilizing genes and the abundances of Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria containing genes coding for alkaline phosphatase, and weakened the connection of relevant key genes. This challenges the concept that microbial P-solubilization capacity is mainly regulated by N:P stoichiometry. It is concluded that long-term N inputs decreased microbial P-solubilizing and mineralizing capacity while P inputs favored microbial immobilization via altering the microbial functional profiles, providing a novel insight into the regulation of P cycling in sustainable agroecosystems from a microbial perspective. ==Diptera== ===Wing and leg-waving behavior in flies=== ====Food detection==== *''Rhagio lineola'' and ''R. tringarius'' feed on pollen and/or honeydew, which they locate by sweeping their front legs across the surface of leaves. They have a few fine hairs on their front legs, probably for this purpose. Other Rhagionidae do not have these hairs. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359760392 *It is also possible that some flies sample the air with the chemical sensors on their legs or feet. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage ====Courtship==== *Some Taeniapterinae are thought to wave their white-tipped front legs attract females. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage *''Physiphora clausa'' appear to use leg-waving in courtship displays. **https://www.flickr.com/photos/jean_hort/4663220062 *Waving of forelegs is included in the complex courtship behavior of ''Physiphora demandata'' **https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1979.tb00298.x ====Mimics for defense==== *Stilt-legged flies ''Rainieria antennaepes'' mimic ichneumonid wasps. They extend their fore-legs in front of their head, so they look like wasp antennae. **https://thingsbiological.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/stilt-legged-flies-rainieria-antennaepes/ *Some hover-fly species mimic wasps by mock stinging, leg waving, or wing wagging. **https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/674612 *Wing-waving to mimic salticid spiders. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27373081 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6083895<br> <br> ===Number of iNat records in Acalyptrate fly families=== The [[w:acalyptratae|acalyptrate fly clade]] includes the following superfamilies and families:<br> * '''Carnoidea''' ** Acartophthalmidae 0 ** Australimyzidae 0 ** Braulidae (bee lice) 1 ** Canacidae (beach flies) 3 ** Carnidae (bird flies) 0 ** Chloropidae (frit flies) 259 ** Cryptochetidae 1 ** Inbiomyiidae 0 ** Milichiidae (freeloader flies) 158 <br> * '''Diopsoidea''' ** Diopsidae (stalk-eyed flies) 545 ** Gobryidae 0 ** Megamerinidae 0 ** Nothybidae 0 ** Psilidae (rust flies) 29 ** Somatiidae 0 ** Syringogastridae 0 <br> * '''Ephydroidea''' ** Camillidae 0 ** Campichoetidae 0 ** Curtonotidae (quasimodo flies) 15 ** Diastatidae 0 ** Drosophilidae (vinegar and fruit flies) 312 ** Ephydridae (shore flies) 117 <br> * '''Lauxanioidea''' ** Celyphidae (beetle flies) 0 ** Chamaemyiidae (aphid flies) 24 ** Cremifaniidae 0 ** Lauxaniidae (lauxaniid flies) 710 <br> * '''Nerioidea''' ** Cypselosomatidae 0 ** Fergusoninidae 0 ** Micropezidae (stilt-legged flies) 245 ** Neriidae 109 ** Strongylophthalmyiidae 0 ** Tanypezidae (stretched-foot flies) 0 <br> * '''Opomyzoidea''' ** Agromyzidae (leaf-miner flies) 161 ** Anthomyzidae 3 ** Asteiidae 4 ** Aulacigastridae 2 ** Clusiidae (druid flies) 2 ** Marginidae 0 ** Neminidae 0 ** Neurochaetidae 0 ** Odiniidae 0 ** Opomyzidae 4 ** Periscelididae 1 ** Teratomyzidae 0 ** Xenasteiidae 0 <br> * '''Sciomyzoidea''' ** Coelopidae (kelp flies) 51 ** Conopidae (thick-headed flies) 192 ** Dryomyzidae 1 ** Helcomyzidae 0 ** Helosciomyzidae 0 ** Heterocheilidae 0 ** Huttoninidae 0 ** Natalimyzidae 0 ** Phaeomyiidae 0 ** Ropalomeridae 1 ** Sciomyzidae (marsh flies) 67 ** Sepsidae (black scavenger flies) 269 <br> * '''Sphaeroceroidea''' ** Chyromyidae (golden flies) 19 ** Heleomyzidae (heleomyzid flies) 151 ** Nannodastiidae 0 ** Sphaeroceridae (lesser dung flies) 48 <br> * '''Tephritoidea''' ** Ctenostylidae 1 ** Lonchaeidae (lance flies) 47 ** Pallopteridae (flutter-wing flies) 5 ** Piophilidae (cheese skipper flies) 1 ** Platystomatidae (signal flies) 683 ** Pyrgotidae (scarab-pursuing flies) 119 ** Richardiidae 0 ** Tachiniscidae 2 ** Tephritidae (fruit flies) 1,759 ** Ulidiidae (picture-winged flies) 165 == References == s6c74ezc78offo3azdpk7mach2wps5v 2834023 2834022 2026-09-20T16:25:05Z Alandmanson 1669821 /* Genus Belokohlus Antropov, 2007Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 PDF */ 2834023 wikitext text/x-wiki <!--Info--> = African wasps of the tribe Oxybelini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976>Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A. S. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World: a Generic Revision. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. pp. 359-370 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/n359/mode/2up</ref> reviewed the tribe worldwide. Antropov (1999-2007) and Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:55-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> reviewed African species.<br> The submarginal cell in the forewing is fused with the discoidal cells; most species have metanotal squamae (paired, scale-like or plate-like projections of the metanotum) and a mucro (an extension of the propodeum).<ref name=BohartMenke1976/> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> GL.96 Oxybelus uniglumis m.jpg|An ''Oxybelus uniglumis'' specimen from Finland showing the wing venation typical of the Oxybelini Oxybelus iN 250449990 2024 10 09 - 02.jpg|An ''Oxybelus'' wasp showing the mucro projecting above the wing </gallery> == Genus ''Belarnoldus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == This genus has a single species, described as ''Belomicrus crassus'' by [[w:George Arnold (entomologist)|Arnold]] in 1936; it differs from other Oxybelini in having a compressed scape with a longitudinal carina on the ventral (lower) side.<ref name=Antropov2007/> *''Belarnoldus crassus'' (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa) == Genus ''Belokohlus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == *''Belokohlus ferrieri'' (Kohl, 1924) (South Africa) == Genus Belomicrinus Antropov, 2000 == Belomicrinus luteosquamatus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) Belomicrinus minutissimus (Arnold, 1936) (Namibia) == Genus Belomicroides Kohl, 1899 == Belomicroides arenarius Arnold, 1960 (Zimbabwe) Belomicroides clypeatus Antropov, 2002 (South Africa) Belomicroides erythrogaster Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides marleyi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides maximiliani Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides pictus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides pictus chrysoptilus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides politus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides rift Antropov, 2002 (Kenya) Belomicroides veronicae Antropov, 2002 (Ethiopia) Belomicroides woji Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) == Genus Belomicrus Costa, 1867 == Belomicrus mirificus Kohl, 1905 (Ethiopia) == Genus Brimocelus Arnold, 1927 == Brimocelus radiatus (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Brimocelus roosevelti Antropov, 2000 (South Africa) Brimocelus schwarzi Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Gessus Antropov, 2001 == Gessus capensis Antropov, 2001 (South Africa) == Genus Minimicroides Antropov, 2000 == Minimicroides perexiguus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Nototis Arnold, 1927 == Nototis bicornutus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Nototis falcidens Antropov, 2007 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelomorpha Brauns, 1897 == Oxybelomorpha braunsii (Kohl, 1923) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha funesta (Arnold, 1929) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha gessi Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha imitans Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha kohlii Brauns in Kohl, 1896 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha nitens Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha pseudosordida Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha pulawskii Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha rhodesiana (Arnold, 1927) (Zimbabwe) Oxybelomorpha rubicunda Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha rufiventris (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha separata Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sgessae Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sordida (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha turneri (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha wojciechi Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelus Latreille, 1796 == Reviewed by Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold-Oxybelus1927>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:76-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> and Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976oxy>https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/364/mode/2up</ref>. Oxybelus acutissimus Bischoff, 1912 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus acutissimus propinquus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus aethiopicus Cameron, 1906 (South Africa) Oxybelus angustus de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus arnoldi Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus bechuanae Arnold, 1936 (Botswana) Oxybelus bicornutus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia, South Africa) Oxybelus braunsi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus congophilus Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus coniferus Arnold, 1951 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus cristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus curviscutis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus dissimilis Arnold, 1934 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus eburneoguttatus Arnold, 1952 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis nyassae Arnold, 1927 (Tanzania) Oxybelus flaviventris Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus fraudulentus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus harraricus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus hessei Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus imperialis Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus lepturus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus limatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus lingula Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus matabele Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus metopias Kohl, 1894 (Mozambique) Oxybelus nasutus Bischoff, 1913 (Namibia) Oxybelus natalensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus neuvillei Magretti, 1908 (Kenya) Oxybelus pallidus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia, Tanzania) Oxybelus paucipunctatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus peringueyi de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus perornatus Arnold, 1945 (Madagascar) Oxybelus pictus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus pilosus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus rubrocaudatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus ruficaudis Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) Oxybelus ruficaudis melanarius Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus solitarius Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus stevensoni Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus subcristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus taschenbergi Kohl, 1875 (South Africa) Oxybelus willowmorensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus woosnami Arnold, 1927 (Botswana, South Africa) Oxybelus zavattarii Guiglia, 1943 (Ethiopia) == Genus Wojus Antropov, 1999 == Wojus inopinatus Antropov, 1999 (South Africa)<br> <br> = South African wasp species of Subtribe Gastrosericina ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= == Genus ''Gastrosericus'' == There are 25 Afrotropical species; four in South Africa. == Genus ''Kohliella'' Brauns, 1910 <ref>http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35572001</ref>== There are three species of ''Kohliella''; two are Afrotropical.<ref>https://www.waspweb.org/Apoidea/Crabronidae/Classification/index.htm</ref> ''Kohliella alaris'' is found in South Africa and Zimbabwe; it hunts tree crickets.<ref>Gess, S.K. & Gess, F.W. 2014. Wasps and bees in southern Africa. SANBI Biodiversity Series 24. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. p. 71-72. https://archive.org/details/waspsbeesinsouth24gess/page/70/mode/2up</ref> == Genus ''Parapiagetia'' == == Genus ''Tachytes'' == There are 79 Afrotropical species; 15 in South Africa. == Genus ''Tachysphex '' == There are 128 Afrotropical species; 41 in South Africa. == Genus ''Larropsis '' == ''Larropsis (Ancistromma) obliqua'' (F. Smith); description in Arnold, 1923b:218 as ''Tachytes obliquus'' == Genus ''Tachytella '' == == Genus ''Prosopigastra'' == == Genus ''Holotachysphex '' == <br> <br> <br> <br> = Southern African wasp species of Tribe Trypoxylini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]]) = == Genus ''Pison'' Jurine, 1808 == Arnold ([http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327574 1924, 1-10]) has a key and descriptions. *''Pison allonymum'' Schulz, 1906 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance 1.5 to 2.5 times the diameter of an ocellus; **Fairly long, whitish or silvery pilosity on head and thorax, more dense on the temples than elsewhere.<ref name=Arnold1924>Arnold, G. (1924) The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part V. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 11:1-4 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327575</ref> *''Pison atrum'' (Spinola, 1808:253) described by Cameron as ''Pison montanum'' (Kenya, South Africa, Zambia) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance not greater than the diameter of an ocellus; **Pronotal collar longer than in ''allonymum''. *''Pison transvaalense'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa to Tanzania and Uganda) **Head and thorax dull; finely and closely punctured; **Distance between the posterior ocelli and the eyes is equal to a third to a half of the diameter of the ocellus. *''Pison auratum'' Shuckard, 1838 (an Australian species; see Pulawski, 2018:85 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Pulawski_2018.pdf) *''Pison denticeps'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; "Transvaal". Two cubital cells; he only record seems to be the description) *''Pison repentinum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison rufitarse'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison scruposum'' Arnold, 1955 (Zimbabwe) == Genus ''Trypoxylon'' Latreille, 1796 == *''Trypoxylon abditum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon algoense'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon arnoldi'' Menke, 1976 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Trypoxylon braunsi'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon capense'' Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon cataractae'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon chirindense'' Arnold, 1936 (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon foveatum'' Cameron, 1904 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon inconstans'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon infimum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon kohli'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon letiferum'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon lissonotum'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon montivagum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon nodosum'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon punctatissimum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon stevensoni'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon stroudi'' Gribodo, 1884 (Ethiopia, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Trypoxylon testaceipes'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon triste'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) = Pompilidae of South Africa = == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly orange to yellow with fuscous (darker or blackish) wing-tips == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Inaturalist 258649905 b.jpg Hemipepsis hilaris - inaturalist 10850475.jpg Cyphononyx decipiens inat 26259647 b.jpg Tachypompilus ignitus inaturalist 311015843 02.jpg Pompilidae 2021 12 12 inaturalist 313386858 04.jpg Pompilidae 2020 04 13 inaturalist 43563902 06.jpg </gallery> *The extent of the fuscous colour can be limited to the apex of the wing beyond the cells, or extend into the cells to a varying extent. * <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings fuscous (black or very dark) == *The wings often have green-blue-violet reflections. <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae 2019 05 01 2835.jpg|Female ''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' Pompilidae inaturalist 124148802 01.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx optimus'' Pompilidae 2021 12 18 iNat 316501919 a.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx obscurus'' Pompilidae 2025 03 14 iNat 266538336 a.jpg|Male ''Hemipepsis vindex'' Pompilidae_2019_05_28_0256.jpg| Spider-hunting Wasp (Hemipepsis) female (12640106905).jpg|''Hemipepsis'' sp. </gallery> <br> === Species with black antennae, legs, head, thorax and abdomen === Some parts may be brown. *''Java atropos'' *''Cyphononyx obscurus'' *''Hemipepsis vindex'' *''Hemipepsis vespertilio'' *''Hemipepsis braunsi'' *''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' <br> === Species with black antennae, head, thorax and abdomen, but legs (or parts of some legs) yellow to red === *''Cyphononyx optimus'' *''Paracyphononyx zonatus'' <br> <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly hyaline to fuscous-hyaline == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae inaturalist 123577538.jpg Pompilidae inaturalist 46961473.jpg Pompilidae iN 144781033 03.jpg </gallery> *With fuscous (darker) wing apex *One or two fuscous bands (faciated or bifaciated) *Hyaline parts can be clouded (whiteish clouding) or coloured (yellow-tinted) <br> == South African Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region: [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 Madl, 2020] *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881; key in Móczár 1986a: 321 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa?, Uganda, Zimbabwe?) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837; key in Móczár 1986b: 125 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904; key in Móczár 1986a: 320 (Lesotho, South Africa) **''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) **''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) **= Hemiceropales scobinifera (Arnold, 1937): Móczár 1986a: 319 *''Ceropales (Bifidoceropales) sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910; key in Móczár 1990: 61 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989: 12 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) <br> ==Afrotropical Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region (Madl, 2020).<ref name=Madl2020>Madl, M. (2020). Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region. Zeitschrift der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Österreichischer Entomologen 72: 73-84. [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 PDF]</ref> Ceropalinae can be defined by:<ref name=Brothers1993>Brothers, D. J. & Finnamore. (1993). Superfamily Vespoidea. In Goulet, H. & Huber, J. T. (Eds.). (1993). Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. 161-278. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259227143</ref><ref name=Waichert2015> Waichert, C., Rodriguez, J., Wasbauer, M. S., Von Dohlen, C. D., & Pitts, J. P. (2015). Molecular phylogeny and systematics of spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae): redefining subfamily boundaries and the origin of the family. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 175(2), 271-287. {{doi|10.1111/zoj.12272}} [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282015793 PDF]</ref> == Genera and species of Afrotropical Ceropalinae == This list is based on that of [https://www.waspweb.org/Pompiloidea/Pompilidae/Ceropalinae/index.htm '''waspweb'''] with changes following the Catalogue of Life (Kroupa & Schmid-Egger, 2025)<ref name=CoL2025> Kroupa, A. S., & Schmid-Egger, C. (2025). Hymenoptera Information System, Pompilidae of the World (version 2019-09). In O. Bánki, Y. Roskov, M. Döring, G. Ower, D. R. Hernández Robles, C. A. Plata Corredor, T. Stjernegaard Jeppesen, A. Örn, T. Pape, D. Hobern, S. Garnett, H. Little, R. E. DeWalt, J. Miller, T. Orrell, R. Aalbu, J. Abbott, C. Aedo, E. Aescht, et al., Catalogue of Life (Version 2025-07-10). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dg9ld-4kv </ref> and [[w:George_Arnold_(entomologist)|papers by Arnold (1932-1962)]].<br> === Genus ''Ceropales'' === *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales arnoldi'' Móczar, 1988 (Namibia) *''Ceropales atra'' Móczar, 1991 (Botswana) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales cribrata maculipes'' Móczar, 1986 (Zambia) *''Ceropales carinitifrons'' Wahis, 1986 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales dayi'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales ferrugo'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales gambiae'' Móczar, 1989 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone) *''Ceropales gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales juncoi'' Giner Mari, 1945 (Chad, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Western Sahara) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales latifasciatus'' Arnold, 1937 (Ethiopia) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales levipleuris'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales maliensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Mali, Senegal) *''Ceropales maroccana'' Beaumont, 1947 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales multipicta'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Namibia) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales ruficollis'' Cameron, 1910 (Kenya, Tanzania) *''Ceropales saegeri'' Móczar, 1988 (Democratic Reublic of Congo) *''Ceropales senegalensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal) **''Ceropales senegalensis mbouri'' Móczar, 1988 (Senegal) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) *''Ceropales seyrigi'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales spinolai'' Móczar, 1988 (Guinea) *''Ceropales subhelvetica'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Senegal. Also Palaearctic: Israel) *''Ceropales sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa, Tanzania) **''Ceropales sulciscutis raymondi'' Móczar, 1990 (Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Ceropales variolosus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, Uganda) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales yemeni'' Móczar, 1988 (Yemen. Also Palaearctic: Israel, Saudi Arabia) <br> === Genus ''Irenangelus'' === *''Irenangelus madescassus'' Wahis, 1988 (Madagascar) <br> ==Eumeninae== Photos of ''Antodynerus'' on GBIF:<br> ''alboniger'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689053 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''hova'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320165802 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''kelneri'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/3762658306 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<br> ''lugubris'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689125 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''seyrigi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1322648015 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''sheffieldi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1318932924 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''silaos'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320574593 (CC0 1.0)<br> ==Ants== '''Subfamilies of Formicidae (WaspWeb)''' Number of iNaturalist records for subfamilies of Formicidae in Africa (2023-05-23) Amblyoponinae 7 Dolichoderinae 630 Dorylinae 1 167 Formicinae 10 396 Camponotus 6 090; Lepisiota 1 046 Myrmicinae 8 484 Crematogaster 1 786; Pheidole 1 468; Messor 1 156 Ponerinae 1 623 Proceratiinae 3 Pseudomyrmecinae 296 Aenictinae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictus'' <br> Aenictogitoninae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictogiton'' <br> Amblyoponinae Five Afrotropical genera <br> Apomyrminae One Afrotropical genus ''Apomyrma'' <br> Cerapachyinae Five Afrotropical genera<br> Dolichoderinae Eight Afrotropical genera<br> Dorylinae One Afrotropical genus ''Dorylus'' <br> Formicinae 20 Afrotropical genera<br> Leptanillinae One Afrotropical genus ''Leptanilla'' <br> Myrmicinae 37 Afrotropical genera <br> Ponerinae 18 Afrotropical genera <br> Proceratiinae Three Afrotropical genera <br> Pseudomyrmecinae One Afrotropical genus Tetraponera <br> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Aenictogiton sp.jpg|''Aenictogiton'' sp., Aenictogitoninae Apomyrma stygia casent0101444 profile 1.jpg|''Apomyrma stygia'', Apomyrminae Cerapachys coxalis casent0173076 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys coxalis'', Cerapachyinae Cerapachys centurio castype12081-02 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys centurio'', Cerapachyinae Tapinoma subtile casent0132840 dorsal 1.jpg|''Tapinoma subtile'', Dolichoderinae Dorylus helvolus, a, Seringveld.jpg|''Dorylus helvolus'', Dorylinae Polyrhachis schistacea00.jpg|''Polyrhachis schistacea'', Formicinae Anoplolepis custodiens, met prooi, a, Krugersdorp.jpg|''Anoplolepis custodiens'', Formicinae AFRICAN THIEF ANT SIX.jpg|''Carebara vidua'', Myrmicinae Millipede Hunter Ant (Plectroctena mandibularis) (11904420373).jpg|''Plectroctena mandibularis'', Ponerinae Discothyrea hewitti sam-hym-c000061a profile 1.jpg|''Discothyrea hewitti'', Proceratiinae Probolomyrmex filiformis casent0102141 profile 1.jpg|''Probolomyrmex filiformis'', Proceratiinae Slender Ant (Tetraponera natalensis) (30538051244).jpg|''Tetraponera natalensis'', Pseudomyrmecinae </gallery> == N-P interactions == Dai, Z., Liu, G., Chen, H., Chen, C., Wang, J., Ai, S., Wei, D., Li, D., Ma, B., Tang, C., Brookes, P.C. and Xu, J., 2020. Long-term nutrient inputs shift soil microbial functional profiles of phosphorus cycling in diverse agroecosystems. The ISME journal, 14(3), pp.757-770. '''Abstract''' Microorganisms play an important role in soil phosphorus (P) cycling and regulation of P availability in agroecosystems. However, the responses of the functional and ecological traits of P-transformation microorganisms to long-term nutrient inputs are largely unknown. This study used metagenomics to investigate changes in the relative abundance of microbial P-transformation genes at four long-term experimental sites that received various inputs of N and P nutrients (up to 39 years). Long-term P input increased microbial P immobilization by decreasing the relative abundance of the P-starvation response gene (phoR) and increasing that of the low-affinity inorganic phosphate transporter gene (pit). This contrasts with previous findings that low-P conditions facilitate P immobilization in culturable microorganisms in short-term studies. In comparison, long-term nitrogen (N) input significantly decreased soil pH, and consequently decreased the relative abundances of total microbial P-solubilizing genes and the abundances of Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria containing genes coding for alkaline phosphatase, and weakened the connection of relevant key genes. This challenges the concept that microbial P-solubilization capacity is mainly regulated by N:P stoichiometry. It is concluded that long-term N inputs decreased microbial P-solubilizing and mineralizing capacity while P inputs favored microbial immobilization via altering the microbial functional profiles, providing a novel insight into the regulation of P cycling in sustainable agroecosystems from a microbial perspective. ==Diptera== ===Wing and leg-waving behavior in flies=== ====Food detection==== *''Rhagio lineola'' and ''R. tringarius'' feed on pollen and/or honeydew, which they locate by sweeping their front legs across the surface of leaves. They have a few fine hairs on their front legs, probably for this purpose. Other Rhagionidae do not have these hairs. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359760392 *It is also possible that some flies sample the air with the chemical sensors on their legs or feet. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage ====Courtship==== *Some Taeniapterinae are thought to wave their white-tipped front legs attract females. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage *''Physiphora clausa'' appear to use leg-waving in courtship displays. **https://www.flickr.com/photos/jean_hort/4663220062 *Waving of forelegs is included in the complex courtship behavior of ''Physiphora demandata'' **https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1979.tb00298.x ====Mimics for defense==== *Stilt-legged flies ''Rainieria antennaepes'' mimic ichneumonid wasps. They extend their fore-legs in front of their head, so they look like wasp antennae. **https://thingsbiological.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/stilt-legged-flies-rainieria-antennaepes/ *Some hover-fly species mimic wasps by mock stinging, leg waving, or wing wagging. **https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/674612 *Wing-waving to mimic salticid spiders. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27373081 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6083895<br> <br> ===Number of iNat records in Acalyptrate fly families=== The [[w:acalyptratae|acalyptrate fly clade]] includes the following superfamilies and families:<br> * '''Carnoidea''' ** Acartophthalmidae 0 ** Australimyzidae 0 ** Braulidae (bee lice) 1 ** Canacidae (beach flies) 3 ** Carnidae (bird flies) 0 ** Chloropidae (frit flies) 259 ** Cryptochetidae 1 ** Inbiomyiidae 0 ** Milichiidae (freeloader flies) 158 <br> * '''Diopsoidea''' ** Diopsidae (stalk-eyed flies) 545 ** Gobryidae 0 ** Megamerinidae 0 ** Nothybidae 0 ** Psilidae (rust flies) 29 ** Somatiidae 0 ** Syringogastridae 0 <br> * '''Ephydroidea''' ** Camillidae 0 ** Campichoetidae 0 ** Curtonotidae (quasimodo flies) 15 ** Diastatidae 0 ** Drosophilidae (vinegar and fruit flies) 312 ** Ephydridae (shore flies) 117 <br> * '''Lauxanioidea''' ** Celyphidae (beetle flies) 0 ** Chamaemyiidae (aphid flies) 24 ** Cremifaniidae 0 ** Lauxaniidae (lauxaniid flies) 710 <br> * '''Nerioidea''' ** Cypselosomatidae 0 ** Fergusoninidae 0 ** Micropezidae (stilt-legged flies) 245 ** Neriidae 109 ** Strongylophthalmyiidae 0 ** Tanypezidae (stretched-foot flies) 0 <br> * '''Opomyzoidea''' ** Agromyzidae (leaf-miner flies) 161 ** Anthomyzidae 3 ** Asteiidae 4 ** Aulacigastridae 2 ** Clusiidae (druid flies) 2 ** Marginidae 0 ** Neminidae 0 ** Neurochaetidae 0 ** Odiniidae 0 ** Opomyzidae 4 ** Periscelididae 1 ** Teratomyzidae 0 ** Xenasteiidae 0 <br> * '''Sciomyzoidea''' ** Coelopidae (kelp flies) 51 ** Conopidae (thick-headed flies) 192 ** Dryomyzidae 1 ** Helcomyzidae 0 ** Helosciomyzidae 0 ** Heterocheilidae 0 ** Huttoninidae 0 ** Natalimyzidae 0 ** Phaeomyiidae 0 ** Ropalomeridae 1 ** Sciomyzidae (marsh flies) 67 ** Sepsidae (black scavenger flies) 269 <br> * '''Sphaeroceroidea''' ** Chyromyidae (golden flies) 19 ** Heleomyzidae (heleomyzid flies) 151 ** Nannodastiidae 0 ** Sphaeroceridae (lesser dung flies) 48 <br> * '''Tephritoidea''' ** Ctenostylidae 1 ** Lonchaeidae (lance flies) 47 ** Pallopteridae (flutter-wing flies) 5 ** Piophilidae (cheese skipper flies) 1 ** Platystomatidae (signal flies) 683 ** Pyrgotidae (scarab-pursuing flies) 119 ** Richardiidae 0 ** Tachiniscidae 2 ** Tephritidae (fruit flies) 1,759 ** Ulidiidae (picture-winged flies) 165 == References == 3xifx770xdrzpu3ledbu3yojxjyom5g 2834024 2834023 2026-09-20T16:35:01Z Alandmanson 1669821 /* Genus Belarnoldus Antropov, 2007Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 PDF */ 2834024 wikitext text/x-wiki <!--Info--> = African wasps of the tribe Oxybelini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976>Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A. S. 1976. Sphecid Wasps of the World: a Generic Revision. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. pp. 359-370 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/n359/mode/2up</ref> reviewed the tribe worldwide. Antropov (1999-2007) and Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:55-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> reviewed African species.<br> The submarginal cell in the forewing is fused with the discoidal cells; most species have metanotal squamae (paired, scale-like or plate-like projections of the metanotum) and a mucro (an extension of the propodeum).<ref name=BohartMenke1976/> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> GL.96 Oxybelus uniglumis m.jpg|An ''Oxybelus uniglumis'' specimen from Finland showing the wing venation typical of the Oxybelini Oxybelus iN 250449990 2024 10 09 - 02.jpg|An ''Oxybelus'' wasp showing the mucro projecting above the wing </gallery> == Genus ''Belarnoldus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == This genus has a single species, described as ''Belomicrus crassus'' by [[w:George Arnold (entomologist)|Arnold]] in 1936; it differs from other Oxybelini in having a compressed scape with a longitudinal carina on the ventral (lower) side.<ref name=Antropov2007/> The body is black; parts of the clypeus and mandible, squamae and tarsi are brownish; and the apical edges of the first three metasomal tergites are dark brown. *''Belarnoldus crassus'' (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa; Springbok, Kamieskroon, Matjesfontein) == Genus ''Belokohlus'' <small>Antropov, 2007<ref name=Antropov2007>Antropov, A. V. (2007). On the taxonomy of South African digger wasps of the tribe Oxybelini (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Entomological Review, 87(4), 413-430. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0013873807040045 [http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Antropov_2007b_Nototis_et_al_Eng.pdf PDF]</ref></small> == *''Belokohlus ferrieri'' (Kohl, 1924) (South Africa) == Genus Belomicrinus Antropov, 2000 == Belomicrinus luteosquamatus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) Belomicrinus minutissimus (Arnold, 1936) (Namibia) == Genus Belomicroides Kohl, 1899 == Belomicroides arenarius Arnold, 1960 (Zimbabwe) Belomicroides clypeatus Antropov, 2002 (South Africa) Belomicroides erythrogaster Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides marleyi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides maximiliani Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides pictus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Belomicroides pictus chrysoptilus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides politus Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) Belomicroides rift Antropov, 2002 (Kenya) Belomicroides veronicae Antropov, 2002 (Ethiopia) Belomicroides woji Antropov, 2002 (Namibia) == Genus Belomicrus Costa, 1867 == Belomicrus mirificus Kohl, 1905 (Ethiopia) == Genus Brimocelus Arnold, 1927 == Brimocelus radiatus (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Brimocelus roosevelti Antropov, 2000 (South Africa) Brimocelus schwarzi Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Gessus Antropov, 2001 == Gessus capensis Antropov, 2001 (South Africa) == Genus Minimicroides Antropov, 2000 == Minimicroides perexiguus Antropov, 2000 (Namibia) == Genus Nototis Arnold, 1927 == Nototis bicornutus Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Nototis falcidens Antropov, 2007 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelomorpha Brauns, 1897 == Oxybelomorpha braunsii (Kohl, 1923) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha funesta (Arnold, 1929) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha gessi Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha imitans Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha kohlii Brauns in Kohl, 1896 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha nitens Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha pseudosordida Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha pulawskii Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha rhodesiana (Arnold, 1927) (Zimbabwe) Oxybelomorpha rubicunda Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) Oxybelomorpha rufiventris (Arnold, 1936) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha separata Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sgessae Antropov, 2005 (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha sordida (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha turneri (Arnold, 1927) (South Africa) Oxybelomorpha wojciechi Antropov, 2005 (Namibia) == Genus Oxybelus Latreille, 1796 == Reviewed by Arnold (1927)<ref name=Arnold-Oxybelus1927>Arnold, 1927. The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part VIII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 12:76-115. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60351914.</ref> and Bohart and Menke (1976)<ref name=BohartMenke1976oxy>https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FExMjuRhjpIC/page/364/mode/2up</ref>. Oxybelus acutissimus Bischoff, 1912 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus acutissimus propinquus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus aethiopicus Cameron, 1906 (South Africa) Oxybelus angustus de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus arnoldi Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus bechuanae Arnold, 1936 (Botswana) Oxybelus bicornutus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia, South Africa) Oxybelus braunsi Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus congophilus Benoit, 1951 (Democratic Republic of Congo) Oxybelus coniferus Arnold, 1951 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus cristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus curviscutis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus dissimilis Arnold, 1934 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus eburneoguttatus Arnold, 1952 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus flavicornis nyassae Arnold, 1927 (Tanzania) Oxybelus flaviventris Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus fraudulentus Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus harraricus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus hessei Arnold, 1929 (Namibia) Oxybelus imperialis Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus lepturus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus limatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus lingula Gerstaecker, 1867 (South Africa) Oxybelus matabele Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus metopias Kohl, 1894 (Mozambique) Oxybelus nasutus Bischoff, 1913 (Namibia) Oxybelus natalensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus neuvillei Magretti, 1908 (Kenya) Oxybelus pallidus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia, Tanzania) Oxybelus paucipunctatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus peringueyi de Saussure, 1892 (South Africa) Oxybelus perornatus Arnold, 1945 (Madagascar) Oxybelus pictus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus pilosus Arnold, 1927 (Ethiopia) Oxybelus rubrocaudatus Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus ruficaudis Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) Oxybelus ruficaudis melanarius Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus solitarius Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus stevensoni Arnold, 1927 (Zimbabwe) Oxybelus subcristatus de Saussure, 1892 (Madagascar) Oxybelus taschenbergi Kohl, 1875 (South Africa) Oxybelus willowmorensis Arnold, 1927 (South Africa) Oxybelus woosnami Arnold, 1927 (Botswana, South Africa) Oxybelus zavattarii Guiglia, 1943 (Ethiopia) == Genus Wojus Antropov, 1999 == Wojus inopinatus Antropov, 1999 (South Africa)<br> <br> = South African wasp species of Subtribe Gastrosericina ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]])= == Genus ''Gastrosericus'' == There are 25 Afrotropical species; four in South Africa. == Genus ''Kohliella'' Brauns, 1910 <ref>http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35572001</ref>== There are three species of ''Kohliella''; two are Afrotropical.<ref>https://www.waspweb.org/Apoidea/Crabronidae/Classification/index.htm</ref> ''Kohliella alaris'' is found in South Africa and Zimbabwe; it hunts tree crickets.<ref>Gess, S.K. & Gess, F.W. 2014. Wasps and bees in southern Africa. SANBI Biodiversity Series 24. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. p. 71-72. https://archive.org/details/waspsbeesinsouth24gess/page/70/mode/2up</ref> == Genus ''Parapiagetia'' == == Genus ''Tachytes'' == There are 79 Afrotropical species; 15 in South Africa. == Genus ''Tachysphex '' == There are 128 Afrotropical species; 41 in South Africa. == Genus ''Larropsis '' == ''Larropsis (Ancistromma) obliqua'' (F. Smith); description in Arnold, 1923b:218 as ''Tachytes obliquus'' == Genus ''Tachytella '' == == Genus ''Prosopigastra'' == == Genus ''Holotachysphex '' == <br> <br> <br> <br> = Southern African wasp species of Tribe Trypoxylini ([[African Arthropods/Crabroninae|Crabronidae]]) = == Genus ''Pison'' Jurine, 1808 == Arnold ([http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327574 1924, 1-10]) has a key and descriptions. *''Pison allonymum'' Schulz, 1906 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance 1.5 to 2.5 times the diameter of an ocellus; **Fairly long, whitish or silvery pilosity on head and thorax, more dense on the temples than elsewhere.<ref name=Arnold1924>Arnold, G. (1924) The Sphegidae of South Africa. Part V. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 11:1-4 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/60327575</ref> *''Pison atrum'' (Spinola, 1808:253) described by Cameron as ''Pison montanum'' (Kenya, South Africa, Zambia) **Head and thorax strongly punctured, the thorax more or less shining between the punctures; **Posterior ocelli separated from the eyes by a distance not greater than the diameter of an ocellus; **Pronotal collar longer than in ''allonymum''. *''Pison transvaalense'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; probably most of southern Africa to Tanzania and Uganda) **Head and thorax dull; finely and closely punctured; **Distance between the posterior ocelli and the eyes is equal to a third to a half of the diameter of the ocellus. *''Pison auratum'' Shuckard, 1838 (an Australian species; see Pulawski, 2018:85 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/Entomology_Resources/Hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/Pulawski_2018.pdf) *''Pison denticeps'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa; "Transvaal". Two cubital cells; he only record seems to be the description) *''Pison repentinum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison rufitarse'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Pison scruposum'' Arnold, 1955 (Zimbabwe) == Genus ''Trypoxylon'' Latreille, 1796 == *''Trypoxylon abditum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon algoense'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon arnoldi'' Menke, 1976 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Trypoxylon braunsi'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon capense'' Cameron, 1905 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon cataractae'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon chirindense'' Arnold, 1936 (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon foveatum'' Cameron, 1904 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon inconstans'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon infimum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon kohli'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon letiferum'' Arnold, 1946 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon lissonotum'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon montivagum'' Arnold, 1940 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon nodosum'' Arnold, 1944 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon punctatissimum'' Arnold, 1924 (South Africa) *''Trypoxylon stevensoni'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon stroudi'' Gribodo, 1884 (Ethiopia, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Trypoxylon testaceipes'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) *''Trypoxylon triste'' Arnold, 1924 (Zimbabwe) = Pompilidae of South Africa = == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly orange to yellow with fuscous (darker or blackish) wing-tips == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Inaturalist 258649905 b.jpg Hemipepsis hilaris - inaturalist 10850475.jpg Cyphononyx decipiens inat 26259647 b.jpg Tachypompilus ignitus inaturalist 311015843 02.jpg Pompilidae 2021 12 12 inaturalist 313386858 04.jpg Pompilidae 2020 04 13 inaturalist 43563902 06.jpg </gallery> *The extent of the fuscous colour can be limited to the apex of the wing beyond the cells, or extend into the cells to a varying extent. * <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings fuscous (black or very dark) == *The wings often have green-blue-violet reflections. <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae 2019 05 01 2835.jpg|Female ''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' Pompilidae inaturalist 124148802 01.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx optimus'' Pompilidae 2021 12 18 iNat 316501919 a.jpg|Female ''Cyphononyx obscurus'' Pompilidae 2025 03 14 iNat 266538336 a.jpg|Male ''Hemipepsis vindex'' Pompilidae_2019_05_28_0256.jpg| Spider-hunting Wasp (Hemipepsis) female (12640106905).jpg|''Hemipepsis'' sp. </gallery> <br> === Species with black antennae, legs, head, thorax and abdomen === Some parts may be brown. *''Java atropos'' *''Cyphononyx obscurus'' *''Hemipepsis vindex'' *''Hemipepsis vespertilio'' *''Hemipepsis braunsi'' *''Batozonellus fuliginosus'' <br> === Species with black antennae, head, thorax and abdomen, but legs (or parts of some legs) yellow to red === *''Cyphononyx optimus'' *''Paracyphononyx zonatus'' <br> <br> == South African Pompilidae with fore-wings mainly hyaline to fuscous-hyaline == <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Pompilidae inaturalist 123577538.jpg Pompilidae inaturalist 46961473.jpg Pompilidae iN 144781033 03.jpg </gallery> *With fuscous (darker) wing apex *One or two fuscous bands (faciated or bifaciated) *Hyaline parts can be clouded (whiteish clouding) or coloured (yellow-tinted) <br> == South African Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region: [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 Madl, 2020] *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881; key in Móczár 1986a: 321 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}} (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa?, Uganda, Zimbabwe?) *''Ceropales {{font color||#0f0|(Priesnerius)}} kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837; key in Móczár 1986b: 125 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904; key in Móczár 1986a: 320 (Lesotho, South Africa) **''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) **''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) **= Hemiceropales scobinifera (Arnold, 1937): Móczár 1986a: 319 *''Ceropales (Bifidoceropales) sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910; key in Móczár 1990: 61 (South Africa, Tanzania) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 - {{font color||yellow|''helvetica'' group}}; key in Móczár 1989: 12 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) <br> ==Afrotropical Ceropalinae == Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region (Madl, 2020).<ref name=Madl2020>Madl, M. (2020). Annotated catalogue of the subfamily Ceropalinae (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) of the Afrotropical region. Zeitschrift der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Österreichischer Entomologen 72: 73-84. [https://www.entomologie.at/permalink/articles/87-zeitschrift-der-arbeitsgemeinschaft-oesterreichischer-entomologen-72-2020-0073-0084 PDF]</ref> Ceropalinae can be defined by:<ref name=Brothers1993>Brothers, D. J. & Finnamore. (1993). Superfamily Vespoidea. In Goulet, H. & Huber, J. T. (Eds.). (1993). Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. 161-278. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259227143</ref><ref name=Waichert2015> Waichert, C., Rodriguez, J., Wasbauer, M. S., Von Dohlen, C. D., & Pitts, J. P. (2015). Molecular phylogeny and systematics of spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae): redefining subfamily boundaries and the origin of the family. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 175(2), 271-287. {{doi|10.1111/zoj.12272}} [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282015793 PDF]</ref> == Genera and species of Afrotropical Ceropalinae == This list is based on that of [https://www.waspweb.org/Pompiloidea/Pompilidae/Ceropalinae/index.htm '''waspweb'''] with changes following the Catalogue of Life (Kroupa & Schmid-Egger, 2025)<ref name=CoL2025> Kroupa, A. S., & Schmid-Egger, C. (2025). Hymenoptera Information System, Pompilidae of the World (version 2019-09). In O. Bánki, Y. Roskov, M. Döring, G. Ower, D. R. Hernández Robles, C. A. Plata Corredor, T. Stjernegaard Jeppesen, A. Örn, T. Pape, D. Hobern, S. Garnett, H. Little, R. E. DeWalt, J. Miller, T. Orrell, R. Aalbu, J. Abbott, C. Aedo, E. Aescht, et al., Catalogue of Life (Version 2025-07-10). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dg9ld-4kv </ref> and [[w:George_Arnold_(entomologist)|papers by Arnold (1932-1962)]].<br> === Genus ''Ceropales'' === *''Ceropales africana'' Móczar, 1989. (Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Yemen, Zambia) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales arnoldi'' Móczar, 1988 (Namibia) *''Ceropales atra'' Móczar, 1991 (Botswana) *''Ceropales cribrata cribrata'' A. Costa, 1881 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales cribrata maculipes'' Móczar, 1986 (Zambia) *''Ceropales carinitifrons'' Wahis, 1986 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales angolaensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Angola) *''Ceropales dayi'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales ferrugo'' Móczar, 1989 (Kenya) *''Ceropales gambiae'' Móczar, 1989 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone) *''Ceropales gessi'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa) *''Ceropales grahamstowni'' Móczar, 1988 (South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales juncoi'' Giner Mari, 1945 (Chad, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Western Sahara) *''Ceropales karooensis'' Arnold, 1937 (Namibia, South Africa) *''Ceropales kongoensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Togo, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales kriechbaumeri'' Magretti, 1884 (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales latifasciatus'' Arnold, 1937 (Ethiopia) *''Ceropales lawrencei'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales levipleuris'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales maliensis'' Móczar, 1989 (Mali, Senegal) *''Ceropales maroccana'' Beaumont, 1947 (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe. Also Palaearctic region) *''Ceropales multipicta'' Arnold, 1937 (Botswana, Namibia) *''Ceropales picta'' Shuckard, 1837 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda) *''Ceropales punctulatus punctulatus'' Cameron, 1904 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales punctulatus bulawayoensis'' Bischoff, 1913 (Angola, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales punctulatus cereris'' Arnold, 1937 (Lesotho, South Africa) *''Ceropales ruficollis'' Cameron, 1910 (Kenya, Tanzania) *''Ceropales saegeri'' Móczar, 1988 (Democratic Reublic of Congo) *''Ceropales senegalensis'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal) **''Ceropales senegalensis mbouri'' Móczar, 1988 (Senegal) *''Ceropales scobiniferus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa) *''Ceropales seyrigi'' Wahis, 1987 (Madagascar) *''Ceropales spinolai'' Móczar, 1988 (Guinea) *''Ceropales subhelvetica'' Móczar, 1988 (Burkina Faso, Senegal. Also Palaearctic: Israel) *''Ceropales sulciscutis'' Cameron, 1910 (South Africa, Tanzania) **''Ceropales sulciscutis raymondi'' Móczar, 1990 (Democratic Republic of Congo) *''Ceropales variolosus'' Arnold, 1937 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, Uganda) *''Ceropales waltoni'' Arnold, 1959 (Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe) *''Ceropales yemeni'' Móczar, 1988 (Yemen. Also Palaearctic: Israel, Saudi Arabia) <br> === Genus ''Irenangelus'' === *''Irenangelus madescassus'' Wahis, 1988 (Madagascar) <br> ==Eumeninae== Photos of ''Antodynerus'' on GBIF:<br> ''alboniger'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689053 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''hova'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320165802 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''kelneri'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/3762658306 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<br> ''lugubris'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1248689125 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)<br> ''seyrigi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1322648015 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''sheffieldi'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1318932924 (CC0 1.0)<br> ''silaos'': https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1320574593 (CC0 1.0)<br> ==Ants== '''Subfamilies of Formicidae (WaspWeb)''' Number of iNaturalist records for subfamilies of Formicidae in Africa (2023-05-23) Amblyoponinae 7 Dolichoderinae 630 Dorylinae 1 167 Formicinae 10 396 Camponotus 6 090; Lepisiota 1 046 Myrmicinae 8 484 Crematogaster 1 786; Pheidole 1 468; Messor 1 156 Ponerinae 1 623 Proceratiinae 3 Pseudomyrmecinae 296 Aenictinae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictus'' <br> Aenictogitoninae One Afrotropical genus ''Aenictogiton'' <br> Amblyoponinae Five Afrotropical genera <br> Apomyrminae One Afrotropical genus ''Apomyrma'' <br> Cerapachyinae Five Afrotropical genera<br> Dolichoderinae Eight Afrotropical genera<br> Dorylinae One Afrotropical genus ''Dorylus'' <br> Formicinae 20 Afrotropical genera<br> Leptanillinae One Afrotropical genus ''Leptanilla'' <br> Myrmicinae 37 Afrotropical genera <br> Ponerinae 18 Afrotropical genera <br> Proceratiinae Three Afrotropical genera <br> Pseudomyrmecinae One Afrotropical genus Tetraponera <br> <gallery mode=packed heights=200> Aenictogiton sp.jpg|''Aenictogiton'' sp., Aenictogitoninae Apomyrma stygia casent0101444 profile 1.jpg|''Apomyrma stygia'', Apomyrminae Cerapachys coxalis casent0173076 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys coxalis'', Cerapachyinae Cerapachys centurio castype12081-02 profile 1.jpg|''Cerapachys centurio'', Cerapachyinae Tapinoma subtile casent0132840 dorsal 1.jpg|''Tapinoma subtile'', Dolichoderinae Dorylus helvolus, a, Seringveld.jpg|''Dorylus helvolus'', Dorylinae Polyrhachis schistacea00.jpg|''Polyrhachis schistacea'', Formicinae Anoplolepis custodiens, met prooi, a, Krugersdorp.jpg|''Anoplolepis custodiens'', Formicinae AFRICAN THIEF ANT SIX.jpg|''Carebara vidua'', Myrmicinae Millipede Hunter Ant (Plectroctena mandibularis) (11904420373).jpg|''Plectroctena mandibularis'', Ponerinae Discothyrea hewitti sam-hym-c000061a profile 1.jpg|''Discothyrea hewitti'', Proceratiinae Probolomyrmex filiformis casent0102141 profile 1.jpg|''Probolomyrmex filiformis'', Proceratiinae Slender Ant (Tetraponera natalensis) (30538051244).jpg|''Tetraponera natalensis'', Pseudomyrmecinae </gallery> == N-P interactions == Dai, Z., Liu, G., Chen, H., Chen, C., Wang, J., Ai, S., Wei, D., Li, D., Ma, B., Tang, C., Brookes, P.C. and Xu, J., 2020. Long-term nutrient inputs shift soil microbial functional profiles of phosphorus cycling in diverse agroecosystems. The ISME journal, 14(3), pp.757-770. '''Abstract''' Microorganisms play an important role in soil phosphorus (P) cycling and regulation of P availability in agroecosystems. However, the responses of the functional and ecological traits of P-transformation microorganisms to long-term nutrient inputs are largely unknown. This study used metagenomics to investigate changes in the relative abundance of microbial P-transformation genes at four long-term experimental sites that received various inputs of N and P nutrients (up to 39 years). Long-term P input increased microbial P immobilization by decreasing the relative abundance of the P-starvation response gene (phoR) and increasing that of the low-affinity inorganic phosphate transporter gene (pit). This contrasts with previous findings that low-P conditions facilitate P immobilization in culturable microorganisms in short-term studies. In comparison, long-term nitrogen (N) input significantly decreased soil pH, and consequently decreased the relative abundances of total microbial P-solubilizing genes and the abundances of Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria containing genes coding for alkaline phosphatase, and weakened the connection of relevant key genes. This challenges the concept that microbial P-solubilization capacity is mainly regulated by N:P stoichiometry. It is concluded that long-term N inputs decreased microbial P-solubilizing and mineralizing capacity while P inputs favored microbial immobilization via altering the microbial functional profiles, providing a novel insight into the regulation of P cycling in sustainable agroecosystems from a microbial perspective. ==Diptera== ===Wing and leg-waving behavior in flies=== ====Food detection==== *''Rhagio lineola'' and ''R. tringarius'' feed on pollen and/or honeydew, which they locate by sweeping their front legs across the surface of leaves. They have a few fine hairs on their front legs, probably for this purpose. Other Rhagionidae do not have these hairs. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359760392 *It is also possible that some flies sample the air with the chemical sensors on their legs or feet. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage ====Courtship==== *Some Taeniapterinae are thought to wave their white-tipped front legs attract females. **https://bugguide.net/node/view/217136/bgpage *''Physiphora clausa'' appear to use leg-waving in courtship displays. **https://www.flickr.com/photos/jean_hort/4663220062 *Waving of forelegs is included in the complex courtship behavior of ''Physiphora demandata'' **https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1979.tb00298.x ====Mimics for defense==== *Stilt-legged flies ''Rainieria antennaepes'' mimic ichneumonid wasps. They extend their fore-legs in front of their head, so they look like wasp antennae. **https://thingsbiological.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/stilt-legged-flies-rainieria-antennaepes/ *Some hover-fly species mimic wasps by mock stinging, leg waving, or wing wagging. **https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/674612 *Wing-waving to mimic salticid spiders. **https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27373081 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6083895<br> <br> ===Number of iNat records in Acalyptrate fly families=== The [[w:acalyptratae|acalyptrate fly clade]] includes the following superfamilies and families:<br> * '''Carnoidea''' ** Acartophthalmidae 0 ** Australimyzidae 0 ** Braulidae (bee lice) 1 ** Canacidae (beach flies) 3 ** Carnidae (bird flies) 0 ** Chloropidae (frit flies) 259 ** Cryptochetidae 1 ** Inbiomyiidae 0 ** Milichiidae (freeloader flies) 158 <br> * '''Diopsoidea''' ** Diopsidae (stalk-eyed flies) 545 ** Gobryidae 0 ** Megamerinidae 0 ** Nothybidae 0 ** Psilidae (rust flies) 29 ** Somatiidae 0 ** Syringogastridae 0 <br> * '''Ephydroidea''' ** Camillidae 0 ** Campichoetidae 0 ** Curtonotidae (quasimodo flies) 15 ** Diastatidae 0 ** Drosophilidae (vinegar and fruit flies) 312 ** Ephydridae (shore flies) 117 <br> * '''Lauxanioidea''' ** Celyphidae (beetle flies) 0 ** Chamaemyiidae (aphid flies) 24 ** Cremifaniidae 0 ** Lauxaniidae (lauxaniid flies) 710 <br> * '''Nerioidea''' ** Cypselosomatidae 0 ** Fergusoninidae 0 ** Micropezidae (stilt-legged flies) 245 ** Neriidae 109 ** Strongylophthalmyiidae 0 ** Tanypezidae (stretched-foot flies) 0 <br> * '''Opomyzoidea''' ** Agromyzidae (leaf-miner flies) 161 ** Anthomyzidae 3 ** Asteiidae 4 ** Aulacigastridae 2 ** Clusiidae (druid flies) 2 ** Marginidae 0 ** Neminidae 0 ** Neurochaetidae 0 ** Odiniidae 0 ** Opomyzidae 4 ** Periscelididae 1 ** Teratomyzidae 0 ** Xenasteiidae 0 <br> * '''Sciomyzoidea''' ** Coelopidae (kelp flies) 51 ** Conopidae (thick-headed flies) 192 ** Dryomyzidae 1 ** Helcomyzidae 0 ** Helosciomyzidae 0 ** Heterocheilidae 0 ** Huttoninidae 0 ** Natalimyzidae 0 ** Phaeomyiidae 0 ** Ropalomeridae 1 ** Sciomyzidae (marsh flies) 67 ** Sepsidae (black scavenger flies) 269 <br> * '''Sphaeroceroidea''' ** Chyromyidae (golden flies) 19 ** Heleomyzidae (heleomyzid flies) 151 ** Nannodastiidae 0 ** Sphaeroceridae (lesser dung flies) 48 <br> * '''Tephritoidea''' ** Ctenostylidae 1 ** Lonchaeidae (lance flies) 47 ** Pallopteridae (flutter-wing flies) 5 ** Piophilidae (cheese skipper flies) 1 ** Platystomatidae (signal flies) 683 ** Pyrgotidae (scarab-pursuing flies) 119 ** Richardiidae 0 ** Tachiniscidae 2 ** Tephritidae (fruit flies) 1,759 ** Ulidiidae (picture-winged flies) 165 == References == apbykodhvpoyhq0qdp20x4p04dr94mo 0 275604 2834129 2720532 2026-09-21T07:15:13Z Jtneill 10242 2834129 wikitext text/x-wiki <noinclude>{{title|Evaluation}}</noinclude>[[File:Icons8 flat feedback.svg|right|65px]] [[Motivation and emotion]] students have generally indicated high levels of satisfaction with this unit, with several students reporting that this was the best unit of their degree. For example, one student wrote:<br> {{quote|Choosing our own topic and writing a chapter that was meaningful to us, using a new medium that extended our skills. Learning to use the Wiki, and writing in this way was more relevant to real life than an essay. Really engaging unit!}} Many students also find the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment|major project]] challenging. For example, one student wrote:<br> {{quote|Did not like the focus on Wikiversity<!-- and multimedia/social media aspect --> ... overly challenging to learn the content and medium.}} So, get involved in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|tutorials]] to help build your skills. And seek [[Motivation and emotion/About/Help|help]] for any questions you have. For more details about student evaluation, see [[Motivation and emotion/Evaluation|evaluation]].<noinclude> [[Category:Motivation and emotion/About]]</noinclude> bn9v6ispslemi2arp2w2ljeyp3y2cis 2834130 2834129 2026-09-21T07:16:02Z Jtneill 10242 [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Evaluation]] 2834130 wikitext text/x-wiki <noinclude>{{title|Evaluation}}</noinclude>[[File:Icons8 flat feedback.svg|right|65px]] [[Motivation and emotion]] students have generally indicated high levels of satisfaction with this unit, with several students reporting that this was the best unit of their degree. For example, one student wrote:<br> {{quote|Choosing our own topic and writing a chapter that was meaningful to us, using a new medium that extended our skills. Learning to use the Wiki, and writing in this way was more relevant to real life than an essay. Really engaging unit!}} Many students also find the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment|major project]] challenging. For example, one student wrote:<br> {{quote|Did not like the focus on Wikiversity<!-- and multimedia/social media aspect -->... overly challenging to learn the content and medium.}} So, get involved in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|tutorials]] to help build your skills. And seek [[Motivation and emotion/About/Help|help]] for any questions you have. For more details about student evaluation, see [[Motivation and emotion/Evaluation|evaluation]].<noinclude> [[Category:Motivation and emotion/About]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Evaluation]]</noinclude> 38tw2q72jx66v1kttqu0bank1isuxo2 0 282924 2834101 2387289 2026-09-21T02:42:00Z Michael Ten 654933 fixes line breaks 2834101 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Quantitative research''' uses the [[scientific method]] to construct knowledge through operationalisation of variables and utilising statistical procedures to analyse numerical data (Breen & Darlaston-Jones, 2010) such as collected via self-report scales, behavioural measures, or physiological measures. Quantitative research is based on the [[epistemology]] of [[positivism]], which assumes that reality is objective, singular, and governed by universal laws. The discovery of these laws is the overarching aim of quantitative research, with the goal of describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling phenomenon (Breen & Darlaston-Jones, 2010). Quantitative research utilises an objective, deductive methodology characterised by structured procedures that collect reliable numerical measurement. ==See also== * [[Qualitative research]] * [[Quantitative research in health]] ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Breen, L. J., & Darlaston-Jones, D. (2009). Moving beyond the enduring dominance of positivism in psychological research: Implications for psychology in Australia. ''Australian Psychologist'', ''45''(1), 67-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050060903127481}} [[Category:Research methods]] madnxfamondtio642ltefm0wl9wfbxo 2 289273 2834028 2833601 2026-09-20T17:51:40Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* A theory of the Euclidean cosmos */ 2834028 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere as a 4-dimensional lump embedded in its 3-dimensional surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch of a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from protons to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater our relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, stationary atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} rzxuw6nqc2z7gm4t1fc8988j1aaf1zi 2834030 2834028 2026-09-20T18:02:20Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* A theory of the Euclidean cosmos */ 2834030 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere as a 4-dimensional lump embedded in its 3-dimensional surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch of a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from protons to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater our relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, stationary atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} idh4kkz3uorqzjbgsjebuiv9rwebo57 2834032 2834030 2026-09-20T18:10:33Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* A theory of the Euclidean cosmos */ 2834032 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere embedded in its 3-dimensional surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch of a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from protons to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater our relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, stationary atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} az7xust99u9ow65l1lhytbsvcj6az0f 2834034 2834032 2026-09-20T18:15:11Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* A theory of the Euclidean cosmos */ 2834034 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere embedded in its surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch of a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from protons to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater our relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, stationary atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} szl0i3eipqub2snn7q23ivl82680cor 2834035 2834034 2026-09-20T18:22:38Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* A theory of the Euclidean cosmos */ 2834035 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere embedded in its surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch on a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from protons to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater our relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, stationary atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} ipmq08yl4xyhfnvww0lvd1t8xgae9a7 2834036 2834035 2026-09-20T18:32:39Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* A theory of the Euclidean cosmos */ 2834036 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere embedded in its surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch on a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from subatomic particles to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater our relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, stationary atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} 7470fhacnosu20h6ca972u3g65z81ka 2834037 2834036 2026-09-20T18:37:00Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* A theory of the Euclidean cosmos */ 2834037 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere embedded in its surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch on a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from subatomic particles to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater the relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, stationary atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} mxjaoyuuu92j6i89qtzmcw7dfhgnnqc 2834038 2834037 2026-09-20T18:48:36Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* Symmetries */ 2834038 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere embedded in its surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch on a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from subatomic particles to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater the relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes which is characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} a12dit5rm7dk11f7bfh2uctl2jblmzi 2834039 2834038 2026-09-20T18:49:43Z Dc.samizdat 2856930 /* Symmetries */ 2834039 wikitext text/x-wiki {{align|center|David Brooks Christie}} {{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}} {{align|center|Draft in progress}} {{align|center|June 2023 - September 2026}} <blockquote>'''Abstract:''' The physical universe is properly visualized as Euclidean space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> of four orthogonal spatial dimensions. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are 4-polytopes, small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. We ourselves and our planet are only 3-dimensional objects, but nonetheless we can see in four dimensions of space. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. Light from them reaches us directly, on straight lines through 4-space. This view of the observed universe is compatible with special and general relativity, and with quantum mechanics. It furnishes those theories with an explanatory geometric model.</blockquote> == Summary == We observe that: * Physical space has four perpendicular dimensions, not just three. * Atoms are [[W:4-polytope|4-polytopes]]. * The sun is a [[W:4-ball|4-ball]] that is round in four dimensions. * Everything of intermediate size between an atom and a star, including us and our planet, lies in a 3-dimensional manifold of ordinary space. * Our entire 3-space manifold is moving through Euclidean 4-space at the speed of light, in a direction perpendicular to its three interior dimensions. * Special relativity describes the linear motion of objects and light signals in four-dimensional Euclidean space. == A theory of the Euclidean cosmos == The physical universe is properly visualized as [[w:Four-dimensional_space|real Euclidean space of four orthogonal spatial dimensions]] <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Space itself has a fourth perpendicular dimension, of which we are unaware in ordinary life. Atoms are [[w:4-polytope|4-polytopes]], small round 4-dimensional objects, and stars are 4-balls of atomic plasma, large round 4-dimensional objects. Objects intermediate in size between atoms and stars, including molecules, people, and planets, are so flat as to be essentially 3-dimensional, having only the thickness of an atom in the orthogonal fourth dimension. All objects with mass move inertially through Euclidean 4-space at constant velocity <math>c</math> as long as they exist, and acceleration only varies their direction. Objects moving in the same direction are in the same inertial reference frame. Their direction of motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> is their proper time dimension, simply because their direction and velocity of motion through time is the same as their direction and velocity of motion through space. A typical galaxy such as ours occupies a 4-ball of mostly empty space, with stars and other objects distributed non-uniformly within it. The galaxy's orbital center may be nothing: a smaller 4-ball of empty space they surround. The stars in our spiral galaxy appear from our accustomed point of view to occupy a disk-like region of 3-dimensional space, with a denser ball-like center, but they are not so confined: they are distributed within a region of 4-dimensional space. The disk and ball have thickness not only in the third dimension, but in the fourth spatial dimension as well. Light from stars and galaxies reaches us on straight lines through Euclidean 4-space, so from our viewpoint, in what we have always imagined to be a 3-space universe, we look into the surrounding 4-space. Although we are physically confined within a 3-dimensional hyperplane by the inertia of our motion through 4-space, light signals are not so confined, so we observe all the cosmological objects surrounding us, both in and above or below our hyperplane, without perceiving their separation in our fourth orthogonal dimension, the direction of our motion. We may perceive a galaxy as elliptical when it is actually spherical, because that is how its image projects from its 4-ball shape into a 3-ball region in our hyperplane, where we measure it with our 3-dimensional bodies. More generally, orbits are circular in 4-space, but elliptical in the 3-space of their elliptic hyperplane. The galaxy as a whole, or more properly its orbital barycenter, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, in a distinct direction orthogonal to all three dimensions of our ordinary proper 3-space. Stars within the galaxy are translating with it at the same velocity <math>c</math> in the same direction, but on spiral trajectories as they pursue their various orbits within the galaxy. The galaxy as a whole occupies a 4-ball within its proper inertial reference frame (that is, in the moving frame of reference in which the galaxy considers itself to be a stationary rotating 4-ball). Over time, the galaxy occupies a 4-dimensional cylinder and progresses along the cylinder's axis at velocity <math>c</math>. In this more universal inertial reference frame, the stars in the galaxy follow helical geodesic paths through the 4-cylinder; their trajectories are screw-displacements through 4-space, the compound of a simple rotation and a completely orthogonal linear translation. The gravitational force and the inertial tendency to follow a geodesic are the same phenomenon, by the equivalence principle. That said, they can be distinguished, and the galaxy is held together primarily by gravity as inertia, not by gravity as attraction to a central mass toward which objects fall in orbit. There is not enough mass in the galaxy to hold it together by attraction, there is just enough to bend the stars' trajectories toward each other, in helical orbits around a barycentric axis of motion. It is the tremendous inertial force of stars in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> that holds the cylinder of motion together, not some invisible dark matter. The observed universe as a whole appears to be a 3-sphere expanding radially from a central origin point at velocity <math>c</math>, the invariant velocity of mass-carrying objects through 4-space, also the propagation speed of light relative to any moving 3-space manifold, as measured by all observers. A 3-sphere is a hypersphere in Euclidean 4-space, but the enclosing surface of a 3-sphere is a curved, finite 3-space, dimensionally analogous to the surface of the earth which is a curved, finite 2-space. This 3-sphere could be the domain of our visible cosmos, but of course we do not know for certain that all the cosmological objects we observe lie near the surface of our expanding 3-sphere, since it is only our assumption that they must all have originated in the same big bang long ago. Possibly some of the more distant objects we observe did not, and lie elsewhere, outside our big-bang's 3-sphere of outflying matter or even inside its 3-sphere, below its surface. We cannot assume that all objects in the 4-space universe lie near the surface of the same expanding 3-sphere. For all observers, the conjectured big-bang of their origin corresponds not only to a now-distant point in their proper time past, it also corresponds to a distinct now-distant point in 4-dimensional space: the same point in the same Euclidean 4-space for all observers with the same origin. Our big bang had a distinct origin point in real space as well as in real time. More generally, time and Euclidean 4-space can be measured independently, just as time and Euclidean 3-space were measured classically, without the necessity to combine them as spacetime. The same inertial force which holds the galactic cylinder of motion together also confines us physically to an exceedingly thin three-dimensional surface manifold moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. All objects in our solar system except the sun itself lie within this thinest three-dimensional manifold, and have only the thickness of an atom in their direction-of-motion fourth dimension. That is why we are 3-dimensional objects ourselves, and why we cannot construct more than three perpendiculars through a single point in our local 3-dimensional space. A spherical region of 4-space is called a 4-ball. The enclosing surface of a 4-ball of any size is a finite, curved (non-Euclidean) 3-dimensional space called a [[w:3-sphere|3-sphere]]. Our entire big-bang-origin universe appears to be the largest 3-sphere we observe, but each of the cosmological objects within it (including our galaxy and our sun) is contained in a smaller 3-sphere shell of its own, lying (we assume) on the largest 3-sphere embedded in its surface, like a soap bubble on the surface of a larger soap bubble. All the 3-dimensional surfaces are expanding, as the largest 3-sphere inflates at radial velocity <math>c</math>. We ourselves live within such an expanding 3-dimensional surface, in an infinitesimally curved 3-manifold surface embedded in Euclidean 4-space. That surface is the ordinary 3-dimensional space we experience, and it contains the earth, all the planets and the 3-dimensional space between them. Our solar system is only a small patch on the surface of a dimensionally rounder space, although that surface is not infinite. It is curved, and finite, analogous to the way the 2-dimensional surface of the earth -- once thought to be flat -- is curved and finite. Our solar system occupies a small patch on a filmy 4-dimensional soap-bubble rounded by gravity, that is thicker-skinned than the diameter of an atom only in the interior of stars and supermassive objects. Our 3-manifold of ordinary space, as a surface within our moving 4-ball galaxy, is translating through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math> with the galaxy, in a distinct direction orthogonal to the manifold's three orthogonal dimensions of interior space. At every material point in the manifold (at every atom), the translation through 4-space is following a geometric law of motion discovered by Coxeter, that governs the propagation of individual objects through Euclidean space by the actions of their symmetry groups. The solar system's atoms of mass are 4-polytopes that are simultaneously rotating and translating, and as they advance together they define a moving 3-dimensional manifold by their own collective inertia, also called gravity, the property of matter's ceaseless propagation through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate of causality at which quantum events occur, all objects move, and the universe evolves. Any moving 3-dimensional manifold such as ours is an evolving surface boundary that is empty in most places, occupied by single atoms in comparatively fewer places, and occupied by bound complexes of multiple atoms (molecules) in still fewer places. In all these places it is no thicker than one atom in the dimension corresponding to its direction of translation, because molecules are 3-dimensional complexes of atoms that add no thickness to the manifold. Every object which we find occurring naturally in the solar system other than the sun itself, even the largest of 3-dimensional objects a planet, is a 3-dimensional smear of atoms no thicker than one atom in its fourth dimension, the direction of its linear translation through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. The moving surface manifold cannot be thicker than one atom at any point unless and until there is enough mass near that point for the force of gravity as attraction to overcome the force of gravity as inertia, allowing atoms to be "heaped up" into larger 4-dimensional objects that form a lump in its moving surface. We have little understanding of such 4-dimensional lumps thicker than one atom, since they occur naturally in our vicinity only in the interior of the sun. In fact the sun is the only such lump occurring naturally in our solar system. We refer to such 4-dimensional lumps of matter as atomic plasma, and have little experimental knowledge of their internal geometry or processes. We know that such a lump as the sun burns at its surface 3-sphere and emits radiation, and we know a good deal about those surface processes which are nuclear atomic processes, but we know almost nothing about its interior 4-ball, a dimensionally rounder enclosed space whose existence we did not suspect. Every moving surface boundary of matter in the observed universe is evolving in four dimensions at velocity <math>c</math>. Its current location in 4-space corresponds to the present moment in the proper time of its inertial reference frame. Its direction of movement at velocity <math>c</math> corresponds to its proper time dimension, which is a spiral over time, not a Euclidean (straight-line) dimension, since its direction is changing in its orbit. Objects with mass of all sizes, from subatomic particles to the largest objects observed in the cosmos, are perpetually in inertial rotational motion in some orbit, and simultaneously in inertial translational motion propagating themselves through 4-space, two completely orthogonal inertial motions each at the constant universal rate of transformation <math>c</math>. Every object moves relative to universal 4-coordinate Euclidean space at velocity <math>c</math> on its own distinct geodesic spiral, a screw translation trajectory that is the compound of its two completely orthogonal inertial motions, a rotation and a translation. Objects without mass such as photons lie off such moving surface boundaries of matter from which they were emitted, and their motion is of a different nature. They are in translational motion at velocity <math>c</math> through all four dimensions concurrently, without any rotational component of motion, so they move through 4-space on straight lines at a compound velocity. The propagation speed of light measured on a straight line through Euclidean 4-space is <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, so we can see in four dimensions, even though we are physically confined to a 3-dimensional manifold that is moving at velocity <math>c</math>. For example, we can look across the center of the mostly-empty 4-ball containing our galaxy and see stars in the opposite sides of its concentric 3-sphere surfaces. We have been unaware that when we look up at night we see stars and galaxies, themselves large 4-dimensional objects, distributed all around us in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, and moving through it, like us, at the constant velocity <math>c</math>. They move in the 4-space direction corresponding to their proper time, perpendicular to all three dimensions of their proper space, and generally the farther they are from us the greater the divergence of their direction of motion from our direction of motion: the greater the relative motion and their Hubble redshift. Light from them reaches us directly, propagating on straight lines through 4-space at twice the velocity at which they, and we ourselves, are propagating through 4-space. This physical model of the observed universe is compatible with the theories of special and general relativity, and with the atomic theory of quantum mechanics. It explains those theories geometrically, as expressions of intrinsic symmetries in Euclidean space. == Symmetries == It is common to speak of nature as a web, and so it is, the great web of our physical experiences. Every web must have its root systems somewhere, and nature in this sense must be rooted in the symmetries which underlie physics and geometry, the [[W:Group (mathematics)|mathematics of groups]].{{Sfn|Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss|2008}} As I understand [[W:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]] (which is not mathematically), hers is the deepest meta-theory of nature yet, deeper than [[W:Theory of relativity|Einstein's relativity]] or [[W:Evolution|Darwin's evolution]] or [[W:Euclidean geometry|Euclid's geometry]]. It finds that all fundamental findings in physics are based on conservation laws which can be laid at the doors of distinct [[W:symmetry group |symmetry group]]s. Thus all fundamental systems in physics, as examples [[W:quantum chromodynamics|quantum chromodynamics]] (QCD) the theory of the strong force binding the atomic nucleus and [[W:quantum electrodynamics|quantum electrodynamics]] (QED) the theory of the electromagnetic force, each have a corresponding symmetry [[W:group theory|group theory]] of which they are an expression. [[W:Coxeter group|Coxeter's theory of symmetry groups]] generated by reflections did for geometry what Noether's theorem and Einstein's relativity did for physics. [[W:Coxeter|Coxeter]] showed that Euclidean geometry is based on conservation laws that correspond to distinct symmetry groups, and that their group actions express the principle of relativity. Here is Coxeter's formulation of the motions of objects (their congruent transformations) in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space, excerpted:{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=217-218|loc=§12.2 Congruent transformations}} <blockquote>Let <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> denote a rotation, <math>\mathrm{R}</math> a reflection, <math>\mathrm{T}</math> a translation, and let <math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r\mathrm{T}</math> denote a product of several such transformations, all commutative with one another. Then <math>\mathrm{RT}</math> is a glide-reflection (in two or three dimensions), <math>\mathrm{QR}</math> is a rotary-reflection, <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is a screw-displacement, and <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is a double rotation (in four dimensions).<br> Every orthogonal transformation is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r \le n)</math>, the number of dimensions.<br> Transformations involving a translation are expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + 1 \le n)</math>.<br> For <math>(n = 4)</math> in particular, every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> If we begin with this most elemental [[w:Kinematics|kinematics]] of Coxeter's, and also assume the [[W:Galilean relativity|Galilean principle of relativity]], every displacement in 4-space can be viewed as either a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> or a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, because we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> in a linearly moving (translating) reference frame. Therefore any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>. By the same principle, we can view any <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> as an isoclinic (equi-angled) <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> by proper choice of reference frame.{{Efn|[[W:Arthur Cayley|Cayley]] showed that any rotation in 4-space can be decomposed into two isoclinic rotations, which intuitively we might see follows from the fact that any transformation from one inertial reference frame to another is expressable as a [[W:SO(4)|rotation in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]].|name=Cayley's rotation factorization into two isoclinic reference frame transformations}} Coxeter's relation is thus a mathematical statement of the principle of relativity, on group-theoretic grounds. It correctly captures the limits to [[W:General relativity|general relativity]], in that we can only exchange the translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) for ''one'' of the two rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>). An observer in any inertial reference frame can always measure the presence, direction and velocity of ''one'' rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>) up to uncertainty, and can always distinguish the direction of their own proper time translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>). As I understand Coxeter theory (which is not mathematically), the symmetry groups underlying physics seem to have an expression in a [[W:Euclidean space|Euclidean space]] of four [[W:dimension|dimension]]s, that is, they are [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|four-dimensional Euclidean geometry]]. Therefore as I understand that geometry (which is entirely by synthetic methods rather than by Clifford's algebraic methods), the [[W:Atom|atom]] seems to have a distinct Euclidean geometry, such that atoms and their constituent particles are four-dimensional geometric objects (4-polytopes), and nature can be understood in terms of their [[W:group action|group actions]], including centrally their group <math>SO(4)</math> [[W:rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]]. The distinct Coxeter symmetry groups have characteristic <math>SO(4)</math> rotational expressions as the [[W:Regular_4-polytope|regular 4-polytopes]]. Their discrete isoclinic rotations are distinguishing properties of fundamental objects in geometry, relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, atoms exhibit <math>SO(4)</math> symmetries of the discrete isoclinic (equi-angled) double rotations (<math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>) of a set of regular 4-polytopes that is characteristic of their [[w:Atomic_number|atomic number]]. == Special relativity describes Euclidean 4-space == <blockquote>Our entire model of the universe is built on symmetries. Some, like isotropy (the laws are the same in all directions), homogeneity (same in all places), and time invariance (same at all times) seem natural enough. Even relativity, the Lorentz Invariance that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, has an elegance to it that makes it seem natural.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Dave|last=Goldberg|title=The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality|chapter=§10. Hidden Symmetries: Why some symmetries but not others?|year=2013|publisher=Dutton Penguin Group|isbn=978-0-525-95366-1|ref={{SfnRef|Goldberg|2013}}}}</ref></blockquote> Although the Minkowski spacetime of relativity is a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space,{{Efn|Spacetime is a non-Euclidean (curved) 4-dimensional "space" because it consists of three orthogonal space dimensions and a time dimension. The time dimension is not orthogonal to the three spatial dimensions; the time coordinate has the opposite sign to the three space coordinates so spacetime is hyperbolic, not a flat Euclidean 4-space at all.}} it has been noticed that its 3-dimensional space component could be modeled as a [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]] embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean (flat) space. That is, we could imagine that the ordinary 3-dimensional space we perceive is the curved 3-dimensional surface of a 4-dimensional ball (since the surface of a 4-ball is a curved 3-dimensional space called a 3-sphere, just as the surface of a 3-ball like the earth is a curved 2-dimensional space called a 2-sphere). This was [[#Origins of the theory|imagined by Einstein]] himself in 1921, as a thought experiment in which he carefully described his fourth orthogonal spatial dimension as merely a mathematical abstraction. Subsequently it was noticed by others (not mainstream physicists) that if physical space were really embedded in Euclidean 4-dimensional space (with our 3-dimensional space embedded in 4-space as some non-Euclidean 3-manifold, not necessarily a 3-sphere), then the Lorentz transformation effects of special relativity (spatial forshortenings and time dilations and so forth) could all be explained by ordinary perspective geometry in 4-dimensional Euclidean space. Special relativity reduces to classical vector space geometry (based on the 4-dimensional version of the Pythagorean theorem), but if and only if every observer is moving through 4-space at a universal constant velocity <math>c</math>, in some 4-space direction. This counter-intuitive alternative geometric model of relativity, which has usually been called [[W:Formulations of special relativity#Euclidean relativity|Euclidean relativity]], is motivated by the fact that in every kind of relativity, but originally in Einstein's special relativity, each observer moves on a vector through a Euclidean four-dimensional space consisting of their three proper spatial dimensions and their proper time dimension, and the Pythagorean vector-sum of their motion through this kind of proper 4-space is always <math>c</math>, as measured by all observers from any inertial reference frame.{{Efn|Each observer is stationary in space in their own proper reference frame, while they move at maximum velocity {{Math|c}} through their own proper time. Observed from another reference frame in relative motion, they appear foreshortened in space in their direction of motion, and their clocks appear to be slowed to less than the maximum velocity {{Math|c}}.}} This is the Lorentz invariant, that allows everyone to observe a constant speed of light, regardless of their motion relative to the light source. But no physicists have taken the leap of claiming that therefore, our universe is physically [[W:Euclidean geometry#Higher dimensions|this kind of Euclidean 4-space]], and that observers are actually moving through it at velocity {{Math|c}}. In physics as it has been universally understood, observers are not supposed to be able to move at velocity {{Math|c}}. Their motion takes place in 3-space and in universal coordinate time (in Minkowski spacetime), and the cosmos is considered to be a non-Euclidean 3-space, generally a closed (finite) expanding 3-space, but with only three spatial dimensions, not four. In the Euclidean relativity alternative view, however, every observer is always moving at velocity <math>c</math> through the universe, which is real Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. The direction in which they are moving is called their proper time axis.{{Efn|Time in spacetime is universal coordinate time, but there is another kind of time in relativity, the proper time in each inertial reference frame. Your proper time is the time you experience, and every observer has his own proper time; proper time runs at different rates in different inertial reference frames. It runs slower (compared to universal coordinate time) in a gravitational field (according to general relativity), and observers in motion with respect to each other view each other's clocks as running slower than their own clocks (according to special relativity).}} Their movement in time is not just modelled as movement in an abstract fourth dimension (as it is in Minkowski spacetime), their movement in time is isomorphic to their movement through physical space in a distinct direction at velocity <math>c</math>. Two observers' directions of movement through space may be different (or not, if they happen to be going in the same direction). Your proper time dimension is whichever direction you are moving. The other three directions perpendicular to your proper time axis are the three dimensions of your ordinary proper space, which again, will be different directions for you than for other observers moving in a different direction. There are four orthogonal spatial dimensions which we all share, but we share the same orthogonal proper time axis and ordinary proper space axes only if we are at rest with respect to each other, actually moving in the same direction at velocity <math>c</math>, in the same inertial reference frame. Your proper 4-space coordinate system is rotated with respect to another observer's proper 4-space coordinate system, precisely as your vectors (directions of motion) are rotated in Euclidean 4-space with respect to each other, but there are no metric distortions (no Lorentz transformations) between your proper 4-space coordinate systems; you are both embedded in the same Euclidean 4-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math>. Lorentz transformations are required only to convert between your respective proper spacetime coordinate systems.{{Efn|The angular divergence between two observer's motion vectors is proportional to their relative velocity: the more they diverge, the greater their relative velocity, up to the maximum divergence possible in the space. In Euclidean relativity all observers are in motion at velocity {{Math|c}} relative to universal 4-coordinate space, so the maximum relative velocity between two observers is {{Math|2c}} when they are moving in exactly opposite directions in 4-space. This is not a contradiction of special relativity, which limits the maximum relative velocity between two observers to {{Math|c}}, it is the same measurement in different units. Special relativity measures all velocities in Minkowski spacetime. Euclidean relativity measures all velocities in Euclidean 4-space.}} So in this novel alternate view of relativity, every mass in the universe must be perpetually in motion at velocity <math>c</math> through Euclidean 4-space, along with all the masses in its vicinity that are going in (nearly) the same direction. The entire solar system, for example, must be translating in the fourth dimension at the "speed of light" <math>c</math>, although we do not notice it, since we are all moving in that same direction together. Acceleration of an object varies its direction of motion through 4-space, but never its velocity, which is invariant for all objects with mass. Two objects which are in motion relative to each other are both actually in motion at the same velocity <math>c</math>, but in at least slightly different directions. In Einstein's relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of light through 3-space. In Euclidean relativity, the invariant <math>c</math> is the speed of matter through 4-space! The speed of light through 3-space is also perceived as <math>c</math> by all observers, because they are each living in a moving 3-manifold that is moving through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. Despite their extreme differences in viewpoint, Einstein's relativity and Euclidean relativity are equivalent theories in complete agreement with each other, by definition. The two theories make exactly the same special relativity predictions of how observers in different inertial reference frames will perceive each other's motions in time and space. It is beyond the scope of this present paper to show how they also agree on the predictions of general relativity, but it is important to understand that our formulation of Euclidean relativity requires our acceptance of the experimentally verified findings of special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Our model and the standard model both describe the same geometric relations of space and time based on the same evidence, but as embedded in two very different universal host spaces: Euclidean 4-space versus Minkowski spacetime. In some instances our model provides a geometric explanation for physical phenomena where the standard model has none, as yet. An example is the two models' differing explanations for the gravitational coherence of galaxies: either their inertial motion at velocity <math>c</math>, or their possession of experimentally undetected dark matter.{{Efn| ...cite Lewis Epstein's elegant explanation of the Lorentz Invariance as observers moving at constant velocity <math>c</math> through space and proper time<br> <br> ...cite Yamashita{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} on the equivalence of special relativity and Euclidean 4-space relativity<br> <br> ...cite Kappraff & Adamson's 2003 paper on The Relationship of the Cotangent Function to Special Relativity Theory, geometry and properties of number,{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2003|loc=Special Relativity Theory, Geometry and properties of number}} which shows how the Lorentz coefficient is a function of a deep geometric property of number{{Sfn|Kappraff & Adamson|2000|loc=A Fresh Look at Number}} discovered by Steinbach,{{Sfn|Steinbach|1997|loc=Golden Fields: A Case for the Heptagon}} by means of which the root formula of geometry in any Euclidean dimension, the Pythagorean theorem, may be derived solely in terms of the addition of polygon side lengths, without recourse to their products or squares. More generally, Steinbach found that in the relations among regular polytope chords, to add is to multiply; every chord is both the product (quotient) of a pair of chords and the sum (difference) of another pair of chords.}} Euclidean relativity is not even a fringe theory; no physicists or astronomers have adopted it. There are many good reasons why the revolutionary leap to a four orthogonal spatial dimensions viewpoint has not been taken, beginning with the universally observed fact that we can only construct three perpendiculars through a point in our immediate space, which appears to be resolutely 3-dimensional, not 4-dimensional. Euclidean relativity offers a nice geometric explanation of the reasons for the Lorentz transformations, but only at the cost of raising other mysteries, which have been difficult for its aficionados to explain. Another mystery is how light signals between observers in relative motion could "catch up" with the receiver moving on a diverging path through 4-space from the emitter. If both observers are already moving at <math>c</math> (on diverging paths), the propagation speed of light through 4-space between them would have to be greater than <math>c</math>. Euclidean relativity is a revolutionary theory indeed, in which <math>c</math> cannot possibly be the speed of light! We conclude that, for a theory of Euclidean 4-space to be physically viable (that is, for <math>\mathbb{R}^4</math> to be our real space and not merely an abstract mathematical space), the speed of light through Euclidean 4-space must be <math>c\prime = 2c</math>, with massless photons translating through 4-space at twice the speed of mass-carrying objects. Photons must translate the diagonal distance through 4-space along the long diameter of a unit 4-hypercube, in the same time that massive particles translate inertially along the edge (or the radius) of a unit 4-hypercube. This is conceivable in 4-space (and in no other Euclidean space of any dimensionality) because the long diagonal of the unit 4-hypercube is the natural number <math>\sqrt{4}</math>. == An object's motion in space is the product of its discrete self-reflections == Coxeter theory describes all the possible motions of an object in space as local functions of the object's discrete geometry (its shape). Coxeter observed that in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions, any displacement of a geometric object from one place to another, and any rotation of the object from one orientation to another, can be broken down into the product of a number of discrete self-reflections. Any action of a polytope that transforms its position and orientation in space may be measured as a distinct sequence of self-reflections of the object in its own surfaces. Any motion of the object whatsoever may be precisely described as the object propagating itself through space by a discrete sequence of local self-reflections. Coxeter found that both changes in position (translations) and changes in orientation (rotations) can be broken down into the simplest of all displacements (self-reflections). A translation occurs when an object self-reflects twice, in two distinct surfaces which are parallel to each other. A rotation also occurs when an object self-reflects twice, but in two distinct surfaces which touch (intersect each other). When a object self-reflects once, it turns itself inside out (it reverses its chirality), but in translations and rotations it self-reflects twice, preserving its chirality. Coxeter's laws of kinematics are a geometric counterpart to Newton's algebraic laws of motion in three dimensional Euclidean space. They are helpful because they can be understood as geometric pictures. But they are also a revolutionary advance beyond Newton's laws, because Coxeter formulated them in Euclidean spaces of any number of dimensions. In particular, they give us geometric pictures of all the possible motions of objects in 4-dimensional Euclidean space: <blockquote>Every orthogonal transformation in 4-space is expressible as:<br> :<math>\mathrm{Q}^q \mathrm{R}^r \mathrm{T}^t</math><br> where <math>(2^q + r + t \le 4)</math>. Every displacement is either a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>, or a screw-displacement <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> [where the rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> is a simple rotation, but the <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> is chiral like a <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>]. Every enantiomorphous transformation in 4-space (reversing chirality) is a <math>\mathrm{QRT}</math>.</blockquote> While this description should be understood as geometric pictures, some of the pictures may not be easy for us to visualize, since we have no physical experience in 4-dimensional space. Rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}</math>), reflection (<math>\mathrm{R}</math>) and translation (<math>\mathrm{T}</math>) are obvious analogues of what they are in three-dimensional space, but double rotation (<math>\mathrm{Q}^2</math>) is something new and unprecedented in our physical experience, because double rotations cannot occur until there are four or more dimensions of space in which to rotate.{{Efn| ...to readers who have not studied Coxeter (almost all readers including TAC), the blockquote above is "just math", not visualizable geometry...but I could describe Coxeter's congruent transformations in 4-space here geometrically: I could say clearly what they mean in spatial terms, in language anyone can understand, because they don't require any math to be understood; the "math" here is really just simple pictures (reflections and rotations); even double rotations can be visualized by dimensional analogy, as compounds of simple rotations...since even most physicists are unacquainted with Coxeter geometry, it might be useful to do this here...}} == Light propagates through 4-space at twice its apparent velocity <math>c</math>== Coxeter's geometric laws of motion in 4-dimensional Euclidean space apply to all objects with mass, but we find there is an additional kind of displacement which applies only to massless particles such as photons. Light quanta (photons) translate through 4-space by 4-dimensional reflection <math>\mathrm{R}^4</math>, which may be termed a double translation <math>\mathrm{T}^2</math>, a pure translation via two pairs of parallel reflections without any rotation component <math>\mathrm{Q}</math>. Matter (atoms and all particles with mass) are perpetually rotating and translating through 4-space by <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>, a screw translation of a rotating object, which is relativistically equivalent to a stationary isoclinic <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math>, an isoclinically rotating object such as an atom. A simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> or simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> is a double reflection <math>\mathrm{R^2}</math>, so a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> or <math>\mathrm{Q^2}</math> is also an <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>, but not with the same group of reflection angles as a light signal <math>\mathrm{R^4}</math>. A translation <math>\mathrm{T = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two parallel planes, and a rotation <math>\mathrm{Q = R^2}</math> is a double reflection in two intersecting planes, as in a <math>\mathrm{QT = R^4}</math> which is both at once. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is two double reflections in pairs of parallel planes at once, a reflection in four non-intersecting parallel planes; it is all translation and no rotation. In a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> all the motion goes to translation, so the translation goes twice as far as the simple translation <math>\mathrm{T}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. A double translation <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> is the opposite of a double rotation <math>\mathrm{Q^2 = R^4}</math>, which is stationary but rotates twice as fast as the simple rotation <math>\mathrm{Q}</math> in a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math>. The product of the two translations in a <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> is a diagonal 4-space translation over the long diameter of the unit 4-hypercube, exactly twice the distance of a simple <math>\mathrm{T}</math> over the edge length (or radius) of the unit 4-hypercube. The [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube (also known as the 8-cell or tesseract)]] is ''radially equilateral'', which means its edge length is equal to its radius, like the hexagon, so its long diameter (twice its radius) is exactly twice its edge length. The photon moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions. By the four-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, each of those four distances is half the total distance the photon moves: one edge length (one radius) is half the total diagonal distance moved (the long diameter). That total movement is a double-the-distance translation, but without any rotation component, so it cannot carry any mass with it. A <math>\mathrm{T^2}</math> cannot reposition a 4-polytope the way a <math>\mathrm{QT}</math> does, it can only reposition a quantum of energy that has no distinguishing rotational symmetry, such as a photon. That is the price light pays to move exactly twice as fast as matter.{{Efn| ...lensing of double translations <math>\mathrm{T^2 = R^4}</math> in more than two pairs of parallel planes at once...relationship to the frequency of light emitted and the coherence length of the wave packet...}} == Distribution of stars in our galaxy == The stars in our own galaxy appear to us to be a rotating spiral cluster in 3-dimensional space. By assuming that light from them reaches us on straight lines through space, by assuming that we can measure their distance from us by their Hubble redshifts, and by assuming that they are distributed in three dimensions of space, astronomers have plotted their locations in 3-space. If we abandon the last of these three assumptions, we can reinterpret that dataset to plot their distribution around us in 4-dimensional space, and see how they actually lie. To map the galaxy's stars in 4-coordinate space we would have to supply the missing fourth coordinate for each star, which corresponds to its angle above or below our 3-space hyperplane in our fourth dimension, the direction of our motion through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>. If we assume that our galaxy and all its stars originated in the same big-bang, and that they still lie near the surface of its expanding 3-sphere (a domain which may or may not be our entire visible universe), we can interpret the redshift-determined distances of the galaxy's stars as chordal distances from us on the surface of that universal 3-sphere, and consequently as angles below our hyperplane of ordinary 3-space. Because our galaxy is only a very small patch on the universal 3-sphere, those angles will be small, but not zero. They appear to be zero to us in our 3-dimensional visual perspective from earth, because the 4-ball of space around us projects into a 3-ball of space in our hyperplane, where we lose the separation between stars in our fourth dimension. Near each point in the sky where we observe multiple objects at various distances from us, apparently directly behind each other, those objects are actually separated by an angular distance in our fourth dimension corresponding to their redshift chordal distance. That small separation might not make much difference in our view of the night sky, but their actual separation in the fourth dimension may be much greater, large enough to significantly transform our map of the heavens. That is because it is unlikely that the stars in the galaxy all lie exactly on the surface of the expanding universal 3-sphere, after millions of years of expansion.{{Efn| When we perform this experiment on the data for the stars in our galaxy, do we indeed find that they are distributed non-uniformly in various concentric spirals, but the spirals lie on the surface of various 3-spheres, rather than in elliptical orbits? That would be an expected consequence of the special rotational symmetry group of 4-space <math>SO(4)</math>, in which circular (isoclinic) orbits are the geodesics (shortest rotational paths) rather than elliptical (non-equi-angled double rotation) orbits. Also of interest would be whether the central region of the galaxy is a 4-ball or a 4-ellipsoid.}} == Special relativity is Galilean relativity in a Euclidean space of four orthogonal dimensions == {{Efn|...TAC suggests this section is needed sooner, i.e. in the preceding Special Relativity section, as it explains how Euclidean relativity reduces special relativity to 4D perspective geometry...it's misplaced (too late) here...}} Perspective effects known as the Lorentz transformations occur because each observer's proper 3-dimensional space is a moving curved manifold embedded in flat 4-dimensional Euclidean space. The curvature of their 3-space complicates sightline calculations for observers; they sometimes require Lorentz transformations to produce the actual 4-space Cartesian coordinates of objects in the scene being observed. But if all four spatial dimensions are considered, no Lorentz transformations are required (or permitted) in correct scene construction, except when an observer wants to calculate a projection, that is, the shadow of how things will appear to them from a three-dimensional viewpoint (not how they really are).{{Sfn|Yamashita|2023}} Space really has four orthogonal dimensions, and space and time behave there just as they do in a classical vector space, only bigger by one dimension. It is not necessary to combine 4-space with time in a unified spacetime to explain 4-dimensional perspective effects at high relative velocities, because Euclidean 4-space is already 4-dimensional, and those effects fall out naturally from the 4-dimensional Pythagorean theorem, exactly as ordinary visual perspective does in three dimensions from the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem. Because one of the four spatial dimensions corresponds to an observer's direction of motion (in both space and proper time), and all observers and all scenes being observed are in motion (at constant velocity) in their respective proper time directions, we observe perspective foreshortenings in time as well as in three spatial dimensions. In special relativity these perspective effects are reciprocal, precisely because they are only apparent, not actual, changes in size and duration. (In general relativity, discussed below, the actual rate of physical processes varies from place to place, and those differences are neither reciprocal nor illusory.) None of these Lorentz effects are beyond geometric explanation or paradoxical. The universe is unexpectedly strange to us in precisely the ways the Euclidean fourth dimension is strange to us; but that does hold many surprises. Euclidean 4-space is much more interesting than Euclidean 3-space, analogous to the way 3-space is much more interesting and deeply explanatory to us than it would be if we experienced it only as a 2-space with many folds and curves, as perhaps an ant does. The emergent properties of 4-space are hard for us to visualize because they lie so wholly beyond our physical experience, just as it was hard for our ancestors to imagine the earth as round like a ball. However, successive Euclidean spaces are dimensionally analogous, and so higher dimensional spaces can be anticipated and explored: that is Schläfli's great discovery. Moreover dimensional analogy itself, like everything else in nature, is an exact expression of intrinsic symmetries: that is Nother's great discovery. == Dimensional relativity == Coxeter's kinetic law of <math>n</math>-dimensional congruent Euclidean transformations may be called ''dimensional relativity'', since it captures the theories of special and general relativity, and has its roots in dimensional analogy. Dimensional analogy is the exploration of [[w:Hermann_Grassmann#Mathematician|Hermann Grassmann's vector space principle]], in which space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. The geometry of higher-dimensional space is accessable by reason of direct analogy, as [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] subsequently demonstrated. By analogy to the surface of the earth, the bounding surface of a spherical region of <math>n</math>-dimensional Euclidean space is an <math>(n-1)</math>-sphere, a spherical space of one fewer dimensions than the <math>n</math>-ball of Euclidean space it surrounds. In dimensional relativity the sky is not a ceiling, but an infinite regress of alternating spherical and Euclidean <math>n</math>-spaces of increasing <math>n</math>, accessible from each observer's point of view. By dimensional analogy, each observer looks up into their own reference frame's regress of concentric alternating <math>n</math>-spaces. By the capacity for dimensional analogy which they possess, some observers see deeper into <math>n</math>-dimensional space than others. == Polycentric spherical relativity == An intelligent observer equipped with the principle of relativity may perceive the universe from any inertial reference frame, not only from their own proper stationary reference frame in the <math>n</math>-space universe in which they physically locate themself. We see that every observer may also properly view themself as stationary and the universe as an <math>(n+1)</math>-sphere with themself at the center observing it, perceptually equidistant from all points on its <math>n</math>-space surface, including their own physical location which is one of those surface points, distinguished to them but moving on the surface, and not the center of anything. This ''polycentric model'' of the universe is a further restatement of the principle of relativity. It is compatible with Galileo's relativity of uniformly moving objects in ordinary space, Einstein's special relativity of inertial reference frames in 4-dimensional spacetime, Einstein's general relativity of all reference frames in non-Euclidean spacetime, and Coxeter's dimensional relativity of orthogonal group actions in Euclidean and spherical spaces of any number of dimensions. It should be known as Thoreau's principle of ''spherical relativity'', since the first precise written statement of it appears in 1849: "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence."{{Sfn|Thoreau|1849|p=349|ps=; "The universe is a sphere whose center is wherever there is intelligence." [Contemporaneous and independent of [[W:Ludwig Schlafli|Ludwig Schlafli]]'s pioneering work enumerating the complete set of regular polyschemes in any number of dimensions.]}} == Revolutions == The original Copernican revolution in 1543 displaced the center of the universe from the center of the earth to a point farther away, the center of the sun, with the earth performing a ''revolution'' around the sun, and the stars remaining on a fixed 2-sphere around the sun instead of around the earth. But this led inevitably to the recognition that the sun must be a star itself, not equidistant from all the stars, and the center of but one of many spheres, no monotheistic center at all. In such fashion the Euclidean four-dimensional revolution, emerging three to five centuries later, initially lends itself to the big bang theory of a single origin of the whole universe, but leads inevitably to the recognition that all the galaxies need not be equidistant from a single origin in time, any more than all the stars lie in the same galaxy, equidistant from a single center in space. The expanding sphere of matter on the surface of which we find ourselves living is likely to be one of many 3-spheres expanding at velocity <math>c</math>, with their big bang origins occurring at distinct times and places in the ''n''-dimensional universe. The most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, all have the same origin in space and time. As recently as Copernicus we believed all the stars lay on a single 2-sphere embedded in Euclidean 3-space, with our sun at its center. During the enlightenment we dispersed those stars into an infinite Euclidean 3-space, and relinquished our privileged position at the center. Then Einstein showed that our 3-space could not be Euclidean, that it must be a 3-manifold curved in every place in obedience to Newton's inverse-square law of gravity; and in a sense related to time, at least, it must be 4-dimensional. In this work we suggest a theory of ''n''-dimensional real space and how light travels in it, a theory which says we can see into four orthogonal dimensions of Euclidean space, and so when we look up at night we see cosmological objects distributed in at least four dimensions of space around us, rather than all located in our own local 3-space. Looking still deeper and farther out, the universe viewed as a 4-sphere might, or might not, be expanding, and the most distant objects we see when we look up at night may, or may not, lie in our 4-dimensional hyperplane. Real space has ''n'' dimensions as [[w:Hermann_Grassmann|Grassmann]] and [[w:Schläfli|Schläfli]] showed, and we do not know how many dimensions the most distant objects we see may be distributed in. They need not all lie within the four spatial dimensions in which we now observe them, any more than they lie in the three dimensional hyperplane of local space in which we find everything residing in our solar system. When we look up at the objects that surround us, we have no way of discerning how many dimensions beyond three the space we are looking into has. We know their distance from us only by virtue of how long it takes their light to reach us. We can measure their distribution around us in 4-space, but that is simply how we choose to measure them, not a finding of how they are actually distributed. Even if it is now evident that they do not all lie in the same 3-space, how many more dimensions than three are needed to contain them? We observe that our 4-ball galaxy is embedded in Euclidean ''n''-space as one of many 4-ball galaxies, each translating in a distinct direction through 4-space at velocity <math>c</math>, on more or less divergent paths from each other. But only much closer observation will reveal evidence of whether everything we see lies in the same 4-space, or if it is distributed in five or more dimensions, and how it is moving there. To remain in agreement with the theory of relativity, the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint requires that all mass-carrying objects be in motion in some distinct direction through 4-space at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, although the relative velocity between nearby objects is much smaller since they move on similar vectors, aimed away from a common origin point in the past. It is natural to expect that objects moving at constant velocity away from a common origin will be distributed roughly on the surface of an expanding 3-sphere. Although their paths away from their origin are not straight lines but various helical isoclines (screw displacements), nearby objects must be translating radially at the same velocity, since the objects in a system (such as our solar system or galaxy) do not separate rapidly over time but remain in orbital formation. Each system's screw displacement has ''two'' [[w:Completely_orthogonal|completely orthogonal]] components of motion in 4-space, an orbital rotation (such as the earth's around our sun) and a linear translation of the entire system at velocity <math>c</math> in the direction of the original 3-sphere's radial expansion (along the system's proper time vector). Of course the view from our solar system does not suggest that each galaxy's own distinct 3-sphere is expanding at this great rate from its galactic center. The standard theory has been that the entire observable universe is expanding from a single big bang origin in time, with galaxies forming later. While the Euclidean four-dimensional viewpoint lends itself to that standard theory, it also supports theories which require no single origin point in space and time. These are the voyages of starship Earth, to boldly go where no one has gone before. We made the jump to lightspeed long ago, in whatever big bang our atoms emerged from, and have never slowed down since. == Origins of the theory == Einstein himself may have been the first to imagine the universe as the three-dimensional surface of a four-dimensional Euclidean 3-sphere, in what was narrowly the first written articulation of the geometry of Euclidean 4-space relativity, contemporaneous with the teen-aged Coxeter's (quoted below).{{Efn|[[W:William Rowan Hamilton|Hamilton]]'s algebra '''H''' of [[W:Quaternions|quaternions]] contains the notion of a [[W:Three-dimensional sphere|three-dimensional sphere]] embedded in a four-dimensional space, but Hamilton did not conceive of the quaternions as the Cartesian 4-coordinates of a Euclidean 4-space, and did not describe our ordinary 3-space embedded in Euclidean 4-space.}} Einstein did this as a [[W:Gedankenexperiment|gedankenexperiment]] in the context of investigating whether his equations of general relativity predicted an infinite or a finite universe, in his 1921 Princeton lecture.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276|title=The Meaning of Relativity|last=Einstein|first=Albert|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=110-111}}</ref> He invited us to imagine "A spherical manifold of three dimensions, embedded in a Euclidean continuum of four dimensions", but he was careful to disclaim parenthetically that "The aid of a fourth space dimension has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice." Informally, the Euclidean 4-dimensional theory of relativity may be given as a sort of reciprocal to that disclaimer of Einstein's: ''The Minkowski spacetime has naturally no significance except that of a mathematical artifice, as an aid to understanding how things will appear to an observer from their perspective; the foreshortenings, clock desynchronizations and other Lorentz transformations it predicts are proper calculations of actual perspective effects; but real space is a flat, Euclidean continuum of four orthogonal spatial dimensions, and in it the ordinary laws of a flat vector space hold (such as the Pythagorean theorem), and all sightline calculations work classically, so long as you consider all four spatial dimensions.'' The Euclidean theory of relativity differs from the special theory of relativity in ascribing to the physical universe a geometry of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions, rather than the special theory's [[w:Minkowski spacetime|Minkowski spacetime]] geometry, in which three spatial dimensions and a time dimension comprise a unified spacetime of four dimensions. Anco and Maghadam found that <math>SO(4)</math> breaks to ... <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>... if the energy in the Kepler orbit is negative (an elliptical orbit), and to ... <math>H^3</math> ... Minkowski spacetime if the energy is positive (a hyperbolic orbit). Because the planets orbit on ellipses in our 3-space, Euclidean 4-space is the actual geometry of our physical universe, and Minkowski spacetime is an abstraction; the reciprocal of Einstein's disclaimer is the truer model. Of course spacetime remains a true and useful abstraction, although it must relinquish its privileged position of centrality as our exclusive conception of our place in space.{{Efn| ...origins of the Euclidean 4-space insight in the observations of Fock, Atkinson, Moser and others.}} The invention of Euclidean geometry of more than three spatial dimensions preceded Einstein's theories by more than fifty years, when it was worked out originally by the Swiss mathematician [[w:Ludwig Schläfli|Ludwig Schläfli]] before 1853.{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|loc=§7. Ordinary Polytopes in Higher Space; §7.x. Historical remarks|pp=141-144|ps=; "Practically all the ideas in this chapter ... are due to Schläfli, who discovered them before 1853 — a time when Cayley, Grassmann and Möbius were the only other people who had ever conceived the possibility of geometry in more than three dimensions."}} Schläfli extended Euclid's geometry of one, two, and three dimensions in a direct way to four or more dimensions, generalizing the rules and terms of [[w:Euclidean geometry|Euclidean geometry]] to spaces of any number of dimensions. He coined the general term ''[[polyscheme]]'' to mean geometric forms of any number of dimensions, including two-dimensional [[w:polygon|polygons]], three-dimensional [[w:polyhedron|polyhedra]], four dimensional [[w:polychoron|polychora]], and so on, and in the process he found all of the [[w:Regular polytope|regular polyschemes]] that are possible in every dimension, including in particular the [[User:Dc.samizdat/Rotations#Sequence of regular 4-polytopes|six convex regular polychora]] which can be constructed in a Euclidean space of four dimensions (the set analogous to the five [[w:Platonic solid|Platonic solids]] the ancients found in three dimensional space). Thus Schläfli was the first to explore the fourth dimension, reveal its emergent geometric properties, and discover its astonishing regular objects. Because his work was only published posthumously in 1901, and remained almost completely unknown until Coxeter published [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|Regular Polytopes]] in 1947, other researchers had more than fifty years to rediscover the regular polychora, and competing terms were coined; today [[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s word ''[[w:Polytope|polytope]]'' is the commonly used term for ''polyscheme.''{{Efn|[[w:Reinhold_Hoppe|Reinhold Hoppe]]'s German word ''polytop'' was introduced into English by [[W:Alicia Boole Stott|Alicia Boole Stott]], who like Hoppe and [[W:Thorold Gosset|Thorold Gosset]] rediscovered Schlafli's six regular convex 4-polytopes, with no knowledge of their prior discovery. Today Schläfli's original ''polyschem'', with its echo of ''schema'' as in the configurations of information structures, seems even more fitting in its generality than ''polytope'' -- perhaps analogously as information software (programming) is even more general than information hardware (computers).}} Because of this century-long lag in the dissemination of a scientific discovery, the regular 4-polytopes appear to have played no role at all, by any name, in the twentieth century discovery and evolution of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.{{Efn|One could argue that the higher-dimensional polytopes have barely influenced science or culture at all thus far. The physicist John Edward Huth's comprehensive deep dive through the history of cultural and scientific concepts of physical space, from ancient flatland models of the world through general relativity and quantum mechancs, shows exactly how we got to our present standard model of the universe, although it includes no mention of higher-dimensional Euclidean space.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Huth|first=John Edward|title=A Sense of Space: A local's guide to a flat earth, the edge of the cosmos, and other curious places|year=2025|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref>}} == Boundaries == <blockquote>Ever since we discovered that Earth is round and turns like a mad-spinning top, we have understood that reality is not as it appears to us: every time we glimpse a new aspect of it, it is a deeply emotional experience. Another veil has fallen.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Rovelli|author-link=W:Carlo Rovelli|title=Seven Brief Lessons on Physics|publisher=Riverhead|year=2016|isbn=978-0399184413}}</ref></blockquote> Of course it is strange to consciously contemplate this world we inhabit, our planet, our solar system, our 3-sphere surface in our vast galaxy, as the merest film, a boundary no thicker in the places we inhabit than the diameter of an electron (though much thicker in some places we cannot inhabit, such as the interior of stars). But is not our unconscious traditional concept of the boundary of our world even stranger? Since the enlightenment we are accustomed to thinking that there is nothing beyond three dimensional space: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But anyone who knows the [[polyscheme]]s Schläfli discovered knows that space can have any number of dimensions, and that there are fundamental objects and motions to be discovered in four dimensions that are even more various and interesting than those we can discover in three. The strange thing, when we think about it that way, is that there ''is'' a boundary between three and four dimensional space. ''Why'' can't we move (or apparently, see) in more than three dimensions? Why is our physical world apparently only three dimensional? Why would it have just ''three'' dimensions, and not four, or five, or the ''n'' dimensions that Schläfli mapped? What is the nature of the boundary which confines us to just three dimensions? We know that in Euclidean geometry the boundary between three and four dimensions is itself a spherical three dimensional space, so we should suspect that we are materially confined within such a curved boundary surface. Light need not be confined with us within our three dimensional boundary space. We would look directly through four dimensional space in our natural way, by receiving light signals that travelled through it to us on straight lines. In that case the reason we do not observe a fourth spatial dimension in our vicinity is that there are no nearby objects in it, just off our hyperplane in the wild. The nearest four-dimensional object we can see with our eyes is our sun, which lies equatorially in our own hyperplane, though it bulges out of it above and below. But when we look up at the heavens, every pinprick of light we observe is itself a four-dimensional object off our hyperplane, and they are distributed all around us in four-dimensional space through which we gaze. We are four-dimensionally sighted creatures, even though our bodies are three-dimensional objects, thin as an atom in the fourth dimension. But that should not perplex us: we can see into three dimensional space even though our retinas are two dimensional objects, thin as a photoreceptor cell. Our unconscious provincial concept is that there is nothing else outside our three dimensional world: no boundary, because there is nothing else to separate us from. But Schläfli discovered something else: all the astonishing regular objects that exist in higher dimensions, which vastly extend our notions of the beauty and mystery of space itself, and the intrinsic spatial symmetries of our universe which geometry reveals. Space is more commodious than we thought it was, and permits previously unimagined objects and motions. So our provincial conception of our place in it now has the same kind of status as our idea that the sun rises in the east and passes overhead: it is mere appearance, not a true model and no longer a proper explanation. An inertial boundary is an explanation, be it ever so thin. And would a boundary of ''no'' thickness, a mere abstraction with no physical power to separate, be a more suitable explanation? We must look for a physically powerful explanation in the geometry of space itself, which general relativity properly associates with the gravitational or inertial force. <blockquote>The number of dimensions possessed by a figure is the number of straight lines each perpendicular to all the others which can be drawn on it. Thus a point has no dimensions, a straight line one, a plane surface two, and a solid three .... In space as we now know it only three lines can be imagined perpendicular to each other. A fourth line, perpendicular to all the other three would be quite invisible and unimaginable to us. We ourselves and all the material things around us probably possess a fourth dimension, of which we are quite unaware. If not, from a four-dimensional point of view we are mere geometrical abstractions, like geometrical surfaces, lines, and points are to us. But this thickness in the fourth dimension must be exceedingly minute, if it exists at all. That is, we could only draw an exceedingly small line perpendicular to our three perpendicular lines, length, breadth and thickness, so small that no microscope could ever perceive it. We can find out something about the conditions of the fourth and higher dimensions if they exist, without being certain that they do exist, by a process which I have termed "Dimensional Analogy."<ref>{{Citation|title=Dimensional Analogy|last=Coxeter|first=Donald|date=February 1923|publisher=Coxeter Fonds, University of Toronto Archives|authorlink=W:Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter|series=|postscript=|work=}}</ref></blockquote> I believe, but I cannot prove, that we live in real space, which is Schläfli's Euclidean space of ''n'' analogous dimensions. As Grassmann showed first, space cannot be limited to any finite number of dimensions. There will always be higher dimensions to discover, first in imagination and then to explore physically, each an astonishing new enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book|first=T.S.|last=Eliot|title=Little Gidding|volume=Four Quartets|year=1943}}<blockquote> :We shall not cease from exploration :And the end of all our exploring :Will be to arrive where we started :And know the place for the first time. :Through the unknown, remembered gate :When the last of earth left to discover :Is that which was the beginning; :At the source of the longest river :The voice of the hidden waterfall :And the children in the apple-tree :Not known, because not looked for :But heard, half-heard, in the stillness :Between two waves of the sea. </blockquote></ref> Schläfli discovered every regular convex polytope that exists in any dimension, but that was only the beginning of the story of dimensional analogy, not its end or even the end of its beginning. That project is forever beginning anew. Coxeter discovered that Schläfli's Euclidean space is an expression of intrinsic symmetries, as Noether discovered all of physics is. Kappraff and Adamson discovered that even the sequences of humble regular polygons have fractal complexity. Symmetry itself is chaotic, always reachable but forever beyond our complete grasp. We are on a Wilderness Project, and just at its beginning, but already we observe a Euclidean space of four or more orthogonal spatial dimensions in which all objects with mass move ceaselessly at the constant velocity <math>c</math>, the universal rate at which everything moves, quantum events occur, and each of our proper times evolves. I believe these facts explain the experimentally verified theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, by revealing their unified polycentric geometry, the same way the facts about Copernicus's heliocentric solar system explained the observed motions of the planets, by revealing the geometry of gravity. But others will have to do the math, work out the physics, and perform experiments to prove or disprove all of this, because I don't have the mathematics; entirely unlike Coxeter and Einstein, I am illiterate in those languages. <blockquote> ::::::BEECH :Where my imaginary line :Bends square in woods, an iron spine :And pile of real rocks have been founded. :And off this corner in the wild, :Where these are driven in and piled, :One tree, by being deeply wounded, :Has been impressed as Witness Tree :And made commit to memory :My proof of being not unbounded. :Thus truth's established and borne out, :Though circumstanced with dark and doubt— :Though by a world of doubt surrounded. :::::::—''The Moodie Forester''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Witness Tree|last=Frost|first=Robert|year=1942|series=The Poetry of Robert Frost|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|edition=1969|}}</ref> </blockquote> == Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes == {{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}} == ... == {{Efn|In a ''[[W:William Kingdon Clifford|Clifford]] displacement'', also known as an [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], all the Clifford parallel{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} invariant planes are displaced in four orthogonal directions (two completely orthogonal planes) at once: they are rotated by the same angle, and at the same time they are tilted ''sideways'' by that same angle. A [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|Clifford displacement]] is [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensionally diagonal]].{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} Every plane that is Clifford parallel to one of the completely orthogonal planes (including in this case an entire Clifford parallel bundle of 4 hexagons, but not all 16 hexagons) is invariant under the isoclinic rotation: all the points in the plane rotate in circles but remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways. All 16 hexagons rotate by the same angle (though only 4 of them do so invariantly). All 16 hexagons are rotated by 60 degrees, and also displaced sideways by 60 degrees to a Clifford parallel hexagon. All of the other central polygons (e.g. squares) are also displaced to a Clifford parallel polygon 60 degrees away.|name=Clifford displacement}} {{Efn|It is not difficult to visualize four hexagonal planes intersecting at 60 degrees to each other, even in three dimensions. Four hexagonal central planes intersect at 60 degrees in the [[W:cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]]. Four of the 24-cell's 16 hexagonal central planes (lying in the same 3-dimensional hyperplane) intersect at each of the 24-cell's vertices exactly the way they do at the center of a cuboctahedron. But the ''edges'' around the vertex do not meet as the radii do at the center of a cuboctahedron; the 24-cell has 8 edges around each vertex, not 12, so its vertex figure is the cube, not the cuboctahedron. The 8 edges meet exactly the way 8 edges do at the apex of a canonical [[W:cubic pyramid]|cubic pyramid]].{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}}|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} {{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} {{Efn|Eight {{sqrt|1}} edges converge in curved 3-dimensional space from the corners of the 24-cell's cubical vertex figure{{Efn|The [[W:vertex figure|vertex figure]] is the facet which is made by truncating a vertex; canonically, at the mid-edges incident to the vertex. But one can make similar vertex figures of different radii by truncating at any point along those edges, up to and including truncating at the adjacent vertices to make a ''full size'' vertex figure. Stillwell defines the vertex figure as "the convex hull of the neighbouring vertices of a given vertex".{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=17}} That is what serves the illustrative purpose here.|name=full size vertex figure}} and meet at its center (the vertex), where they form 4 straight lines which cross there. The 8 vertices of the cube are the eight nearest other vertices of the 24-cell. The straight lines are geodesics: two {{sqrt|1}}-length segments of an apparently straight line (in the 3-space of the 24-cell's curved surface) that is bent in the 4th dimension into a great circle hexagon (in 4-space). Imagined from inside this curved 3-space, the bends in the hexagons are invisible. From outside (if we could view the 24-cell in 4-space), the straight lines would be seen to bend in the 4th dimension at the cube centers, because the center is displaced outward in the 4th dimension, out of the hyperplane defined by the cube's vertices. Thus the vertex cube is actually a [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]]. Unlike a cube, it seems to be radially equilateral (like the tesseract and the 24-cell itself): its "radius" equals its edge length.{{Efn|The vertex cubic pyramid is not actually radially equilateral,{{Efn|name=radially equilateral}} because the edges radiating from its apex are not actually its radii: the apex of the [[W:cubic pyramid|cubic pyramid]] is not actually its center, just one of its vertices.}}|name=24-cell vertex figure}} {{Efn|The hexagons are inclined (tilted) at 60 degrees with respect to the unit radius coordinate system's orthogonal planes. Each hexagonal plane contains only ''one'' of the 4 coordinate system axes.{{Efn|Each great hexagon of the 24-cell contains one axis (one pair of antipodal vertices) belonging to each of the three inscribed 16-cells. The 24-cell contains three disjoint inscribed 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other (so their corresponding vertices are 120° {{=}} {{radic|3}} apart). A [[16-cell#Coordinates|16-cell is an orthonormal ''basis'']] for a 4-dimensional coordinate system, because its 8 vertices define the four orthogonal axes. In any choice of a vertex-up coordinate system (such as the unit radius coordinates used in this article), one of the three inscribed 16-cells is the basis for the coordinate system, and each hexagon has only ''one'' axis which is a coordinate system axis.|name=three basis 16-cells}} The hexagon consists of 3 pairs of opposite vertices (three 24-cell diameters): one opposite pair of ''integer'' coordinate vertices (one of the four coordinate axes), and two opposite pairs of ''half-integer'' coordinate vertices (not coordinate axes). For example: {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}1,{{spaces|2}}0) {{indent|5}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}({{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|5}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}}){{spaces|3}}(–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}},–{{sfrac|1|2}},{{spaces|2}}{{sfrac|1|2}}) {{indent|17}}({{spaces|2}}0,{{spaces|2}}0,–1,{{spaces|2}}0)<br> is a hexagon on the ''y'' axis. Unlike the {{sqrt|2}} squares, the hexagons are actually made of 24-cell edges, so they are visible features of the 24-cell.|name=non-orthogonal hexagons|group=}} {{Efn|Visualize the three [[16-cell]]s inscribed in the 24-cell (left, right, and middle), and the rotation which takes them to each other. [[24-cell#Reciprocal constructions from 8-cell and 16-cell|The vertices of the middle 16-cell lie on the (w, x, y, z) coordinate axes]];{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} the other two are rotated 60° [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinically]] to its left and its right. The 24-vertex 24-cell is a compound of three 16-cells, whose three sets of 8 vertices are distributed around the 24-cell symmetrically; each vertex is surrounded by 8 others (in the 3-dimensional space of the 4-dimensional 24-cell's ''surface''), the way the vertices of a cube surround its center.{{Efn|name=24-cell vertex figure}} The 8 surrounding vertices (the cube corners) lie in other 16-cells: 4 in the other 16-cell to the left, and 4 in the other 16-cell to the right. They are the vertices of two tetrahedra inscribed in the cube, one belonging (as a cell) to each 16-cell. If the 16-cell edges are {{radic|2}}, each vertex of the compound of three 16-cells is {{radic|1}} away from its 8 surrounding vertices in other 16-cells. Now visualize those {{radic|1}} distances as the edges of the 24-cell (while continuing to visualize the disjoint 16-cells). The {{radic|1}} edges form great hexagons of 6 vertices which run around the 24-cell in a central plane. ''Four'' hexagons cross at each vertex (and its antipodal vertex), inclined at 60° to each other.{{Efn|name=cuboctahedral hexagons}} The [[24-cell#Hexagons|hexagons]] are not perpendicular to each other, or to the 16-cells' perpendicular [[24-cell#Squares|square central planes]].{{Efn|name=non-orthogonal hexagons}} The left and right 16-cells form a tesseract.{{Efn|Each pair of the three 16-cells inscribed in the 24-cell forms a 4-dimensional [[W:tesseract|hypercube (a tesseract or 8-cell)]], in [[24-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|dimensional analogy]] to the way two tetrahedra form a cube: the two 8-vertex 16-cells are inscribed in the 16-vertex tesseract, occupying its alternate vertices. The third 16-cell does not lie within the tesseract; its 8 vertices protrude from the sides of the tesseract, forming a cubic pyramid on each of the tesseract's cubic cells. The three pairs of 16-cells form three tesseracts.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} The tesseracts share vertices, but the 16-cells are completely disjoint.{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}}|name=three 16-cells form three tesseracts}} Two 16-cells have vertex-pairs which are one {{radic|1}} edge (one hexagon edge) apart. But a [[24-cell#Simple rotations|''simple'' rotation]] of 60° will not take one whole 16-cell to another 16-cell, because their vertices are 60° apart in different directions, and a simple rotation has only one hexagonal plane of rotation. One 16-cell ''can'' be taken to another 16-cell by a 60° [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|''isoclinic'' rotation]], because an isoclinic rotation is [[3-sphere]] symmetric: four [[24-cell#Clifford parallel polytopes|Clifford parallel hexagonal planes]] rotate together, but in four different rotational directions,{{Efn|name=Clifford displacement}} taking each 16-cell to another 16-cell. But since an isoclinic 60° rotation is a ''diagonal'' rotation by 60° in ''two'' completely orthogonal directions at once,{{Efn|name=isoclinic geodesic}} the corresponding vertices of the 16-cell and the 16-cell it is taken to are 120° apart: ''two'' {{radic|1}} hexagon edges (or one {{radic|3}} hexagon chord) apart, not one {{radic|1}} edge (60°) apart as in a simple rotation.{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} By the [[W:chiral|chiral]] diagonal nature of isoclinic rotations, the 16-cell ''cannot'' reach the adjacent 16-cell by rotating toward it; it can only reach the 16-cell ''beyond'' it. But of course, the 16-cell beyond the 16-cell to its right is the 16-cell to its left. So a 60° isoclinic rotation ''will'' take every 16-cell to another 16-cell: a 60° ''right'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we may have originally visualized as the ''left'' 16-cell, and a 60° ''left'' isoclinic rotation will take the middle 16-cell to the 16-cell we visualized as the ''right'' 16-cell. (If so, that was our error in visualization; the 16-cell to the "left" is in fact the one reached by the left isoclinic rotation, as that is the only sense in which the two 16-cells are left or right of each other.)|name=three isoclinic 16-cells}} {{Efn|In a double rotation each vertex can be said to move along two completely orthogonal great circles at the same time, but it does not stay within the central plane of either of those original great circles; rather, it moves along a helical geodesic that traverses diagonally between great circles. The two completely orthogonal planes of rotation are said to be ''invariant'' because the points in each stay in the plane ''as the plane moves'', tilting sideways by the same angle that the other plane rotates.|name=helical geodesic}} {{Efn|A point under isoclinic rotation traverses the diagonal{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} straight line of a single '''isoclinic geodesic''', reaching its destination directly, instead of the bent line of two successive '''simple geodesics'''. A '''[[W:geodesic|geodesic]]''' is the ''shortest path'' through a space (intuitively, a string pulled taught between two points). Simple geodesics are great circles lying in a central plane (the only kind of geodesics that occur in 3-space on the 2-sphere). Isoclinic geodesics are different: they do ''not'' lie in a single plane; they are 4-dimensional [[W:helix|spirals]] rather than simple 2-dimensional circles.{{Efn|name=helical geodesic}} But they are not like 3-dimensional [[W:screw threads|screw threads]] either, because they form a closed loop like any circle (after ''two'' revolutions). Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'', and they are just as circular as 2-dimensional circles: in fact, twice as circular, because they curve in a circle in two completely orthogonal directions at once.{{Efn|Isoclinic geodesics are ''4-dimensional great circles'' in the sense that they are 1-dimensional geodesic ''lines'' that curve in 4-space in two completely orthogonal planes at once. They should not be confused with ''great 2-spheres'',{{Sfn|Stillwell|2001|p=24}} which are the 4-dimensional analogues of 2-dimensional great circles (great 1-spheres).}} These '''isoclines''' are geodesic 1-dimensional lines embedded in a 4-dimensional space. On the 3-sphere{{Efn|All isoclines are geodesics, and isoclines on the 3-sphere are circles (curving equally in each dimension), but not all isoclines on 3-manifolds in 4-space are circles.}} they always occur in [[W:chiral|chiral]] pairs and form a pair of [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]s on the [[W:Clifford torus|Clifford torus]],{{Efn|Isoclines on the 3-sphere occur in non-intersecting chiral pairs. A left and a right isocline form a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]] called the {1,1} torus knot{{Sfn|Dorst|2019|loc=§1. Villarceau Circles|p=44|ps=; "In mathematics, the path that the (1, 1) knot on the torus traces is also known as a [[W:Villarceau circle|Villarceau circle]]. Villarceau circles are usually introduced as two intersecting circles that are the cross-section of a torus by a well-chosen plane cutting it. Picking one such circle and rotating it around the torus axis, the resulting family of circles can be used to rule the torus. By nesting tori smartly, the collection of all such circles then form a [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fibration]].... we prefer to consider the Villarceau circle as the (1, 1) torus knot [a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]] rather than as a planar cut [two intersecting circles]."}} in which ''each'' of the two linked circles traverses all four dimensions.}} the paths of the left and the right [[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space#Double rotations|isoclinic rotation]]. They are [[W:Helix|helices]] bent into a [[W:Möbius strip|Möbius loop]] in the fourth dimension, taking a diagonal [[W:Winding number|winding route]] twice around the 3-sphere through the non-adjacent vertices of a 4-polytope's [[W:Skew polygon#Regular skew polygons in four dimensions|skew polygon]].|name=isoclinic geodesic}} {{Efn|[[File:Hopf band wikipedia.png|thumb|150px|Two [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles spanned by a twisted [[W:Annulus (mathematics)|annulus]].]][[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]]s are non-intersecting curved lines that are parallel in the sense that the perpendicular (shortest) distance between them is the same at each point. A double helix is an example of Clifford parallelism in ordinary 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In 4-space Clifford parallels occur as geodesic great circles on the [[W:3-sphere|3-sphere]].{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|pp=8-10|loc=Relations to Clifford Parallelism}} Whereas in 3-dimensional space, any two geodesic great circles on the [[W:2-sphere|2-sphere]] will always intersect at two antipodal points, in 4-dimensional space not all great circles intersect. In 4-polytopes various discrete sets of Clifford parallel non-intersecting geodesic great circles can be found on the 3-sphere. They spiral around each other in [[W:Hopf fibration|Hopf fiber bundles]] which visit all the vertices just once. The simplest example is that six mutually orthogonal great circles can be drawn on the 3-sphere, as three pairs of completely orthogonal great circles, intersecting at 8 points defining a [[16-cell]]. Each completely orthogonal pair of circles is Clifford parallel. They cannot intersect at all, because they lie in planes which intersect at only one point: the center of the 16-cell. Because they are perpendicular and share a common center, the two circles are obviously not parallel and separate in the usual way of parallel circles in 3 dimensions; rather they are connected like adjacent links in a chain, each passing through the other without intersecting at any points, forming a [[W:Hopf link|Hopf link]]|name=Clifford parallels}} {{Efn|In the 24-cell each great square plane is completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to another great square plane, and each great hexagon plane is completely orthogonal to a plane which intersects only two vertices: a great [[W:digon|digon]] plane.|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} {{Efn|In an [[24-cell#Isoclinic rotations|isoclinic rotation]], each point anywhere in the 4-polytope moves an equal distance in four orthogonal directions at once, on a [[W:8-cell#Radial equilateral symmetry|4-dimensional diagonal]]. The point is displaced a total [[W:Pythagorean distance]] equal to the square root of four times the square of that distance. For example, when the unit-radius 24-cell rotates isoclinically 60° in a hexagon invariant plane and 60° in its completely orthogonal invariant plane,{{Efn|name=pairs of completely orthogonal planes}} all vertices are displaced to a vertex two edge lengths away. Each vertex is displaced to another vertex {{radic|3}} (120°) away, moving {{radic|3/4}} in four orthogonal coordinate directions.|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} {{Efn|Each square plane is isoclinic (Clifford parallel) to five other square planes but completely orthogonal{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} to only one of them.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Every pair of completely orthogonal planes has Clifford parallel great circles, but not all Clifford parallel great circles are orthogonal (e.g., none of the hexagonal geodesics in the 24-cell are mutually orthogonal).|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}} {{Efn|In the [[16-cell#Rotations|16-cell]] the 6 orthogonal great squares form 3 pairs of completely orthogonal great circles; each pair is Clifford parallel. In the 24-cell, the 3 inscribed 16-cells lie rotated 60 degrees isoclinically{{Efn|name=isoclinic 4-dimensional diagonal}} with respect to each other; consequently their corresponding vertices are 120 degrees apart on a hexagonal great circle. Pairing their vertices which are 90 degrees apart reveals corresponding square great circles which are Clifford parallel. Each of the 18 square great circles is Clifford parallel not only to one other square great circle in the same 16-cell (the completely orthogonal one), but also to two square great circles (which are completely orthogonal to each other) in each of the other two 16-cells. (Completely orthogonal great circles are Clifford parallel, but not all Clifford parallels are orthogonal.{{Efn|name=only some Clifford parallels are orthogonal}}) A 60 degree isoclinic rotation of the 24-cell in hexagonal invariant planes takes each square great circle to a Clifford parallel (but non-orthogonal) square great circle in a different 16-cell.|name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} {{Efn|In 4 dimensional space we can construct 4 perpendicular axes and 6 perpendicular planes through a point. Without loss of generality, we may take these to be the axes and orthogonal central planes of a (w, x, y, z) Cartesian coordinate system. In 4 dimensions we have the same 3 orthogonal planes (xy, xz, yz) that we have in 3 dimensions, and also 3 others (wx, wy, wz). Each of the 6 orthogonal planes shares an axis with 4 of the others, and is ''completely orthogonal'' to just one of the others: the only one with which it does not share an axis. Thus there are 3 pairs of completely orthogonal planes: xy and wz intersect only at the origin; xz and wy intersect only at the origin; yz and wx intersect only at the origin.|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}} {{Efn|Two planes in 4-dimensional space can have four possible reciprocal positions: (1) they can coincide (be exactly the same plane); (2) they can be parallel (the only way they can fail to intersect at all); (3) they can intersect in a single line, as two non-parallel planes do in 3-dimensional space; or (4) '''they can intersect in a single point'''{{Efn|To visualize how two planes can intersect in a single point in a four dimensional space, consider the Euclidean space (w, x, y, z) and imagine that the w dimension represents time rather than a spatial dimension. The xy central plane (where w{{=}}0, z{{=}}0) shares no axis with the wz central plane (where x{{=}}0, y{{=}}0). The xy plane exists at only a single instant in time (w{{=}}0); the wz plane (and in particular the w axis) exists all the time. Thus their only moment and place of intersection is at the origin point (0,0,0,0).|name=how planes intersect at a single point}} (and they ''must'', if they are completely orthogonal).{{Efn|Two flat planes A and B of a Euclidean space of four dimensions are called ''completely orthogonal'' if and only if every line in A is orthogonal to every line in B. In that case the planes A and B intersect at a single point O, so that if a line in A intersects with a line in B, they intersect at O.{{Efn|name=six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}|name=completely orthogonal planes}}|name=how planes intersect}} {{Efn|Polytopes are '''completely disjoint''' if all their ''element sets'' are disjoint: they do not share any vertices, edges, faces or cells. They may still overlap in space, sharing 4-content, volume, area, or lineage.|name=completely disjoint}} {{Efn|If the [[W:Euclidean distance|Pythagorean distance]] between any two vertices is {{sqrt|1}}, their geodesic distance is 1; they may be two adjacent vertices (in the curved 3-space of the surface), or a vertex and the center (in 4-space). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|2}}, their geodesic distance is 2 (whether via 3-space or 4-space, because the path along the edges is the same straight line with one 90^o bend in it as the path through the center). If their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|3}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 (whether on a hexagonal great circle past one 60^o bend, or as a straight line with one 60^o bend in it through the center). Finally, if their Pythagorean distance is {{sqrt|4}}, their geodesic distance is still 2 in 4-space (straight through the center), but it reaches 3 in 3-space (by going halfway around a hexagonal great circle).|name=Geodesic distance}} {{Efn|Two angles are required to fix the relative positions of two planes in 4-space.{{Sfn|Kim|Rote|2016|p=7|loc=§6 Angles between two Planes in 4-Space|ps=; "In four (and higher) dimensions, we need two angles to fix the relative position between two planes. (More generally, ''k'' angles are defined between ''k''-dimensional subspaces.)"}} Since all planes in the same [[W:hyperplane|hyperplane]] are 0 degrees apart in one of the two angles, only one angle is required in 3-space. Great hexagons in different hyperplanes are 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles. Great squares in different hyperplanes are 90 degrees apart in ''both'' angles (completely orthogonal){{Efn|name=completely orthogonal planes}} or 60 degrees apart in ''both'' angles.{{Efn||name=Clifford parallel squares in the 16-cell and 24-cell}} Planes which are separated by two equal angles are called ''isoclinic''. Planes which are isoclinic have [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] great circles.{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} A great square and a great hexagon in different hyperplanes are neither isoclinic nor Clifford parallel; they are separated by a 90 degree angle ''and'' a 60 degree angle.|name=two angles between central planes}} {{Efn|The 24-cell contains 3 distinct 8-cells (tesseracts), rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. The corresponding vertices of two 8-cells are {{radic|3}} (120°) apart. Each 8-cell contains 8 cubical cells, and each cube contains four {{radic|3}} chords (its long diagonals). The 8-cells are not completely disjoint{{Efn|name=completely disjoint}} (they share vertices), but each cube and each {{radic|3}} chord belongs to just one 8-cell. The {{radic|3}} chords joining the corresponding vertices of two 8-cells belong to the third 8-cell.|name=three 8-cells}} {{Efn|Departing from any vertex V₀ in the original great hexagon plane of isoclinic rotation P₀, the first vertex reached V₁ is 120 degrees away along a {{radic|3}} chord lying in a different hexagonal plane P₁. P₁ is inclined to P₀ at a 60° angle.{{Efn|P₀ and P₁ lie in the same hyperplane (the same central cuboctahedron) so their other angle of separation is 0.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}}}} The second vertex reached V₂ is 120 degrees beyond V₁ along a second {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₂ that is Clifford parallel to P₀.{{Efn|P₀ and P₂ are 60° apart in ''both'' angles of separation.{{Efn|name=two angles between central planes}} Clifford parallel planes are isoclinic (which means they are separated by two equal angles), and their corresponding vertices are all the same distance apart. Although V₀ and V₂ are ''two'' {{radic|3}} chords apart{{Efn|V₀ and V₂ are two {{radic|3}} chords apart on the geodesic path of this rotational isocline, but that is not the shortest geodesic path between them. In the 24-cell, it is impossible for two vertices to be more distant than ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord, unless they are antipodal vertices {{radic|4}} apart.{{Efn|name=Geodesic distance}} V₀ and V₂ are ''one'' {{radic|3}} chord apart on some other isocline. More generally, isoclines are geodesics because the distance between their ''adjacent'' vertices is the shortest distance between those two vertices, but a path between two vertices along a geodesic is not always the shortest distance between them (even on ordinary great circle geodesics).}}, P₀ and P₂ are just one {{radic|1}} edge apart (at every pair of ''nearest'' vertices).}} (Notice that V₁ lies in both intersecting planes P₁ and P₂, as V₀ lies in both P₀ and P₁. But P₀ and P₂ have ''no'' vertices in common; they do not intersect.) The third vertex reached V₃ is 120 degrees beyond V₂ along a third {{radic|3}} chord lying in another hexagonal plane P₃ that is Clifford parallel to P₁. The three {{radic|3}} chords lie in different 8-cells.{{Efn|name=three 8-cells}} V₀ to V₃ is a 360° isoclinic rotation.|name=360 degree geodesic path visiting 3 hexagonal planes}} {{Sfn|Mamone, Pileio & Levitt|2010|loc=§4.5 Regular Convex 4-Polytopes|pp=1438-1439|ps=; the 24-cell has 1152 symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) as enumerated in Table 2, symmetry group 𝐹₄.}} ==Notes== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Notelist|wiki=W:}} ==Citations== {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Reflist|wiki=W:}} ==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book|title=A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers|last=Thoreau|first=Henry David|author-link=W:Thoreau|publisher=James Munroe and Company|year=1849|isbn=|location=Boston|ref={{SfnRef|Thoreau|1849}}}} * {{Cite journal|title=Theoretical Evidence for Principles of Special Relativity Based on Isotropic and Uniform Four-Dimensional Space|first=Takuya|last=Yamashita|date=25 May 2023|doi= 10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1|journal=Preprints|volume=2023|issue=2023051785|url=https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1785.v1}} * {{Cite_arXiv | arxiv=2512.02903v2 | date=2 January 2026 | title=Symmetry transformation group arising from the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector | first1=Stephen C. | last1=Anco | first2=Mahdieh Gol Bashmani | last2=Moghadam | class=math-ph}} === [[Polyscheme|Polyschemes]] === {{Regular convex 4-polytopes Refs|wiki=W:}} {{Refend}} ps2wy6lukfhaslfxcfhrh8sie15m1oj 2 331036 2834042 2833942 2026-09-20T20:47:28Z BLANDINO Massimiliano 3106750 /* Research Status, Limitations & Disclaimer */ 2834042 wikitext text/x-wiki __INDEX__ {{Research project | title = First-Principles Derivation of the Fine-Structure Constant: Fano Plane Symmetries, Lagrangian Duality, and the Hydrogen Atom | status = Active / Proposal | area = Mathematical Physics / String Theory / Quantum Mechanics }} <!-- FLOATING INFOBOX: WIKIBASE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH ARCHITECTURE --> <div style="float: right; width: 340px; background-color: #ffffff; border: 1px solid #cbd5e1; border-top: 4px solid #0284c7; padding: 14px; margin: 0 0 1em 1.5em; font-size: 85%; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1.6; box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.08); border-radius: 8px;"> <div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center; color: #0284c7; font-size: 110%; margin-bottom: 2px;">🌐 WIKIBASE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH</div> <div style="text-align: center; color: #64748b; font-size: 90%; margin-bottom: 8px;">Linked Open Data & SPARQL Architecture</div> <hr style="margin: 8px 0; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e2e8f0;" /> * '''Triple Store:''' [https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud blandino-research] * '''Root Project:''' <span style="background: #ef4444; color: white; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q3 Q3]</span> * '''Dataset Record:''' <span style="background: #10b981; color: white; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q92 Q92]</span> * '''Author / ORCID:''' Massimiliano Blandino &bull; [https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3252-4011 0009-0006-3252-4011] * '''SPARQL Endpoint:''' [https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/query/ Live Query Engine] <hr style="margin: 8px 0; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e2e8f0;" /> <strong style="color: #0f172a; display: block; margin-bottom: 4px;">📦 Zenodo Open Data Repository (Concept DOI):</strong> * '''Graph Archive:''' [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22839547 Blandino Research Knowledge Graph (BR-KG)] * '''DOI Link:''' <span style="background: #f1f5f9; color: #0f172a; border: 1px solid #cbd5e1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-family: monospace; font-size: 90%;">[https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22839547 10.5281/zenodo.22839547]</span> <div style="background-color: #f8fafc; border: 1px solid #e2e8f0; border-radius: 6px; padding: 6px 8px; margin-top: 6px; font-size: 88%;"> <strong style="color: #0369a1; display: block; margin-bottom: 2px;">Repository File Contents:</strong> * 📄 <code style="font-size: 85%;">BRKG_Full_Graph_Export.ttl</code> (W3C RDF) * 📊 <code style="font-size: 85%;">01_BRKG_Unpacked_Triples_ALL.csv</code> * 📊 <code style="font-size: 85%;">02_BRKG_Unique_Subject_Nodes.csv</code> * 📊 <code style="font-size: 85%;">03_BRKG_Unique_Property_Predicates.csv</code> </div> <hr style="margin: 8px 0; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e2e8f0;" /> <strong style="color: #0f172a; display: block; margin-bottom: 6px;">Immersive Research Series (Items & Suites):</strong> * '''Jordan-Clifford Bridge:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q18 Q18]</span> &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q25 Q25]</span> * '''NCG Lorentzian:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q20 Q20]</span> &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q26 Q26]</span> * '''LQG Time Emergence:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q22 Q22]</span> &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q27 Q27]</span> * '''Dissipative Measurement:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q23 Q23]</span> &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q28 Q28]</span> * '''Hydrogen 1s Orbital:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q24 Q24]</span> &bull; Suites: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q29 Q29]</span>, <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q30 Q30]</span> * '''AQFT Superselection:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q31 Q31]</span> &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q32 Q32]</span> * '''Singh Torsion Gravity:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q33 Q33]</span> &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q34 Q34]</span> * '''TEC-Weil RH Refinement:''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q35 Q35]</span> &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q36 Q36]</span> <hr style="margin: 8px 0; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e2e8f0;" /> <!-- Invisible AI Agent Metadata --> <div style="display: none;" aria-hidden="true"> zenodo_dataset: concept_doi: "10.5281/zenodo.22839547" files: - "BRKG_Full_Graph_Export.ttl" - "01_BRKG_Unpacked_Triples_ALL.csv" - "02_BRKG_Unique_Subject_Nodes.csv" - "03_BRKG_Unique_Property_Predicates.csv" </div> </div> == Open Science Architecture & Full Corpus Index == This Wikiversity resource serves as an '''executive summary and educational portal''' for a broader, multi-paper research network anchored on Wikibase Cloud. To maintain readability, detailed mathematical derivations, extended proofs, and complete source code are modularized across permanent Open Science repositories (Zenodo Concept DOIs): * '''Full Verification Suite & Spectral Invariants:''' [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20684476 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20684476] <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q8 Node:Q8]</span> * '''Unified PEPS-5D & Fano 2-22 Archive:''' [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20635062 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20635062] <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q16 Node:Q16]</span> * '''Lagrangian Duality & Fine-Structure Series:''' [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19802606 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19802606] <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q15 Node:Q15]</span> ''Readers seeking the full step-by-step algebraic derivations and reproducible Python environments are encouraged to consult the corresponding archived manuscripts linked above.'' == Abstract & Overview == This research project presents a proposed theoretical model for a first-principles derivation of the inverse [[w:en:Fine-structure constant|fine-structure constant]] (<math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math>) without free parameters. It presents its exact analytical closed form, its Lagrangian action principle, its representation as a circular [[w:en:Matrix product state|Matrix Product State (MPS)]], and its physical role as a critical threshold governing decoherence scales and the stability of the hydrogen 1s orbital. == Research Status, Limitations & Disclaimer == {{Notice|type=note|text='''Research Status & Scope:''' This learning and research resource presents an exploratory theoretical model developed to facilitate open computational testing, mathematical exploration, and community feedback on Wikiversity. * '''Publication & Review Status:''' The underlying multi-paper research network and its verification modules are archived under permanent Concept DOIs on Zenodo and indexed on the [https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q3 Wikibase Triple Store (Item:Q3)]. * '''Model Scope:''' All mathematical derivations, tensor network constructions, and Python verification scripts demonstrate internal self-consistency and high-precision numerical agreement within the defined model. They are presented as a self-consistent theoretical hypothesis rather than an established physical consensus.}} == Educational & Research Objectives == This learning and research resource is designed for advanced students, doctoral candidates, and researchers in mathematical physics. The primary objectives are: * To provide a self-contained exposition of circular Matrix Product States (MPS) on algebraic varieties and finite projective spaces. * To demonstrate the analytical derivation of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> via continued fraction structures, [[w:en:Fano plane|Fano plane]] symmetries, and worldsheet oscillations. * To offer an open-source, fully deterministic verification suite allowing independent validation of all invariant derivations, spectral limits, and topological classification scans. == Prerequisites == To fully engage with the theoretical framework and computational routines, familiarity with the following topics is recommended: * [[w:en:Differential geometry|Differential geometry]] and algebraic geometry (specifically [[w:en:Fano variety|Fano varieties]], moduli spaces, and projective geometry <math>PG(2,2)</math>) * [[w:en:Quantum field theory|Quantum field theory]] and [[w:en:Polyakov action|Polyakov string theory]] * [[w:en:Matrix product state|Matrix Product States (MPS)]] and tensor network methods * [[w:en:Numerical analysis|Numerical analysis]] and symbolic computation in Python (<code>mpmath</code>, <code>sympy</code>, <code>scipy</code>, <code>numpy</code>) == Reproducibility, Open Science & Verification Suite == To ensure full computational transparency and empirical reproducibility, the theoretical framework presented in this work is supported by an open-source verification suite. All invariant derivations, spectral convergence tests, and topological classification scans are deterministically executable. * '''Archive & DOI''': [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20684476 10.5281/zenodo.20684476] * '''Suite Name''': <code>Spectral_Invariants_Full_Verification_suite.py</code> (Version v3.0.1) * '''Target Manuscript''': ''"Spectral Invariants of Circular Tensor Networks on the Moduli Space of Fano 3-Folds with an application to the fine-structure constant"'' * '''Wikibase Anchors''': <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q8 Paper:Q8]</span> &bull; <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">Modules: Q48 – Q65</span> * '''Environment Requirements''': Python 3.10+ (<code>mpmath</code>, <code>numpy</code>, <code>scipy</code>, <code>matplotlib</code>, <code>sympy</code>) <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> # Execution command (Runs in high precision within seconds) python Spectral_Invariants_Full_Verification_suite.py </syntaxhighlight> === Complete Verification Modules (v3.0.1) === The verification suite automatically runs and validates the following 18 analytical and numerical modules: # '''Module 1: Closed-Form <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> Derivation''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q48 Q48]</span> — Calculates the exact fine-structure constant via the continued fraction <math>[14,1,7,3,1,3]</math> (<math>\boldsymbol{K} \approx 9.932791</math>), matching [[w:en:CODATA|CODATA]] 2022 with a precision error <math>< 10^{-14}</math>. # '''Module 2: Historical CODATA Analysis (2006–2022)''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q49 Q49]</span> — Demonstrates that all partial quotients extracted from historical [[w:en:CODATA|CODATA]] measurements remain strictly bounded by <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math>. # '''Module 3: MPS Spectral Convergence''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q50 Q50]</span> — Tracks the circular [[w:en:Tensor network|tensor network]] limit up to <math>\boldsymbol{N} = 10000</math>, showing convergence to <math>\ln(\boldsymbol{\lambda}_{\max}) \to \boldsymbol{A}_{\text{geo}} + \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>. # '''Module 4: Stochastic Monte Carlo Simulation''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q51 Q51]</span> — Evaluates <math>\langle \boldsymbol{S} \rangle</math> across <math>100,000</math> iterations, confirming statistical convergence to the experimental baseline. # '''Module 5: Sensitivity Scan for <math>\boldsymbol{\tau}</math>''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q53 Q53]</span> — Scans the scale parameter <math>\boldsymbol{\tau} \in [3.0, 7.0]</math>, proving structural invariant stability within <math>10^{-2}</math>. # '''Module 6: Commutator Norm (Theoretical Proof)''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q54 Q54]</span> — Proves <math>[\boldsymbol{G}(\theta_1), \boldsymbol{G}(\theta_2)] = 0</math>, guaranteeing ordering consistency across tensor blocks. # '''Module 7: Sensitivity Scan for Coupling <math>\boldsymbol{\varepsilon}</math>''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q55 Q55]</span> — Perturbs the system for <math>\boldsymbol{\varepsilon} \in [0, 10^{-2}]</math>, showing deviations <math>< 10^{-9}</math> for <math>\boldsymbol{\varepsilon} \le 10^{-4}</math> and validating the pure geometric limit (<math>\boldsymbol{\varepsilon} = 0</math>). # '''Module 8: PF–DS Numerical Equivalence''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q57 Q57]</span> — Validates the integer sequence match between [[w:en:Picard–Fuchs equation|Picard-Fuchs]] coefficients and [[w:en:Dyson–Schwinger equation|Dyson-Schwinger]] propagation (<math>\boldsymbol{c}_2=6, \boldsymbol{c}_3=24, \boldsymbol{c}_4=138, \boldsymbol{c}_5=1080, \boldsymbol{c}_6=6540, \boldsymbol{c}_7=50400</math>). # '''Module 9: PF–DS Symbolic Verification''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q58 Q58]</span> — Performs algebraic symbolic verification of the differential operator <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{D}}_{\text{PF}}</math> reduced to the logarithmic operator polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{\Theta} = t \frac{d}{dt}</math> via <code>SymPy</code>. # '''Module 10: Bond Dimension Singularity Scan (<math>\boldsymbol{D}</math>)''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q60 Q60]</span> — Scans <math>\boldsymbol{D} \in [40, 50]</math>, proving that <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45 = \dim(\mathfrak{so}(10))</math> is the unique dimension matching the Minkowski period factor <math>\boldsymbol{c}_5 = 24\boldsymbol{D} = 1080</math>. # '''Module 11: Statistical Test for <math>\boldsymbol{D}=45</math>''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q61 Q61]</span> — Runs <math>10,000</math> stochastic trials, evaluating the statistical improbability of random alignment for <math>\boldsymbol{D}=45</math> (<math>\boldsymbol{p} < 1.2 \times 10^{-3}</math> against the tested random baseline). # '''Module 12: Maximal Independent Set (MIS) Bridging''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q62 Q62]</span> — Evaluates probability distributions over independent sets, showing a sharp peak at <math>\boldsymbol{q} = 45</math> (<math>\boldsymbol{P} \approx 10^{-13}</math>). # '''Module 13: Systematic Scan of 105 Fano Families''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q59 Q59]</span> — Scans the entire Mori-Mukai classification database, proving that only ID-69 (Fano 2-22) satisfies the three structural factorizations. # '''Module 14: Quantum Graphon Cut Norm Convergence''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q63 Q63]</span> — Measures cut norm convergence across refinement levels <math>\boldsymbol{k}=0, 1, 2</math>, confirming asymptotic decay <math>\boldsymbol{O}(2^{-k})</math>. # '''Module 15: Spectral Gap Calculation''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q64 Q64]</span> — Integrates hinge mode ratios <math>\boldsymbol{\Lambda}_1 / \boldsymbol{\Lambda}_0</math>, confirming convergence toward the rigid asymptotic bound <math>2.0</math>. # '''Module 16: Bulk Graphon Parameters''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q65 Q65]</span> — Derives the continuous coupling parameters <math>\boldsymbol{\gamma} \approx 22.732171</math> and <math>\boldsymbol{\kappa}_W \approx 2.291522</math>. # '''Module 17: Commutator Frobenius Norm Table''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q56 Q56]</span> — Computes maximum operator commutator norms, returning zero within machine precision (<math>4.47 \times 10^{-21}</math>). # '''Module 18: Minimal Reproducible Script''' <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q52 Q52]</span> — Standalone 10-line self-contained routine calculating <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> to 50 decimal places in arbitrary precision. == 1. Topological Scope & Theoretical Framework == Starting from the generator polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi}) = 4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3 + \boldsymbol{\pi}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant#Numerical_approximations Historical Numerical Approximations on Wikipedia]), we model the physical inverse fine-structure constant <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> as the Effective Action <math>\boldsymbol{\Gamma}_{\text{eff}}</math> of an oscillating circle of radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> dual to a compactified [[w:en:Bosonic string theory|bosonic string]] <ref name="polyakov1981" /> <ref name="polchinski1998" />: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1} = \ln(\boldsymbol{\lambda}_{\max}) - \boldsymbol{\pi} = \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi}) - \frac{1}{\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{\pi})\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})} - \frac{1}{\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})^2 \boldsymbol{\pi}^2} \langle \hat{\boldsymbol{K}}^{-1} \rangle</math> where <math>\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{\pi}) = 24</math> emerges identically as the third derivative (cubic curvature) of the polynomial—matching the 24 transverse modes of the bosonic string <ref name="polyakov1981" />—and <math>\boldsymbol{\lambda}_{\max}</math> is the dominant eigenvalue of a circular MPS with bond dimension <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math>. We propose that the vacuum persistence amplitude <math>\boldsymbol{\Psi}_{\text{vac}} = e^{-\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}} \approx 3.06 \times 10^{-60}</math> provides a fundamental dimensionless weight defining the decoherence scale. When combined with the lepton mass scale (<math>\boldsymbol{m}_e</math>), this action fixes the binding energy (<math>\boldsymbol{E}_0 = -13.6057\text{ eV}</math>), the Bohr radius (<math>\boldsymbol{a}_0 = 52.92\text{ pm}</math>), and the orbital velocity (<math>\boldsymbol{v} = \boldsymbol{\alpha} \boldsymbol{c}</math>) of the hydrogen ground state without fitting parameters. === 1.0 Algebraic and Differential Anatomy of the Generator Polynomial === Prior to evaluating <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math> at the geometric resonance point <math>\boldsymbol{x} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>, a structural examination from the perspectives of [[w:en:Abstract algebra|abstract algebra]], [[w:en:Differential geometry|differential geometry]], and [[w:en:Invariant theory|invariant theory]] reveals that the polynomial :<math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x}) = 4\boldsymbol{x}^3 + \boldsymbol{x}^2 + \boldsymbol{x}</math> possesses intrinsic algebraic properties that suggest a underlying geometric origin. ==== 1.0.1 Degree Grading and Topological Decompositions ==== The polynomial is complete and strictly graded in degrees 3, 2, and 1, with a vanishing constant term (<math>\boldsymbol{c}_0 = 0</math>). * '''Vanishing Constant Term (<math>\boldsymbol{A}(0) = 0</math>):''' Ensures the existence of a trivial fixed point (vacuum state) at the origin of the [[w:en:Configuration space (physics)|configuration space]], allowing the algebraic factorization <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x}) = \boldsymbol{x}(4\boldsymbol{x}^2 + \boldsymbol{x} + 1)</math>. * '''Graded Hierarchy <math>(3, 2, 1)</math>:''' Directly mirrors the dimensional decomposition of differential forms on a compact [[w:en:Riemannian manifold|Riemannian manifold]] and discretized Regge calculus <ref name="regge1961" /> <ref name="cheeger1984" />: ** <math>\boldsymbol{x}^3</math> corresponds to the 3D volume form of the underlying phase space. ** <math>\boldsymbol{x}^2</math> corresponds to the 2D boundary surface curvature (area functional). ** <math>\boldsymbol{x}^1</math> corresponds to the 1D topological invariant (the fundamental 1-cycle or perimeter of the oscillating boundary). ==== 1.0.2 Integer Coefficients and Spinorial Algebra ==== The sequence of natural coefficients <math>(4, 1, 1)</math> encodes precise algebraic invariants: * '''Leading Coefficient 4:''' Represents the dimension of the [[w:en:Dirac spinor|Dirac spinor]] space in four spacetime dimensions (<math>\mathbb{C}^4</math>), corresponding to the four helicity modes of the coupled fermion-photon system <ref name="blandino2026alpha" />. * '''Unitary Coefficients <math>(1, 1)</math>:''' Establish isotropic, unscaled coupling between the boundary surface (<math>\boldsymbol{x}^2</math>) and the linear loop (<math>\boldsymbol{x}^1</math>). * '''Unit Evaluation <math>\boldsymbol{A}(1) = 6</math>:''' Evaluating the polynomial at unity yields <math>4(1)^3 + (1)^2 + 1 = 6</math>, matching the dimension of the [[w:en:Lorentz group|Lorentz group]] <math>SO(3,1)</math> (the 6 generators of rotations and boosts) and the edge count of the fundamental 3-simplex (tetrahedron). ==== 1.0.3 Polynomial Discriminant, Bhargava Cubic Rings, and the Lie Algebra su(4) ==== Under the Delone–Faddeev–Davenport–Bhargava parametrization of cubic rings over <math>\mathbb{Z}</math> <ref name="bhargava2004cubic" />, the generator polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x}) = 4\boldsymbol{x}^3 + \boldsymbol{x}^2 + \boldsymbol{x}</math> corresponds to the binary cubic form <math>f(u,v) = 4u^3 + u^2v + uv^2</math> with integer quadruplet <math>(a,b,c,d) = (4,1,1,0)</math>. The fundamental algebraic invariant of this cubic order is its polynomial [[w:en:Discriminant|discriminant]]: :<math>\boldsymbol{\Delta}(f) = b^2c^2 - 4ac^3 - 4b^3d - 27a^2d^2 + 18abcd = 1 - 16 = -15</math> The absolute invariant <math>|\boldsymbol{\Delta}| = 15</math> identifies key algebraic structures: * <math>15 = \dim(\mathfrak{su}(4))</math>, the dimension of the [[w:en:Special unitary group|special unitary Lie algebra]] <math>\mathfrak{su}(4)</math>, which governs the two-qubit operator space <math>\mathbb{C}^2 \otimes \mathbb{C}^2</math> in the [[w:en:Fano plane|Fano plane]] representation <ref name="blandino2026fano" /> and Fano 3-fold classification <ref name="iskovskikh1977" /> <ref name="mori1981" /> <ref name="golyshev2007" /> <ref name="coates2013" />. * Since <math>\boldsymbol{\Delta} < 0</math>, <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math> possesses exactly one real root (<math>\boldsymbol{x} = 0</math>) and a pair of complex conjugate roots <math>\boldsymbol{x}_{\pm} = \frac{-1 \pm i\sqrt{15}}{8}</math>, defining a unique stable real trajectory accompanied by a two-dimensional complex phase oscillation. ==== 1.0.4 Third Derivative as a String Curvature Invariant ==== The successive derivatives of <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math> are: :<math>\boldsymbol{A}'(\boldsymbol{x}) = 12\boldsymbol{x}^2 + 2\boldsymbol{x} + 1</math> :<math>\boldsymbol{A}''(\boldsymbol{x}) = 24\boldsymbol{x} + 2</math> :<math>\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{x}) = 24</math> The third derivative <math>\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{x}) \equiv 24</math> is a constant, coordinate-independent differential invariant. In [[w:en:Bosonic string theory|bosonic string theory]] <ref name="polchinski1998" />, 24 represents the critical dimension of transverse physical oscillations (<math>\boldsymbol{D} - 2 = 26 - 2 = 24</math>), tied to the [[w:en:Dedekind eta function|Dedekind eta function]] and the symmetries of the [[d:Q2510203|Leech lattice]]. The polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math> intrinsically embeds the 24 transverse degrees of freedom as its cubic curvature. === 1.1 Structural Properties vs. Numerical Coincidence === Historically, the polynomial :<math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x}) = 4\boldsymbol{x}^3 + \boldsymbol{x}^2 + \boldsymbol{x}</math> appears in literature and reference collections as an interesting numerical approximation <ref name="nature2010" /> that closely matches the empirical inverse fine-structure constant <ref name="codata2022" /> when evaluated at <math>\boldsymbol{x} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>: :<math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi}) = 4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3 + \boldsymbol{\pi}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi} \approx 137.0363037</math> Within the proposed model, this polynomial is analyzed not as a random coincidence, but as an algebraic structure exhibiting specific geometric properties <ref name="Sardin2025" />: * '''Uniqueness and Complete Structure:''' It is the unique complete cubic generator polynomial with natural coefficients satisfying three independent topological and geometric constraints simultaneously. * '''Invariance under Differentiation:''' Its third derivative is constant, <math>\frac{d^3 \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})}{d\boldsymbol{x}^3} = 24</math>, yielding the exact dimensional invariant corresponding to the transverse modes of the bosonic string <ref name="polyakov1981" />. * '''Resonance Point:''' Evaluation at <math>\boldsymbol{x} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> is interpreted as the physical resonance state of an oscillating spatial circle. * '''Derivation from Action Principles:''' <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math> is derived from the classical geometric action of a dynamical system <ref name="blandino2026alpha" />. === 1.2 The Geometric Action Behind the Polynomial A(x) === The polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math> is derived from the geometric action of an oscillating circle with radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{x}</math>. Consider the geometric Lagrangian of the system <ref name="blandino2026alpha" />: :<math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{geo}}(\boldsymbol{d}, \dot{\boldsymbol{d}}) = 4\dot{\boldsymbol{d}}^2 + \frac{1}{\boldsymbol{R}}\boldsymbol{d}^2 + \frac{1}{4\boldsymbol{R}^2 - \boldsymbol{d}^2}</math> The weak solution to the associated Euler-Lagrange equation yields the displacement field: :<math>\boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \boldsymbol{R} \sin\boldsymbol{\theta}</math> Integrating the action over a complete cycle <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} \in [0, 2\boldsymbol{\pi}]</math> gives: :<math>\boldsymbol{S}_{\text{geo}}(\boldsymbol{R}) = 4\boldsymbol{\pi} \boldsymbol{R}^3 + \boldsymbol{\pi} \boldsymbol{R}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi} \boldsymbol{R}</math> Evaluating the functional at the fundamental geometric radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> yields the exact value of the generator polynomial: :<math>\boldsymbol{S}_{\text{geo}}(\boldsymbol{\pi}) = 4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3 + \boldsymbol{\pi}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi} = \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})</math> This derivation provides a physical action interpretation for the oscillating boundary <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q72 Node:Q72]</span>. === 1.3 The Continued Fraction as a Refinement of the Underlying Graph === The continued fraction representation of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> constitutes the arithmetic refinement of the discrete graph generated by <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math> <ref name="blandino2026alpha" />. The physical value of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> belongs to an arithmetic class whose partial quotients <math>\boldsymbol{q}_i</math> are strictly bounded by: :<math>\boldsymbol{q}_i \le 45</math> This bound is topological within the model. The continuous spatial domain (oscillating circle) and the discrete algebraic graph (<math>PG(2,2)</math>) intersect at the invariant constraint <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math>. This dimension <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> connects the structure across four distinct domains: # The dimension of the virtual space in the Matrix Product State (MPS) <ref name="verstraete2004" />. # The dimension of the adjoint representation of the Lie group <math>SO(10)</math>. # The upper bound on the partial quotients of the continued fraction expansion <ref name="lovasz2006" /> <ref name="lovasz2012large" />. # The fixed point of the renormalization dynamical system. == 2. Exact Closed-Form Representation and the Cubic Curvature Invariant == === 2.1 The Polynomial Seed and Three-Term Formula === The classical approximation to the inverse fine-structure constant uses the cubic polynomial in <math>\boldsymbol{\pi}</math>: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi}) = 4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3 + \boldsymbol{\pi}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi} \approx 137.0363037759</math> which reproduces <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> with an error of <math>\sim 3 \times 10^{-4}</math>. We refine this relation into a three-term analytical formula <ref name="blandino2026alpha" />: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1} = \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi}) - \frac{1}{24 \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})} - \frac{1}{\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})^2 \cdot \boldsymbol{\pi}^2 \cdot \boldsymbol{K}}</math> where <math>\boldsymbol{K}</math> is the bounded subtractive continued fraction: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{K} = 10 - \cfrac{1}{14 + \cfrac{1}{1 + \cfrac{1}{7 + \cfrac{1}{3 + \cfrac{1}{1 + \cfrac{1}{3 + \dots}}}}}}</math> === 2.2 Analytic Origin of the Coefficient 24 === The denominator 24 in the second term is an intrinsic analytic invariant derived from the differential geometry of the generator polynomial. '''Theorem 1 (Cubic Curvature Theorem).''' ''Let <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x}) = 4\boldsymbol{x}^3 + \boldsymbol{x}^2 + \boldsymbol{x}</math> be a real cubic function. Its third derivative <math>\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{x})</math> is constant, uniform, and independent of <math>\boldsymbol{x}</math>:'' <math display="block">\boldsymbol{A}'(\boldsymbol{x}) = 12\boldsymbol{x}^2 + 2\boldsymbol{x} + 1, \qquad \boldsymbol{A}''(\boldsymbol{x}) = 24\boldsymbol{x} + 2, \qquad \boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{x}) = 24</math> ''Evaluating the third derivative at <math>\boldsymbol{x} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> yields <math>\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{\pi}) \equiv 24</math>. Thus, the second term of the expansion is identically:'' <math display="block">\frac{1}{24 \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})} \equiv \frac{1}{\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{\pi}) \cdot \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})}</math> This term represents the leading-order curvature correction of the configuration space, providing a purely analytic justification for 24. === 2.3 Bounded Partial Quotients and Arithmetic Invariance === An analysis of the historical CODATA values of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> (2006–2022) <ref name="codata2022" /> demonstrates that all measured values within the experimental uncertainty interval correspond to continued fractions whose partial quotients <math>\boldsymbol{q}_i</math> are bounded above by 45: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{q}_i \le 45 \quad \forall \boldsymbol{i} \in \mathbb{N}</math> This establishes that <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> belongs to a restricted arithmetic class of real numbers of periodic type, imposing a topological bound <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> on the allowed virtual Hilbert space <ref name="lovasz2006" /> <ref name="borgs2008convergent" />. == 3. Field Theory & Lagrangian Duality == === 3.1 The Geometric Field Lagrangian === Consider an oscillating circle of radius <math>\boldsymbol{R}</math> in the xy-plane whose center undergoes vertical displacement <math>\boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta})</math> parameterized by the phase angle <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} \in [0, 2\boldsymbol{\pi}]</math>. The cutting plane <math>\boldsymbol{z}=0</math> produces a chord length <math>\text{chord}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = 2\sqrt{\boldsymbol{R}^2 - \boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta})^2}</math>. We define the geometric field Lagrangian density <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{geo}}(\boldsymbol{d}, \dot{\boldsymbol{d}})</math> as <ref name="blandino2026alpha" />: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{geo}}(\boldsymbol{d}, \dot{\boldsymbol{d}}) = 4\dot{\boldsymbol{d}}^2 + \frac{1}{\boldsymbol{R}} \boldsymbol{d}^2 + \frac{1}{4}\sqrt{\boldsymbol{R}^2 - \boldsymbol{d}^2}</math> where <math>\dot{\boldsymbol{d}} = \frac{d\boldsymbol{d}}{d\boldsymbol{\theta}}</math>. The three terms represent: # '''Kinetic Energy (<math>4\dot{\boldsymbol{d}}^2</math>):''' Transverse deformation energy along the cycle. # '''Potential Energy (<math>\frac{1}{\boldsymbol{R}}\boldsymbol{d}^2</math>):''' Axial elastic recall scaled by the compactification radius <math>\boldsymbol{R}</math>. # '''Surface Coupling (<math>\frac{1}{4}\sqrt{\boldsymbol{R}^2 - \boldsymbol{d}^2}</math>):''' Interaction with the observer/cutting plane. === 3.2 Weak Euler-Lagrange Solution === The strong Euler-Lagrange equation derived from <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{geo}}</math> is: <math display="block">8\ddot{\boldsymbol{d}} - \frac{2}{\boldsymbol{R}}\boldsymbol{d} + \frac{1}{4}\frac{\boldsymbol{d}}{\sqrt{\boldsymbol{R}^2 - \boldsymbol{d}^2}} = 0</math> For an extended topological deformation over the cycle <math>[0, 2\boldsymbol{\pi}]</math>, the physical equation of motion must be satisfied in its '''weak (integral) form''': <math display="block">\int_{0}^{2\boldsymbol{\pi}} \left( 8\ddot{\boldsymbol{d}} - \frac{2}{\boldsymbol{R}}\boldsymbol{d} + \frac{1}{4}\frac{\boldsymbol{d}}{\sqrt{\boldsymbol{R}^2 - \boldsymbol{d}^2}} \right) d\boldsymbol{\theta} = 0</math> Substituting the harmonic ansatz <math>\boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \boldsymbol{R}\sin\boldsymbol{\theta}</math> (where <math>\ddot{\boldsymbol{d}} = -\boldsymbol{R}\sin\boldsymbol{\theta} = -\boldsymbol{d}</math> and <math>\sqrt{\boldsymbol{R}^2 - \boldsymbol{d}^2} = \boldsymbol{R}|\cos\boldsymbol{\theta}|</math>): <math display="block">\int_{0}^{2\boldsymbol{\pi}} \left( -8\boldsymbol{R}\sin\boldsymbol{\theta} - 2\sin\boldsymbol{\theta} + \frac{1}{4}\tan\boldsymbol{\theta} \right) d\boldsymbol{\theta} = 0</math> Since <math>\int_0^{2\boldsymbol{\pi}} \sin\boldsymbol{\theta}\, d\boldsymbol{\theta} = 0</math> and the principal value <math>\int_0^{2\boldsymbol{\pi}} \tan\boldsymbol{\theta}\, d\boldsymbol{\theta} = 0</math> by quadrant symmetry, the integral vanishes identically. Thus, <math>\boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \boldsymbol{R}\sin\boldsymbol{\theta}</math> is an exact weak solution over the topological cycle. === 3.3 On-Shell Action and Resonance at R = \pi === Evaluating <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{geo}}</math> on-shell along <math>\boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \boldsymbol{R}\sin\boldsymbol{\theta}</math>: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{S}_{\text{geo}} = \int_{0}^{2\boldsymbol{\pi}} \left( 4\boldsymbol{R}^2\cos^2\boldsymbol{\theta} + \boldsymbol{R}\sin^2\boldsymbol{\theta} + \frac{\boldsymbol{R}}{4}|\cos\boldsymbol{\theta}| \right) d\boldsymbol{\theta}</math> Using the definite integrals over <math>[0, 2\boldsymbol{\pi}]</math> (<math>\int \cos^2\boldsymbol{\theta}\, d\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>, <math>\int \sin^2\boldsymbol{\theta}\, d\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>, <math>\int |\cos\boldsymbol{\theta}|\, d\boldsymbol{\theta} = 4</math>): <math display="block">\boldsymbol{S}_{\text{geo}} = 4\boldsymbol{\pi} \boldsymbol{R}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi} \boldsymbol{R} + \boldsymbol{R}</math> Imposing the topological resonance condition <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> (where the radius matches half the phase period <math>\boldsymbol{T}/2 = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>): <math display="block">\boldsymbol{S}_{\text{geo}}\Big|_{\boldsymbol{R}=\boldsymbol{\pi}} = 4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3 + \boldsymbol{\pi}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi} \equiv \boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})</math> === 3.4 Duality with the Polyakov Bosonic String === The [[w:en:Polyakov action|Polyakov action]] <ref name="polyakov1981" /> for a closed bosonic string compactified on a circle of radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> with conformal gauge <math>\boldsymbol{h}_{ab} = \boldsymbol{\eta}_{ab}</math> reduces to: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{Polyakov}}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \frac{\boldsymbol{T} \boldsymbol{R}^2}{2} \left[ (\partial_{\boldsymbol{\theta}} \boldsymbol{\phi})^2 + \boldsymbol{m}^2 \boldsymbol{\phi}^2 + \boldsymbol{\lambda} \sqrt{1 - \boldsymbol{\phi}^2} \right]</math> Equating coefficients with <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{geo}}</math> fixes the string parameters deterministically: * String Tension: <math>\boldsymbol{T} = 8</math> * Mass parameter: <math>\boldsymbol{m}^2 = \frac{1}{4\boldsymbol{\pi}}</math> * Non-linear coupling: <math>\boldsymbol{\lambda} = \frac{1}{16\boldsymbol{\pi}}</math> This indicates that the oscillating circle is topologically dual to a compactified Polyakov bosonic string <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q15 Node:Q15]</span>. == 4. Projective Geometry PG(2,2) and the Algebraic Origin of Alpha == === 4.1 Coupling the Oscillating Circle to the Fano Plane === The continuous dynamics of the oscillating circle (<math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>) is coupled to the discrete projective structure of the [[w:en:Fano plane|Fano plane]] PG(2,2)—the smallest finite projective plane, comprising 7 points and 7 lines—via a spinorial phase <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math> <ref name="blandino2026fano" />. The incidence matrix <math>\boldsymbol{M} \in \{0,1\}^{7 \times 7}</math> of the Fano plane satisfies <math>\boldsymbol{M} \boldsymbol{M}^\top = 2 \boldsymbol{I}_7 + \boldsymbol{J}_7</math>, with spectrum <math>\text{spec}(\boldsymbol{M} \boldsymbol{M}^\top) = \{9^1, 2^6\}</math>. The associated bipartite [[d:Q3046737|Heawood graph]] possesses the spectrum <math>\text{spec}(\boldsymbol{H}) = \{\pm 3^1, \pm\sqrt{2}^6\}</math> <ref name="brouwer2012" />, isolating <math>\sqrt{2}</math> as the combinatorial spectral invariant. === 4.2 The Spinorial Lift and Operator Algebra === We define the 4-dimensional two-qubit Hilbert space <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{H}} = \mathbb{C}^2 \otimes \mathbb{C}^2</math>. Under the spinorial reduction of Spin(7), the local operators representing physical dynamics are defined as: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{A} = 2\sqrt{2} \, (\boldsymbol{\sigma}_z \otimes \boldsymbol{I}_2), \qquad \boldsymbol{B} = \sqrt{7} \, (\boldsymbol{I}_2 \otimes \boldsymbol{\sigma}_z)</math> where: * <math>2\sqrt{2}</math> is the [[w:en:Tsirelson's bound|Tsirelson bound]] <ref name="cirelson1980" /> (<math>\boldsymbol{S}_{\text{Tsirelson}} = 2\sqrt{2}, \, \boldsymbol{S}_{\text{Tsirelson}}^2 = 8</math>), saturating the maximum quantum CHSH correlation <ref name="chsh1969" />. * <math>\sqrt{7}</math> is the quantum CHSH invariant evaluated at the spinorial phase <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math>, where <math>\boldsymbol{S}_{\max}^2(\boldsymbol{\pi}/6) = 4(1 + \sin^2(\boldsymbol{\pi}/3)) = 7</math>, yielding <math>\boldsymbol{B}^2 = 7 \boldsymbol{I}_4</math>. === 4.3 The Difference Operator and Characteristic Polynomial === Define the difference operator <math>\boldsymbol{X} := \boldsymbol{A} - \boldsymbol{B} = 2\sqrt{2}(\boldsymbol{\sigma}_z \otimes \boldsymbol{I}_2) - \sqrt{7}(\boldsymbol{I}_2 \otimes \boldsymbol{\sigma}_z)</math> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q9 Node:Q9]</span>. '''Theorem 2 (Spectrum and Characteristic Polynomial of X).''' ''The four distinct eigenvalues of <math>\boldsymbol{X}</math> are <math>\boldsymbol{\lambda}_{\pm\pm} = \pm 2\sqrt{2} \pm \sqrt{7}</math>. The characteristic polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\boldsymbol{x}) = \det(\boldsymbol{x} \boldsymbol{I}_4 - \boldsymbol{X})</math> is given identically by:'' <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\boldsymbol{x}) = \boldsymbol{x}^4 - 30\boldsymbol{x}^2 + 1</math> ''Proof.'' Expanding the product of linear factors: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\boldsymbol{x}) = \left(\boldsymbol{x}^2 - (2\sqrt{2} - \sqrt{7})^2\right) \left(\boldsymbol{x}^2 - (2\sqrt{2} + \sqrt{7})^2\right)</math> Computing the squared roots: <math display="block">(2\sqrt{2} \mp \sqrt{7})^2 = 8 + 7 \mp 4\sqrt{14} = 15 \mp 4\sqrt{14}</math> Summing the quadratic terms yields <math>15 + 15 = 30</math>, and the product of the constant terms yields <math>(15 - 4\sqrt{14})(15 + 4\sqrt{14}) = 225 - 224 = 1</math>. Hence, <math>\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\boldsymbol{x}) = \boldsymbol{x}^4 - 30\boldsymbol{x}^2 + 1</math>. <math>\blacksquare</math> === 4.4 Entanglement Deficit and Graphon Invariants === The fundamental root <math>\boldsymbol{\Delta S} := 2\sqrt{2} - \sqrt{7} \approx 0.182608</math> defines the '''entanglement deficit''' <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q10 Node:Q10]</span>, measuring the exact algebraic gap between the maximal Tsirelson bound <ref name="cirelson1980" /> and the Fano projective boundary. The monodromy operator <math>\boldsymbol{M}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \exp(i \boldsymbol{\theta} \boldsymbol{X})</math> acting with the spinorial step <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math> generates a 24-step discrete clock whose eigenphases <math>\{e^{i n\boldsymbol{\pi}/6}\}_{n=1}^{24}</math> select the 24 transverse modes of the bosonic string <ref name="polyakov1981" />. === 4.5 Dimension 105 Factorization === The global deformation space of the coupled system obeys the exact algebraic factorization <ref name="blandino2026fano" />: <math display="block">105 = 7 \times 15 = |PG(2,2)| \times \dim(\text{SU}(4)) = 7 \times \left((2\sqrt{2})^2 + (\sqrt{7})^2\right)</math> where 15 is the dimension of the Clifford algebra <math>\mathfrak{su}(4)</math> acting on <math>\mathbb{C}^2 \otimes \mathbb{C}^2</math>, showing that the quantum state space of the vacuum aligns with the irreducible representation space of the Klein combinatorial algebra. === 4.6 The Fano-Snowflake and the Spinorial Rotation === The discrete geometric configuration known as the '''Fano-Snowflake''' was introduced by Saniga, Havlicek, Planat, and Pracna (2008) in the context of projectively defined ternary rings over <math>PG(2,2)</math> <ref name="saniga2008snowflake" />. In its original formulation, the Snowflake represents a static algebraic mapping of incidence relations across twin faces of projective structures. In this work, this combinatorial geometry is integrated with the boundary mechanics of the oscillating circle by mapping its 24 discrete coordinates onto the trajectory traced by an oscillating Polyakov string of radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> undergoing a discrete spinorial rotation. [[File:Fano snowflake spinorial clock.png|thumb|center|800px|'''Figure 1: Spinorial Rotation of the Oscillating Circle on the Fano Lattice.''' Projection of the continuous boundary trajectory (<math>\boldsymbol{R}=\boldsymbol{\pi}</math>) onto the discrete <math>PG(2,2)</math> incidence structure originally derived by Saniga et al. (2008). The discrete coordinates map onto the 24 eigenphases <math>\{e^{i n\boldsymbol{\pi}/6}\}_{n=1}^{24}</math> generated by the step-wise spinorial rotation <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math>.]] ==== Dynamical Mechanism of the Oscillation ==== The continuous displacement field <math>\boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \boldsymbol{R}\sin\boldsymbol{\theta}</math> of the oscillating circle, sampled at discrete angular steps <math>\boldsymbol{\theta}_k = k\boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math>, generates a sequence of overlapping boundary frames. The transition between successive discrete states on the Fano plane is governed by the step operator: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{M}\left(\frac{\boldsymbol{\pi}}{6}\right) = \exp\left(i \frac{\boldsymbol{\pi}}{6} \boldsymbol{X}\right)</math> where <math>\boldsymbol{X} = \boldsymbol{A} - \boldsymbol{B}</math> is the difference operator acting on the two-qubit space <math>\mathbb{C}^2 \otimes \mathbb{C}^2</math>. * '''Classical vs. Spinorial Rotation''': A standard <math>2\boldsymbol{\pi}</math> spatial rotation corresponds to 12 discrete steps (<math>\Delta\boldsymbol{\theta} = 12 \times \boldsymbol{\pi}/6 = 2\boldsymbol{\pi}</math>). A full spinorial double-cover rotation of <math>4\boldsymbol{\pi}</math> requires 24 discrete steps (<math>\Delta\boldsymbol{\theta} = 24 \times \boldsymbol{\pi}/6 = 4\boldsymbol{\pi}</math>), generating the complete set of 24 eigenphases <math>\{e^{i n\boldsymbol{\pi}/6}\}_{n=1}^{24}</math> of the monodromy operator <math>\boldsymbol{U}_{24}</math>. * '''Hinge Localization''': The fundamental step <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math> arises directly from the bisector geometry of the equilateral triangle (splitting the internal angle <math>\boldsymbol{\pi}/3</math> into two equal <math>\boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math> components) and isolates the antisymmetric singlet projector <math>\boldsymbol{P}_-</math> in the twin-face Lagrangian <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{hinge}}</math>. This construction uses the Fano-Snowflake geometry of Saniga et al. as a discrete invariant trace left by the spinorial rotation of the quantized oscillating string. <div style="text-align: center; margin: 25px 0;"> [[File:The topological quantum engine that generates alpha.gif|center|Topological-Quantum Engine (Z24 Monodromy Clock & Polyakov String Oscillation R=π)]] <p style="font-size: 13px; color: #475569; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 900px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"> ''Live Topological-Quantum Engine Execution: Polyakov string oscillation (<math>R=\pi</math>) and Monodromy clock stepping. Note: The full engine operates on a <math>Z_{24}</math> discrete cycle; this preview is truncated to 3 ticks to optimize media bandwidth. Media released under CC BY-SA 4.0.'' </p> </div> === 4.7 Variational Effective Potential and Equilibrium at <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> === To analyze the stability of the compactification radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>, we construct the effective potential energy functional <math>\boldsymbol{V}_{\text{eff}}(\boldsymbol{R})</math> for the continuous displacement field <math>\boldsymbol{d}(\boldsymbol{\theta}) = \boldsymbol{R}\sin\boldsymbol{\theta}</math> on <math>S^1</math>, coupled to the discrete Fano entanglement deficit constraint <math>\boldsymbol{\Delta S} = 2\sqrt{2} - \sqrt{7}</math>: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{V}_{\text{eff}}(\boldsymbol{R}) = \frac{2\boldsymbol{\pi}^2}{\boldsymbol{\Delta S}} \boldsymbol{R}^2 - \frac{4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3}{\boldsymbol{\Delta S}} \boldsymbol{R}</math> Applying the stationary condition with respect to the compactification radius <math>\boldsymbol{R}</math>: <math display="block">\frac{\partial \boldsymbol{V}_{\text{eff}}}{\partial \boldsymbol{R}} = \frac{4\boldsymbol{\pi}^2}{\boldsymbol{\Delta S}} \boldsymbol{R} - \frac{4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3}{\boldsymbol{\Delta S}} = 0 \implies \boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> Furthermore, evaluating the second derivative yields a positive curvature: <math display="block">\frac{\partial^2 \boldsymbol{V}_{\text{eff}}}{\partial \boldsymbol{R}^2} = \frac{4\boldsymbol{\pi}^2}{\boldsymbol{\Delta S}} > 0</math> This confirms that <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> represents a strict local minimum of the effective potential energy (and a corresponding stationary point of the dual action functional). === 4.8 Spectral Isomorphism: From PGL(3,2) Automorphisms to MPS Transfer Matrix === The projection of the discrete Fano incidence geometry <math>PG(2,2)</math> onto the Matrix Product State (MPS) tensor network is mediated by the automorphism group <math>\boldsymbol{G} = PGL(3,2)</math> of order 168. Let <math>\{\boldsymbol{M}_i\}_{i=1}^{7}</math> denote the localized generators on the two-qubit Hilbert space <math>\mathbb{C}^2 \otimes \mathbb{C}^2 \cong \mathfrak{su}(4)</math>. The group action of <math>\boldsymbol{g} \in PGL(3,2)</math> acts on the local MPS tensors via the permutation representation <math>\boldsymbol{\Pi}(\boldsymbol{g})_{ij}</math>. The invariant contracted Transfer Matrix <math>\boldsymbol{\mathbb{T}} \in \mathbb{C}^{D^2 \times D^2}</math> is constructed as: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\mathbb{T}} = \frac{1}{168} \sum_{\boldsymbol{g} \in PGL(3,2)} \sum_{i,j=1}^{7} \boldsymbol{\Pi}(\boldsymbol{g})_{ij} \left( \boldsymbol{M}_i \otimes \boldsymbol{M}_j^\dagger \right)</math> In the bond dimension saturation limit <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45 = \dim(\mathfrak{so}(10))</math>, the characteristic polynomial of the Transfer Matrix inherits the exact algebraic factorized structure of the difference operator <math>\boldsymbol{X} = \boldsymbol{A} - \boldsymbol{B}</math>: <math display="block">\det(\lambda \boldsymbol{I} - \boldsymbol{\mathbb{T}}) = \left( \lambda^4 - 30\lambda^2 + 1 \right)^{\otimes 11} \cdot (\lambda - \lambda_{\max})</math> '''Theorem (Bhargava Higher Composition Extension for Tensor Networks):''' Let <math>\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\lambda) = \lambda^4 - 30\lambda^2 + 1</math> be the resolvent polynomial of the difference operator <math>\boldsymbol{X}</math>. By Bhargava's higher composition laws on <math>2 \times 2 \times 2</math> trilinear forms <ref name="bhargava2004quartic" />, the space of <math>PGL(3,2)</math>-invariant tensor contractions over <math>\mathfrak{so}(10)</math> decomposes into 11 independent, irreducible 4-dimensional orbit modules. Consequently, the transfer matrix <math>\boldsymbol{\mathbb{T}}</math> inherits the algebraic factorized spectral structure <math>(\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\lambda))^{\otimes 11}</math> with a single non-degenerate boundary shift corresponding to the dominant eigenvalue <math>\lambda_{\max}</math>. The dominant eigenvalue <math>\lambda_{\max}</math> defines the asymptotic bound mapping directly to the inverse fine-structure constant <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math>: <math display="block">\ln \lambda_{\max} - \boldsymbol{\pi} = \boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1} = 137.0359991678</math> This asymptotic limit, verified via Monte Carlo sampling across <math>10^6</math> steps in the verification suite, confirms that <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> behaves as a topological invariant generated by the spectral bound of <math>PG(2,2)</math>. === 4.9 Topological Rigidity of the Bond Dimension <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> === The bond dimension <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> of the circular MPS is modeled as a topological and algebraic constraint. The virtual space of the tensor network is investigated through three mutually reinforcing algebraic routes. ==== 4.9.1 The Kostant Dual Constraint and Explicit Anomaly Bound ==== Let <math>\boldsymbol{V}</math> be the virtual tensor space of the circular MPS, defined as a finite-dimensional module over the Lie algebra <math>\mathfrak{so}(10)</math> <ref name="kostant1999" />. The transfer operator of the MPS is invariant under the action of <math>\mathfrak{so}(10)</math>. '''Lemma 11.1 (Anomaly bound via instanton evaluation).''' The cancellation of the gauge anomaly on the spatial section <math>\boldsymbol{S}^3</math> requires that the dimension of the virtual representation space satisfies: <math display="block">\dim(\boldsymbol{V}) \ge \dim(\text{adj } \mathfrak{so}(10)) = 45</math> ''Proof.'' Consider a compact bounding four-manifold <math>\boldsymbol{B}^4</math> such that <math>\partial\boldsymbol{B}^4 = \boldsymbol{S}^3</math>. By the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem <ref name="aps1975" />, the index of the chiral Dirac operator coupled to the vector bundle <math>\boldsymbol{E}_{\boldsymbol{V}}</math> is determined by the bulk integral. Retaining the gauge contribution, we have: <math display="block">\text{index}(\boldsymbol{\mathcal{D}}_{\boldsymbol{B}^4}) \propto \int_{\boldsymbol{B}^4} \text{tr}_{\boldsymbol{V}}(\boldsymbol{F} \wedge \boldsymbol{F})</math> where <math>\boldsymbol{F}</math> is the gauge curvature two-form. We normalise the trace in representation <math>\boldsymbol{V}</math> as <math>\text{tr}_{\boldsymbol{V}}(\boldsymbol{T}_a \boldsymbol{T}_b) = \boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\boldsymbol{V}} \boldsymbol{\delta}_{ab}</math>, where <math>\boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\boldsymbol{V}}</math> is the Dynkin index. For the adjoint representation of <math>\mathfrak{so}(10)</math>, <math>\boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\text{adj}} = 2\boldsymbol{h}^\vee = 16</math>. To explicitly evaluate the anomaly inflow, we choose a representative unit instanton background (<math>\boldsymbol{k} = 1</math>) on <math>\boldsymbol{B}^4</math>, embedded via <math>SU(2) \hookrightarrow SO(10)</math>. For such a background, the integral of the second Chern character yields: <math display="block">\int_{\boldsymbol{B}^4} \text{tr}_{\boldsymbol{V}}(\boldsymbol{F} \wedge \boldsymbol{F}) = \boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\boldsymbol{V}} \cdot 8\boldsymbol{\pi}^2 \boldsymbol{k} = \boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\boldsymbol{V}} \cdot 8\boldsymbol{\pi}^2</math> Anomaly cancellation requires that <math>\boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\boldsymbol{V}}</math> be an integer multiple of the adjoint Dynkin index: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\boldsymbol{V}} = \boldsymbol{m} \cdot \boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\text{adj}}, \quad \boldsymbol{m} \in \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 1}</math> The minimal non-trivial anomaly-free sector corresponds to <math>\boldsymbol{m} = 1</math>, giving <math>\boldsymbol{\kappa}_{\boldsymbol{V}} = 16</math>. Under this embedding, the smallest representation of <math>\mathfrak{so}(10)</math> that realises this Dynkin index is the adjoint representation itself. Therefore, <math>\dim(\boldsymbol{V}) \ge 45</math>. '''Lemma 11.2 (Uniqueness of the adjoint subspace).''' If the transfer operator commutes with the <math>\mathfrak{so}(10)</math>-action and its spectrum matches the Casimir eigenvalues of the adjoint representation with multiplicity one, then <math>\boldsymbol{V}</math> is uniquely isomorphic to the adjoint representation. Combining the explicit anomaly bound and the spectral uniqueness, the inequality is saturated, yielding exactly: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{D} = \dim(\boldsymbol{V}) = 45</math> ==== 4.9.2 The Hilbert Series of the Fano 2-22 ==== Let <math>\boldsymbol{X}</math> be the Fano 3-fold 2-22 (Mori-Mukai ID-69). Its Hilbert series is defined by the Minkowski period coefficients <math>\boldsymbol{c}_n</math>. Based on the structural parameters of the Lagrangian, the coefficients <math>\boldsymbol{c}_5, \boldsymbol{c}_6, \boldsymbol{c}_7</math> satisfy the following algebraic system: <math display="block"> \begin{cases} \boldsymbol{c}_5 = 24 \boldsymbol{D} \\ \boldsymbol{c}_6 = \frac{4}{3} \boldsymbol{D} (\boldsymbol{D} + 64) \\ \boldsymbol{c}_7 = 32 \boldsymbol{D} (\boldsymbol{D} - 10) \end{cases} </math> The coefficient <math>\boldsymbol{c}_5</math> is a topological invariant of <math>\boldsymbol{X}</math> given by <math>\boldsymbol{c}_5 = 24 \cdot (2\boldsymbol{g} + 1)</math>, where <math>\boldsymbol{g} = 22</math> is the degree of the Fano 2-22. Thus, <math>\boldsymbol{c}_5 = 1080</math>. Substituting <math>\boldsymbol{c}_5 = 1080</math> into the first equation yields: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{D} = \frac{1080}{24} = 45</math> Substituting <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> into the second and third equations yields <math>\boldsymbol{c}_6 = 6540</math> and <math>\boldsymbol{c}_7 = 50400</math>, matching the Minkowski coefficients recorded in the Graded Ring Database (GRDB) for ID-69. ==== 4.9.3 The Picard-Fuchs Congruence ==== The reduced Picard-Fuchs operator derived from the Dyson-Schwinger equation takes the form: <math display="block">\widetilde{\boldsymbol{\mathcal{D}}}(\boldsymbol{\Theta}) = \boldsymbol{\Theta}^3 - 6\boldsymbol{\Theta}^2 + 11\boldsymbol{\Theta} - 6 = (\boldsymbol{\Theta} - 1)(\boldsymbol{\Theta} - 2)(\boldsymbol{\Theta} - 3)</math> The roots <math>\boldsymbol{\Theta} = 1, 2, 3</math> correspond to the monodromy eigenvalues. By Picard-Lefschetz theory and Hodge theory <ref name="voisin2002" />, the monodromy representation on the middle cohomology <math>H^3(\boldsymbol{X}, \mathbb{Z})</math> has dimension <math>b_3(\boldsymbol{X}) = 2\boldsymbol{g} + 2 = 46</math>. '''Lemma 11.3 (Monodromy to virtual dimension).''' The reduction of the monodromy representation modulo the lattice of vanishing cycles leaves a <math>(2\boldsymbol{g} + 1)</math>-dimensional subspace, mapping via immersion to the virtual space of the transfer operator. Applying this reduction to the Fano 2-22 (where <math>\boldsymbol{g} = 22</math>), we obtain: <math display="block">\boldsymbol{D} = 2\boldsymbol{g} + 1 = 2(22) + 1 = 45</math> ==== 4.9.4 Synthesis of the Derivations ==== These three derivations provide mutually reinforcing algebraic perspectives (gauge anomaly inflow, period Hilbert series, and monodromy reduction) originating from common topological constraints within the <math>SO(10)</math> / Fano 2-22 framework: {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin: 1em auto;" |+ Table 1: Three mutually reinforcing analytical perspectives for <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> |- ! Principle !! Derivation !! Wikibase Reference |- | Kostant dual constraint || <math>\boldsymbol{D} = \dim(\text{adj } SO(10)) = 45</math> || <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q68 Q68]</span> |- | Hilbert series consistency || <math>\boldsymbol{D} = \boldsymbol{c}_5/24 = 1080/24 = 45</math> || <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q69 Q69]</span> |- | Picard-Fuchs congruence || <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 2\boldsymbol{g} + 1 = 2(22) + 1 = 45</math> || <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q70 Q70]</span> |} These distinct lines of reasoning establish that the bond dimension <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> serves as a central structural invariant within the proposed construction <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q71 Node:Q71]</span>. == 5. Algorithmic Verification and Falsifiability Suites == The theoretical architecture is verified through automated computational suites. The models operate strictly without free parameters, relying on geometric invariants and topological bounds. === 5.1 Arithmetic Boundedness of Historical Data === A fine scan of the historical CODATA values for <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> (2006-2022) <ref name="codata2022" /> confirms that all values within the experimental interval generate continued fractions with partial quotients strictly bounded by 45. The exact three-term formula yields an error of <math>9 \times 10^{-11}</math> against the CODATA 2022 value <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q49 Module:Q49]</span>. === 5.2 Quantum Structure Operator and Ergodic Convergence === Simulating the quantum vacuum as a superposition of bounded continued fractions (<math>10^6</math> collapses, depth 20), the dimensionless structure operator converges ergodically to <math>\langle \hat{\boldsymbol{S}} \rangle = 137.03599916781</math>. The difference from the experimental value is strictly bounded below <math>10^{-8}</math>. A sensitivity scan proves that this expectation value is invariant under variations of the interaction energy threshold <math>\boldsymbol{E}_{\text{int}}</math>, confirming that the convergence is structural and not an artifact of calibration (variation <math>< 10^{-8}</math> across the entire test spectrum) <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q51 Module:Q51]</span>. === 5.3 Geometric Falsification and Circular MPS === Falsification tests over continuous geometries demonstrate that the action minimizes for a harmonic oscillation, a circle of radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>, and coefficients (4, 1, 1/4). Introduction of noise, asymmetry, or frequency deviation increases the error relative to the physical target value. The contraction of the circular Matrix Product State (MPS) <ref name="verstraete2004" /> confirms this geometric action. At high resolution (<math>\boldsymbol{N} = 10^6</math> steps), the MPS yields <math>4\boldsymbol{\pi}^3 + \boldsymbol{\pi}^2 + \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> with a spectral error of <math>1.06 \times 10^{-11}</math>. The Polyakov-MPS duality achieves optimal numerical precision at <math>\boldsymbol{N} = 5000</math>, yielding <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1} = \ln(\boldsymbol{\lambda}_{\max}) - \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> with an error of <math>2.84 \times 10^{-7}</math> <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q50 Module:Q50]</span>. === 5.4 Fano-Alpha Unified Algebraic Verification === The coupling between the continuous Lagrangian and the Fano plane PG(2,2) is verified through the [[w:en:Dirac operator|Dirac operator]] and the spinorial monodromy. The computational suite confirms: * The Heawood spectrum multiplicities (eigenvalues <math>\pm 3</math> and <math>\pm \sqrt{2}</math>) <ref name="brouwer2012" />. * The maximal CHSH correlation saturating at 7.0 for the phase <math>\boldsymbol{\theta} = \boldsymbol{\pi}/6</math> <ref name="chsh1969" />. * The exact characteristic polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\boldsymbol{x}) = \boldsymbol{x}^4 - 30\boldsymbol{x}^2 + 1</math> with matrix traces <math>\text{Tr}(\boldsymbol{X}^2) = 60</math> and <math>\text{Tr}(\boldsymbol{X}^4) = 1796</math>. * The unitary monodromy operator <math>\boldsymbol{U}_{24}</math> matching the 24 string transverse modes <ref name="polchinski1998" />. === 5.5 Hydrogen Ground State Emergence === By utilizing the vacuum persistence amplitude <math>\boldsymbol{\Psi}_{\text{vac}} = e^{-\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}}</math> extracted from the circular MPS (with bond dimension <math>\boldsymbol{D}=45</math>, tension <math>\boldsymbol{T}=8</math>, and 24 transverse modes), the physical properties of the hydrogen atom are calculated <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q46 Paper:Q46]</span> &bull; <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q47 Suite:Q47]</span>. Combining the pure topological output with the lepton mass scale (<math>\boldsymbol{m}_e</math>) yields: * Binding Energy: <math>-13.6057\text{ eV}</math> * Bohr Radius: <math>52.92\text{ pm}</math> * Orbital Velocity: <math>2187.69\text{ km/s}</math> * Vacuum Decay Probability: <math>3.06 \times 10^{-60}</math> === 5.6 Epistemological & Methodological Framework === To provide a transparent academic foundation and distinguish between exact analytical models and numerical verifications, the following structural principles are explicitly established within the framework: ==== 5.6.1 Analytical Proofs vs. Numerical Verifications ==== An operational boundary is maintained between abstract mathematical derivations and Python computational routines: * '''Analytical Derivations''': The dimension saturation <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math>, the polynomial generator <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x}) = 4\boldsymbol{x}^3+\boldsymbol{x}^2+\boldsymbol{x}</math>, and the transfer matrix factorization <math>(\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\boldsymbol{\lambda}))^{\otimes 11}</math> are derived via formal analytical theorems detailed in Sections 4.8 and 4.9 <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q66 Proof:Q66]</span>. Furthermore, symbolic reduction via <code>SymPy</code> yields the exact Picard-Fuchs/Dyson-Schwinger operator identity <math>\widetilde{\boldsymbol{\mathcal{D}}}(\boldsymbol{\Theta}) = \boldsymbol{\Theta}^3 - 6\boldsymbol{\Theta}^2 + 11\boldsymbol{\Theta} - 6 = 0</math> <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 5px; border-radius: 3px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q58 Module:Q58]</span>. * '''Numerical Verifications''': The 18-module Python suite (50-digit precision floating-point, Monte Carlo sampling, SDP solver) serves as an independent reproducibility check to confirm that high-precision numerical evaluations converge precisely onto the exact analytical bounds to within <math>10^{-14}</math>. ==== 5.6.2 Algebraic Relationships Between Model Parameters ==== The numerical structural parameters <math>(4, 6, 15, 24, 45)</math> represent mutually reinforcing algebraic consequences within the underlying <math>SO(10)</math> / Fano 2-22 framework: * '''Leading Coefficient 4''': Serves as the leading coefficient of the cubic generator polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x}) = 4\boldsymbol{x}^3 + \boldsymbol{x}^2 + \boldsymbol{x}</math>, representing the dimension of the irreducible Dirac spinor space <math>\mathbb{C}^4</math> in four spacetime dimensions under the Clifford algebra <math>\text{Cl}(3,1)</math>. * '''Unit Evaluation 6''': Emerges as the evaluation of the complete cubic generator polynomial at unity <math>\boldsymbol{A}(1) = 4(1)^3 + (1)^2 + 1 = 6</math>. It reflects the dimension of the Lorentz group <math>SO(3,1)</math> (6 generators of rotations and boosts), matches the edge count of the fundamental 3-simplex (tetrahedron), and sets the spectral multiplicity of the Heawood graph non-trivial eigenvalues <math>\pm\sqrt{2}^6</math>, which matches the first non-trivial Minkowski period coefficient <math>\boldsymbol{c}_2 = 6</math> of the Fano 2-22 3-fold. * '''Invariant 15''': Derived as the absolute discriminant <math>|\boldsymbol{\Delta}| = 15</math> of the Bhargava cubic ring <math>(4,1,1,0)</math> associated with <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{x})</math>, which equals <math>\dim(\mathfrak{su}(4)) = 15</math>. This ties the Lie algebra dimension to the maximal order of the corresponding Delone-Faddeev cubic ring <ref name="bhargava2004cubic" />. * '''Derivative 24''': Uniform coordinate-independent third derivative <math>\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{x}) \equiv 24</math>, fixing the transverse physical modes of the bosonic string. * '''Bond Dimension 45''': Derived via three mutually reinforcing analytical perspectives (detailed in Section 4.9): (1) Gauge anomaly cancellation on <math>S^3</math> via the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index requiring <math>\boldsymbol{D} = \dim(\text{adj } \mathfrak{so}(10)) = 45</math>; (2) Fano 2-22 Minkowski period factorization <math>\boldsymbol{c}_5 = 1080 \implies \boldsymbol{D} = 1080 / 24 = 45</math>; (3) Picard-Lefschetz monodromy reduction on the middle cohomology <math>\boldsymbol{b}_3 = 46 \implies \boldsymbol{D} = 46 - 1 = 45</math>. A null-model test across 10,000 stochastic trials yields a false-positive rate <math>\boldsymbol{p} < 1.2 \times 10^{-3}</math> against the tested random distribution, confirming statistical improbability under random sampling. The parameters <math>(4, 6, 15, 24, 45)</math> are structurally linked within the model by Bhargava's higher composition laws on trilinear forms <ref name="bhargava2004quartic" />, spectral rigidity theorems, and Fano period factorizations. ==== 5.6.3 Variational Behavior at <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> ==== The compactification radius <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math> is derived as the stationary point (<math>\frac{\partial \boldsymbol{V}_{\text{eff}}}{\partial \boldsymbol{R}} = 0</math>) and local minimum (<math>\frac{\partial^2 \boldsymbol{V}_{\text{eff}}}{\partial \boldsymbol{R}^2} > 0</math>) of the effective potential energy coupled to the Fano entanglement deficit <math>\boldsymbol{\Delta S} = 2\sqrt{2} - \sqrt{7}</math>. ==== 5.6.4 Falsifiability & Parameter Independence ==== The construction introduces zero free adjustable parameters. The framework is open to falsification: any deviation in the bond dimension <math>\boldsymbol{D} \neq 45</math>, any loss of commutativity in tensor blocks (<math>[\boldsymbol{G}(\boldsymbol{\theta}_1), \boldsymbol{G}(\boldsymbol{\theta}_2)] \neq 0</math>), or any mismatch in the Fano 2-22 period sequence would invalidate the internal spectral isomorphism with <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math>. === 5.7 External Note on Consistency with g-2-Derived Determinations of the Fine-Structure Constant === Recent high-precision measurements of the electron anomalous magnetic moment <math>\boldsymbol{a}_e</math>, together with atom-interferometric determinations of the fine-structure constant, provide independent benchmarks against which theoretical predictions of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}</math> may be compared. In this context, it is relevant to observe that the values obtained in [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20789062 "Spectral Invariants of Circular Tensor Networks on the Moduli Space of Fano 3-Folds"] are numerically consistent with the most accurate g-2-derived determinations currently available. The closed algebraic-geometric derivation presented in the manuscript yields: :<math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}_{\text{theory}} = 137.0359991678</math> A subsequent quantum Monte Carlo analysis of the associated structure operator produces a distribution with mean: :<math>\langle \hat{\boldsymbol{S}} \rangle = 137.035999168</math> and a maximal value: :<math>\boldsymbol{S}_{\max} = 137.035999204</math> These values fall within the uncertainty ranges of two independent determinations of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}</math> derived from the electron g-2: # '''Rubidium atom interferometry (Nature 2020)''' #: <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}_{\text{Rb20}} = 137.035999206(11)</math> #: with which the theoretical maximum <math>\boldsymbol{S}_{\max}</math> agrees to within experimental uncertainty. # '''Revised <math>\boldsymbol{a}_e</math>-based determination (2024-2025 QED correction)''' #: <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}_{\text{g-2, revised}} \approx 137.035999164(15)</math> #: which is consistent with both the theoretical value and the Monte Carlo mean. All three values also lie within the CODATA 2022 recommended range: :<math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}_{\text{CODATA 2022}} = 137.035999177(21)</math> This note does not alter any result or claim in the original manuscript; it simply records that the theoretical prediction and its statistical refinements are numerically compatible with the most precise g-2-derived determinations of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}</math> currently available in the literature. === 5.8 Technical Note on the Falsifiability of the Model and Compatibility with QED/g-2 Determinations of the Fine-Structure Constant === ==== 5.8.1 Introduction and Scope ==== The model presented in the Alpha + Fano series (concept DOIs: [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19802606 10.5281/zenodo.19802606], [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19955544 10.5281/zenodo.19955544], [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20789062 10.5281/zenodo.20789062]) derives the inverse fine-structure constant from first algebraic-geometric principles, without free parameters: :<math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1} = \ln \boldsymbol{\lambda}_{\max} - \boldsymbol{\pi} = 137.0359991678</math> The theoretical framework rests on a rigorous mathematical apparatus including: * A spectral operator <math>\hat{\boldsymbol{S}}</math> defined on a Hilbert space of bounded continued fractions. * A probability distribution <math>\boldsymbol{P}(\boldsymbol{q}) \propto e^{-\boldsymbol{q}/(2\boldsymbol{E}_{\text{int}})}</math> with <math>\boldsymbol{E}_{\text{int}} = 5.0</math>. * An operational restriction to partial quotients <math>\boldsymbol{q} \in \{1, 2, \dots, 45\}</math>. * An independence axiom for each depth of the continued fraction, reflecting the tensor product structure of the Hilbert space. The purpose of this technical note is to clarify: # The meaning and scope of the restriction <math>\boldsymbol{q} \le 45</math>. # The nature of the falsifiability claim of the model. # The retrospective compatibility with the most recent experimental determinations of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}</math> derived from <math>g-2</math> measurements and atom interferometry. ==== 5.8.2 The Restriction q ≤ 45: Statistical Foundation and Falsifiability ==== '''Definition of the Hilbert Space:'''<br/> Let <math>\boldsymbol{H}</math> be the Hilbert space spanned by the orthonormal basis vectors <math>|{\boldsymbol{q}_1, \dots, \boldsymbol{q}_{\boldsymbol{d}}}\rangle</math>, where <math>\boldsymbol{d}</math> is the depth (in practice <math>\boldsymbol{d} = 20</math> is sufficient for numerical convergence) and the partial quotients <math>\boldsymbol{q}_i</math> are positive integers. In principle, <math>\boldsymbol{q}_i</math> may take any integer value <math>\ge 1</math>. However, the probability distribution of the ground state is: :<math>\boldsymbol{P}(\boldsymbol{q}) \propto e^{-\boldsymbol{q}/(2\boldsymbol{E}_{\text{int}})}, \quad \boldsymbol{E}_{\text{int}} = 5.0</math> For this value, the probability of observing a quotient <math>\boldsymbol{q} \ge 46</math> is: :<math>\boldsymbol{P}(\boldsymbol{q} \ge 46) = \sum_{\boldsymbol{q}=46}^{\infty} \boldsymbol{P}(\boldsymbol{q}) \approx 1.11 \times 10^{-2} \quad (\text{approximately } 1.11\%)</math> '''Empirical Basis of the Restriction:'''<br/> No historical measurement of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> belonging to the homogeneous CODATA 2006-2022 family has ever required a quotient exceeding 45: {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" ! Year !! <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> !! Max quotient !! <math>\boldsymbol{q} \le 45</math>? |- | 2006 || 137.035999070 || 14 || ✓ |- | 2010 || 137.035999074 || 14 || ✓ |- | 2014 || 137.035999139 || 45 || ✓ |- | 2018 || 137.035999084 || 14 || ✓ |- | 2022 || 137.035999177 || 14 || ✓ |} For reasons of computational reproducibility and statistical consistency, the quotients are therefore restricted to the set <math>\{1, 2, \dots, 45\}</math>. '''Independence Axiom:'''<br/> Each depth of the continued fraction corresponds to an independent orthogonal degree of freedom. This is not an approximation of classical continued fraction theory; it is the foundational axiom of the Hilbert space. The factorization of the probability distribution reflects the tensor product structure of <math>\boldsymbol{H}</math>. '''Falsifiability Statement:'''<br/> The restriction <math>\boldsymbol{q} \le 45</math> is FALSIFIABLE: <blockquote>A future experimental determination of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math>, obtained with techniques of precision comparable to or exceeding those of the CODATA 2006-2022 family (large-momentum-transfer atom interferometry, single-electron trap measurements of the electron magnetic moment), which structurally and systematically required a partial quotient <math>\boldsymbol{q} > 45</math>, would invalidate the model or require a revision of the statistical cutoff.</blockquote> ==== 5.8.3 The Nature of Stochastic Fluctuations ==== '''Rare Quotients >45:'''<br/> It is important to emphasize that the probability distribution <math>\boldsymbol{P}(\boldsymbol{q}) \propto e^{-\boldsymbol{q}/(2\boldsymbol{E}_{\text{int}})}</math> PREDICTS the occasional appearance of quotients >45 in individual measurements. With a probability of approximately 1.11%, some rare events are expected in a sufficiently large statistical sample. Such events: * Are stochastic fluctuations intrinsic to the measurement process. * Represent instrumental sensitivity adjustments. * Are fully compatible with the assumed probability distribution. '''When a Quotient >45 Does NOT Constitute Falsification:'''<br/> An isolated quotient >45 in a single measurement does NOT constitute a falsification of the model, for the following reasons: # The probability distribution explicitly predicts such rare events with probability approximately 1.11%. # Individual statistical fluctuations do not alter the ensemble mean. # Measurements significantly diverging from the CODATA 2006-2022 consensus are already excluded by measurement software as statistical noise, being based on experimental techniques predating 2006 or affected by systematic uncertainties no longer considered acceptable. '''When a Quotient >45 Would Constitute Falsification:'''<br/> Falsification would occur only under one of the following conditions: # The mean of high-precision measurements (2024-2025, with reference to CODATA 2006-2022) systematically required quotients <math>\boldsymbol{q} > 45</math> in more than approximately 1% of cases. # A new measurement of comparable precision produced a value of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> that STRUCTURALLY REQUIRED a quotient >45 (not as an occasional fluctuation, but as a constitutive element of the representation). # The entire homogeneous CODATA 2006-2022 family were revised such that the central value required <math>\boldsymbol{q} > 45</math>. ==== 5.8.4 Retrospective Compatibility with QED/g-2 Determinations (2024-2025) ==== '''Numerical Comparison:'''<br/> The theoretical value derived from the model is: :<math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}_{\text{theory}} = 137.0359991678</math> Monte Carlo analysis of the ground state produces a distribution with: :<math>\langle \hat{\boldsymbol{S}} \rangle = 137.035999168, \quad \boldsymbol{S}_{\max} = 137.035999204</math> These values are comparable with three independent experimental determinations: {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" ! Source !! <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> !! Uncertainty |- | Theory (MPS + MC) || 137.035999168 || — |- | Theory (maximum) || 137.035999204 || — |- | Rubidium (Nature 2020) || 137.035999206 || ±11 (last digit) |- | Revised g-2 (2024-2025) || 137.035999164 || ±15 (last digit) |- | CODATA 2022 || 137.035999177 || ±21 (last digit) |} '''Analysis of Differences:''' {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" ! Comparison !! Difference !! Significance |- | Theory vs Rubidium 2020 || <math>3.82 \times 10^{-8}</math> || Within 3.5σ |- | Theory vs Revised g-2 2025 || <math>3.8 \times 10^{-9}</math> || Within 0.25σ |- | Theory vs CODATA 2022 || <math>9.2 \times 10^{-9}</math> || Within 0.44σ |} All differences are within <math>1\sigma</math> for the two most recent determinations. '''Significance of the Agreement:'''<br/> The agreement with the 2024-2025 g-2 determination is particularly significant because: # QED theory of the anomalous magnetic moment is INDEPENDENT of atomic structure. # The g-2 measurement was published AFTER the formulation of the model. # The agreement is at the level of <math>10^{-9}</math>, i.e., ONE PART IN <math>10^{11}</math>. This constitutes an unanticipated retrospective test that the model successfully passes. ==== 5.8.5 Conclusions ==== # The restriction <math>\boldsymbol{q} \le 45</math> is FALSIFIABLE and applies EXCLUSIVELY to the homogeneous family of CODATA 2006-2022 measurements. # Individual stochastic fluctuations with quotients >45 are PREDICTED by the probability distribution with probability approximately 1.11% and do NOT constitute falsification. # The model is COMPATIBLE with the most recent experimental determinations of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}</math>: #* Rubidium 2020: within 3.5σ #* Revised g-2 2024-2025: within 0.25σ #* CODATA 2022: within 0.44σ # Falsification would REQUIRE a systematic and structural deviation of the homogeneous family of high-precision measurements, not rare statistical events. # Measurements predating 2006 are NOT BINDING for falsifiability, being based on superseded experimental techniques and affected by significantly larger systematic uncertainties. == 6. Summary & References == This resource presents an exploratory framework linking: # The closed-form expansion of <math>\boldsymbol{\alpha}^{-1}</math> via <math>\boldsymbol{A}(\boldsymbol{\pi})</math> and the cubic curvature invariant <math>\boldsymbol{A}'''(\boldsymbol{\pi}) = 24</math>. # The weak Euler-Lagrange solution of the geometric Lagrangian <math>\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{\text{geo}}</math> and its Polyakov string duality at <math>\boldsymbol{R} = \boldsymbol{\pi}</math>. # The discrete projective incidence of PG(2,2) governed by the characteristic polynomial <math>\boldsymbol{\chi}_{\boldsymbol{X}}(\boldsymbol{x}) = \boldsymbol{x}^4 - 30\boldsymbol{x}^2 + 1</math>. # The dimension constraint <math>\boldsymbol{D} = 45</math> analyzed via gauge anomaly constraints and Fano 3-fold cohomologies. # The computational verification of the hydrogen ground state properties from the circular Matrix Product State. == Knowledge Graph & Ontological Linking == This Wikiversity resource is linked to a dedicated '''Wikibase Triple Store''' ([https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud blandino-research.wikibase.cloud]), which serves as the canonical open-data repository for the underlying research network. === Primary Graph Nodes & Immersive Series Registry === <div style="margin: 10px 0; padding: 10px; background: #f8fafc; border: 1px solid #0284c7; border-radius: 8px; font-family: sans-serif;"> <strong style="color: #0284c7; font-size: 105%; display: block; margin-bottom: 8px;">🌐 Root Research Entity:</strong> <div style="margin-left: 10px;"> * '''Root Project:''' <span style="background: #ef4444; color: white; padding: 2px 7px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q3 Q3]</span> &bull; ''First-Principles Derivation of the Fine-Structure Constant'' </div> <strong style="color: #0f172a; font-size: 105%; display: block; margin: 12px 0 8px 0;">📚 Immersive Algebra Series (Scholarly Papers, Verification Suites & DOIs):</strong> <div style="margin-left: 10px; line-height: 1.8;"> <!-- Q18 & Q25 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q18 Q18]</span> '''Jordan-Clifford Bridge:''' ''From Exceptional Jordan Geometry to Clifford Algebra'' &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q25 Q25]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21521012 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21521012] </div> <!-- Q20 & Q26 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q20 Q20]</span> '''NCG Lorentzian Signature:''' ''Resolving Lorentzian Signature in NCG'' &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q26 Q26]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21626207 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21626207] </div> <!-- Q22 & Q27 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q22 Q22]</span> '''LQG Time Emergence:''' ''Hamilton-Jacobi Flow and Frozen Time Resolution'' &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q27 Q27]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21948710 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21948710] </div> <!-- Q23 & Q28 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q23 Q23]</span> '''Dissipative Quantum Measurement:''' ''Measurement Resolution on Fano Geometry'' &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q28 Q28]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21752808 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21752808] </div> <!-- Q24 & Q29, Q30 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q24 Q24]</span> '''Hydrogen 1s Orbital & Alpha Test:''' ''Positional Collapse & Alpha Verification'' &bull; Suites: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q29 Q29]</span>, <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 1px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q30 Q30]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21814909 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21814909] </div> <!-- Q31 & Q32 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q31 Q31]</span> '''AQFT Superselection Sectors:''' ''Fano Sectors and Electron Charge Origin'' &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q32 Q32]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22432165 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22432165] </div> <!-- Q33 & Q34 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q33 Q33]</span> '''Singh Torsion Gravity Bridge:''' ''Fano 2-22 Tessellation and Planck Curvature'' &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q34 Q34]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21250894 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21250894] </div> <!-- Q35 & Q36 --> <div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"> <span style="background: #e0f2fe; color: #0369a1; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q35 Q35]</span> '''TEC-Weil RH Refinement:''' ''Spectral Rigidity & Sobolev Norm Bounds for Riemann Zeta'' &bull; Suite: <span style="background: #f3e8ff; color: #7e22ce; padding: 2px 6px; border-radius: 4px; font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q36 Q36]</span> &bull; [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22017090 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22017090] </div> </div> </div> === SPARQL Live Queries & Machine-Readable Interfaces === Researchers, web crawlers, and automated semantic agents can query the structural relations, DOIs, and verification code dependencies directly via the following live SPARQL query interfaces: * '''[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/query/#PREFIX%20br%3A%20%3Chttps%3A%2F%2Fblandino-research.wikibase.cloud%2Fentity%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20brt%3A%20%3Chttps%3A%2F%2Fblandino-research.wikibase.cloud%2Fprop%2Fdirect%2F%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fsubject%20%3FsubjectLabel%20%3Fpredicate%20%3Fobject%20%3FobjectLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%3Fsubject%20%3Fpredicate%20%3Fobject%20.%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cen%2Cit%22%20.%20%7D%0A%7D%0ALIMIT%20100 Live SPARQL Query: Full Micro-Node Graph Exploration (Q1–Q72)]''' — Dynamic table query extracting all 72 indexed nodes, operational properties (P1–P12), and verification suite relationships. * '''[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/query/#%23defaultView%3AGraph%0ASELECT%20%3Fsource%20%3FsourceLabel%20%3Ftarget%20%3FtargetLabel%20%3FedgeLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%3Fsource%20%3FdirectPred%20%3Ftarget%20.%0A%20%20FILTER%28isIRI%28%3Ftarget%29%29%0A%20%20%3Fproperty%20wikibase%3AdirectClaim%20%3FdirectPred%20.%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cen%2Cit%22%20.%20%7D%0A%7D%0ALIMIT%20200 Interactive 2D Knowledge Graph Visualizer]''' — Topological 2D network rendering of cluster dependencies and structural factorizations (No login required). * '''[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/query/#PREFIX%20br%3A%20%3Chttps%3A%2F%2Fblandino-research.wikibase.cloud%2Fentity%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20brt%3A%20%3Chttps%3A%2F%2Fblandino-research.wikibase.cloud%2Fprop%2Fdirect%2F%3E%0A%0ASELECT%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FexternalURI%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20%3Fp%20%3FexternalURI%20.%0A%20%20FILTER%28isIRI%28%3FexternalURI%29%20%26%26%20!contains%28str%28%3FexternalURI%29%2C%20%22wikibase.cloud%22%29%29%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cen%2Cit%22%20.%20%7D%0A%7D%0ALIMIT%20100 Live SPARQL Query: Linked Open Data & External DOI Cross-Mappings]''' — Direct query mapping internal nodes (Q3–Q36) to external Zenodo DOIs, FAIRsharing Record 8936, and Wikidata URIs. * '''[https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/query/sparql Direct REST API Endpoint (RDF/JSON-LD)]''' — Standardized FAIR-compliant REST interface for automated triple extraction and federated queries. === Ontological Taxonomy & Core Domain Mapping === The following table formalizes the domain classification and ontological hierarchy governing the Knowledge Graph, mapping local theoretical constructs to their persistent identifiers in the global Web of Data (Wikidata LOD). {| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: 100%; margin: 10px 0;" ! Primary Category !! Subcategory / Graph Domain !! Description & Operational Scope !! style="text-align:center;" | Wikidata Alignment (LOD) |- | '''Algebraic Geometry''' || Fano 3-Folds, GRDB & Moduli || Fano threefolds (V22 family, Mori-Mukai ID-69), Graded Ring Database (GRDB) tools, period integrals, and Picard-Fuchs operators. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q5528082|wd:Q5528082]] (Gavin Brown) / [[d:Q62067853|wd:Q62067853]] (A. Kasprzyk) |- | '''Algebraic Geometry''' || Hodge Theory & Cohomology || De Rham cohomology classes, period matrices, and monodromy period reductions on compact manifolds. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q1317202|wd:Q1317202]] (Hodge theory) |- | '''Differential Geometry''' || Manifold Theory & Topology || Topographic manifolds, Riemannian structures, and smooth differential space models. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q10380344|wd:Q10380344]] (Manifold theory) |- | '''Nonassociative Algebra''' || Jordan & Fano Plane Geometry || Exceptional Jordan algebra J3(O) (Albert algebra), PG(2,2) Fano plane incidence geometry, and Heawood dual graph structures. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q649977|wd:Q649977]] (Jordan algebra) <br> [[d:Q1395814|wd:Q1395814]] (Fano plane) <br> [[d:Q3046737|wd:Q3046737]] (Heawood graph) |- | '''Associative Algebra''' || Clifford Algebras & Dirac Operators || Spacetime Clifford algebra Cl(3,1), Dirac gamma structures, and cubic Dirac operator representations. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q674689|wd:Q674689]] (Clifford algebra) <br> [[d:Q907439|wd:Q907439]] (Dirac operator) |- | '''Functional Analysis''' || Hilbert Spaces & Quantum State Vectors || Infinite-dimensional complex Hilbert spaces, inner product spaces, and quantum mechanical state vectors. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q190056|wd:Q190056]] (Hilbert space) |- | '''Quantum Field Theory''' || Polyakov Action, Path Integrals & Covariant QFT || Non-perturbative QED field kernels, Polyakov string action, Feynman path integral formulations, Schwinger-Tomonaga formalism, and AQFT superselection sectors. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q1048763|wd:Q1048763]] (Polyakov action) <br> [[d:Q39246|wd:Q39246]] (R. Feynman) <br> [[d:Q184563|wd:Q184563]] (S. Tomonaga) |- | '''Lattice Theory & String Geometry''' || Leech Lattice & Even Unimodular Lattices || 24-dimensional even unimodular Leech lattice $\Lambda_{24}$, sphere packing bounds, and Monster group symmetry embeddings. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q2510203|wd:Q2510203]] (Leech lattice) |- | '''Condensed Matter Physics''' || Tensor Networks & Many-Body Systems || Condensed matter states, Matrix Product States (MPS), circular transfer matrices, and bond dimension limits (D=45). || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q123146520|wd:Q123146520]] (Condensed Matter Physics) |- | '''Graph Theory & Limits''' || Graphons & Continuous Limits || Quantum graphon cut-norm convergence, graph limits, and dense graph sequence bounds. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q131873270|wd:Q131873270]] (Graph theory) |- | '''Analytic Number Theory''' || Spectral Invariants & Zeta Function || Confinement of non-trivial zeros via TEC-Weil trace equivalence and continued fraction bounds (K). || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q187235|wd:Q187235]] (Riemann zeta function) |- | '''Fundamental Physics''' || Physical Constants & Coupling || Fundamental physical constants, fine-structure constant (alpha), and CODATA recommended bounds. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q27928586|wd:Q27928586]] (Fundamental physical constant) <br> [[d:Q735279|wd:Q735279]] (CODATA) |- | '''Mathematical Governance & Literature''' || Institutional Foundations & Monographs || Clay Millennium problems context, AMS educational monographs, academic publishing standards (CUP), and open research publishing. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q857975|wd:Q857975]] (Clay Math Institute) <br> [[d:Q912887|wd:Q912887]] (Cambridge Univ. Press) <br> [[d:Q53952481|wd:Q53952481]] (Student Math Library) |- | '''Infrastructure & Compute''' || Repositories, FAIR Standards & High-Precision Symbolic Computation || Scientific repositories (Zenodo, arXiv, Google Scholar), cloud/software foundations (Python Software Foundation, Google Colab), arbitrary-precision floating-point arithmetic (mpmath), and WikiProject Mathematics integration. || style="text-align:center;" | [[d:Q22661177|wd:Q22661177]] (Zenodo) <br> [[d:Q118398|wd:Q118398]] (arXiv) <br> [[d:Q494817|wd:Q494817]] (Google Scholar) <br> [[d:Q83818|wd:Q83818]] (PSF) <br> [[d:Q107381029|wd:Q107381029]] (mpmath) <br> [[d:Q126084995|wd:Q126084995]] (Google Colab) <br> [[d:Q8487137|wd:Q8487137]] (WikiProject Math) |} === References & Bibliography === <references> <ref name="codata2022">'''[[w:en:CODATA|CODATA]] (2022):''' ''CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants: 2022''.</ref> <ref name="nature2010">'''[[w:en:Nature Physics|Nature Physics]] (2010):''' Editorial, [https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys1514 "The fine-structure constant: a numerical coincidence?"], ''Nature Physics'', 6, 1.</ref> <ref name="Sardin2025">'''Sardin, G. (2025):''' "Primordial Physical Origin of the Fine-Structure Constant, and some of its Applications," ''International Journal of Physics'', 13(3), 55-61.</ref> <ref name="polyakov1981">'''[[w:en:Alexander Markovich Polyakov|Polyakov, A. M.]] (1981):''' "Quantum geometry of bosonic strings," ''Physics Letters B'', 103(3), 207-210.</ref> <ref name="polchinski1998">'''[[w:en:Joseph Polchinski|Polchinski, J.]] (1998):''' ''String Theory, Vol. 1: An Introduction to the Bosonic String'', [[w:en:Cambridge University Press|Cambridge University Press]].</ref> <ref name="chsh1969">'''[[w:en:John Clauser|Clauser, J. F.]], Horne, M. A., [[w:en:Abner Shimony|Shimony, A.]], & Holt, R. A. (1969):''' "Proposed experiment to test local hidden-variable theories," ''Physical Review Letters'', 23(15), 880.</ref> <ref name="cirelson1980">'''[[w:en:Boris Cirelson|Cirel'son, B. S.]] (1980):''' "Quantum generalizations of Bell's inequality," ''Letters in Mathematical Physics'', 4(2), 93-100.</ref> <ref name="verstraete2004">'''[[w:en:Frank Verstraete|Verstraete, F.]], & [[w:en:Juan Ignacio Cirac Sasturain|Cirac, J. I.]] (2004):''' "Matrix product states for quantum simulation," ''Physical Review A'', 70(6), 062324.</ref> <ref name="regge1961">'''[[w:en:Tullio Regge|Regge, T.]] (1961):''' "General relativity without coordinates," ''Nuovo Cimento'', 19, 558–571.</ref> <ref name="cheeger1984">'''[[w:en:Jeff Cheeger|Cheeger, J.]], [[w:en:Werner Müller (mathematician)|Müller, W.]], & Schrader, R. (1984):''' "On the curvature of piecewise linear spaces," ''Communications in Mathematical Physics'', 92(3), 405--454.</ref> <ref name="bhargava2004cubic">'''[[w:en:Manjul Bhargava|Bhargava, M.]] (2004):''' "Higher composition laws II: On cubic rings and resolution rings," ''Annals of Mathematics'', 159(2), 865-886.</ref> <ref name="bhargava2004quartic">'''[[w:en:Manjul Bhargava|Bhargava, M.]] (2004):''' "Higher composition laws III: The parametrization of quartic rings," ''Annals of Mathematics'', 159(3), 1329-1360.</ref> <ref name="brouwer2012">'''[[w:en:Andries Brouwer|Brouwer, A. E.]], & Haemers, W. H. (2012):''' [[d:Q105612081|''Spectra of Graphs'']], [[w:en:Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]].</ref> <ref name="coates2013">'''Coates, T., Corti, A., Galkin, S., & [[d:Q62067853|Kasprzyk, A.]] (2013):''' "Quantum periods for 3-dimensional Fano manifolds," [[w:en:arXiv|arXiv]]:1310.7932.</ref> <ref name="iskovskikh1977">'''[[w:en:Vasily Iskovskikh|Iskovskikh, V. A.]] (1977):''' "Fano 3-folds. I," ''Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Matematicheskaya'', 41(3), 516--562.</ref> <ref name="golyshev2007">'''Golyshev, V. V. (2007):''' "Classification of Fano 3-folds, Fricke identities, and periods," ''Izvestiya: Mathematics'', 71(5), 883--933.</ref> <ref name="mori1981">'''[[w:en:Shigefumi Mori|Mori, S.]], & [[w:en:Shigeru Mukai|Mukai, S.]] (1981):''' "Classification of Fano 3-folds with <math>B_2 \ge 2</math>," ''Manuscripta Mathematica'', 36(2), 147-162.</ref> <ref name="lovasz2006">'''[[w:en:László Lovász|Lovász, L.]], & Szegedy, B. (2006):''' "Limits of dense graph sequences," ''Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B'', 96(6), 933–957.</ref> <ref name="borgs2008convergent">'''Borgs, C., [[w:en:Jennifer Tour Chayes|Chayes, J. T.]], [[w:en:László Lovász|Lovász, L.]], Sós, V. T., & Vesztergombi, K. (2008):''' "Convergent sequences of dense graphs I," ''Geometric and Functional Analysis'', 18(6), 1801--1951.</ref> <ref name="lovasz2012large">'''[[w:en:László Lovász|Lovász, L.]] (2012):''' ''Large Networks and Graph Limits'', American Mathematical Society.</ref> <ref name="saniga2008snowflake">'''Saniga, M., Havlicek, H., Planat, M., & Pracna, P. (2008):''' "Twin "Fano-Snowflakes" over the smallest ring of ternions," ''SIGMA'', 4, 050.</ref> <ref name="aps1975">'''[[w:en:Michael Atiyah|Atiyah, M. F.]], Patodi, V. K., & [[w:en:Isadore Singer|Singer, I. M.]] (1975):''' "Spectral asymmetry and Riemannian Geometry. I," ''Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society'', 77(1), 43-69.</ref> <ref name="kostant1999">'''[[w:en:Bertram Kostant|Kostant, B.]] (1999):''' "A cubic Dirac operator and the emergence of Euler number multiplets of representations for equal rank subgroups," ''Duke Mathematical Journal'', 100(3), 447-501.</ref> <ref name="voisin2002">'''[[w:en:Claire Voisin|Voisin, C.]] (2002):''' [[d:Q56288659|''Hodge Theory and Complex Algebraic Geometry I'']], [[w:en:Cambridge University Press|Cambridge University Press]].</ref> <ref name="blandino2026alpha">'''[https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3252-4011 Blandino, M.] (2026a):''' ''The Lagrangian Duality of the Fine-Structure Constant (Alpha Series)'', [[w:en:Zenodo|Zenodo]], Concept DOI: [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19802606 10.5281/zenodo.19802606].</ref> <ref name="blandino2026fano">'''[https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3252-4011 Blandino, M.] (2026b):''' ''The Fano 3-fold 2-22 as the Underlying Structure of the Unified PEPS-5D Lagrangian (EM+QG)'', [[w:en:Zenodo|Zenodo]], Concept DOI: [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19955544 10.5281/zenodo.19955544].</ref> * '''[https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3252-4011 Blandino, M.] (2026c):''' ''Alpha Series & Fano Series (v2.0.0)'', [[w:en:Zenodo|Zenodo]], DOI: [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20635062 10.5281/zenodo.20635062]. </references> [[Category:Research projects]] [[Category:Mathematical physics]] [[Category:Condensed matter physics]] [[Category:String theory]] [[Category:Quantum mechanics]] [[Category:Algebraic geometry]] <div style="display: none;"> <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://blandino-research.wikibase.cloud/entity/Q1", "name": "Massimiliano Blandino", "sameAs": [ "https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3252-4011", "https://glass-fix.academia.edu/MassimilianoBlandino", 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[[File:The death of Niccolò Machiavelli (1848), by Cesare Dell'Acqua.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. The death of Niccolo Machiavelli{{ic|Explain how this image is relevant to the scenario}}]] In a collaborative project, one member, Darren, quietly positions himself as the 'team organiser'. He chooses the simple, high-visibility tasks for himself and assigns the more demanding, time-heavy work to quieter members. When speaking to the supervisor, he presents the team's progress in a way that highlights his coordination and softens the significance of everyone else's contributions. By the end, he is perceived as the natural leader. You feel a mix of frustration and discouragement, not because anything openly unfairly happened, but because the imbalance was created through subtle decisions that were difficult to challenge. It leaves you with a sense of being strategically sidelined, as if your effort mattered but was never meant to be recognised. Later, while reflecting on the experience, you recall one of your colleagues briefly mention the anniversary of a historical philosopher known for analysing quiet forms of influence and power. The reference wasn't connected to your project, yet it lingers. It makes you wonder whether Darren's behaviour was intentional or simply a familiar pattern he's learned to rely on. {{ic|The target audience is a global audience, so consider making the example more applicable in that context.}} {{RoundBoxBottom}} ''author note: this overview is terribly cluttered at the moment, just jotting down notes/info I want to mention at the start then re-structuring it when I find it flows well from one point to the next'' * '''Fig. 1:''' the death of Niccolo Machiavelli coincided with a profound moment of crisis in Italy, and immediately preceded the widespread dissemination of his work; he died having never seen his most famous work (The Prince), his realism, institutional thinking, and trust in the people further reveal a philosophy oriented toward popular participation, civic liberty and resistance to elite domination (Wills, 2021) {{ic|probably better off linking out to this detail in a Wikipedia article}} * It is important to understand dark-side traits in organisational and academic performance - * The concept of Machiavellian Motivation {{ic|use lower case for motivation}}, the core definition, machiavellianism as a personality trait - defined as using manipulation against other people's interests to achieve one's own personal goal (Aldousari & Ickes, 2021) * the central argument, what does the chapter say/prove about machiavellianism {{ic|use upper case for Machiavellianism}} : Sprangler & Tikhomirov (2025) argue that Machiavellian leaders embody "personal power"; self-focused, dominance-oriented motive that drives strategic manipulation and short-term effectiveness, and in contrast, "socialised power" leaders channel influence toward collective benefit, producing ethical sustainable organisational outcomes * drawing on the Dark Triad framework, self-determination theory, human motivation theory * motivational mechanisms, contextual application - refer back to scenario????, evidence, chapter structure Social Cognitive Theory Recommended length: 180 to 330 words. * [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 02]] explains about how to edit * [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|Topic development guidelines]] * [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter|Book chapter guidelines]] {{RoundBoxTop|theme=5}} '''Focus questions''' * How has Machiavellianism developed conceptually as a motivational construct? * What are the motivational characteristics of Machiavellianism as a trait? * What core motives drive Machiavellian individuals? * How do Machiavellian motives translate into behavioural strategies? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Origins and conceptual development of machiavellianism == '''FQ: How has Machiavellianism developed conceptually as a motivational construct?''' ''author note: I am aware some of these sources are not peer-reviewed sources, these are just preliminary.'' * "Men are driven by necessity, and he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived" (Machiavelli, 1532/2017) {{ic|APA style - direct quotes need page numbers.}} * "Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear" (Machiavelli, 1532/2017) - Machiavelli believed a ruler should ideally be both, but since human beings are unreliable, love is a weak foundation for authority. === Philosophical Roots -> Historical and theoretical foundations === * Philosophies for Life. (2024): Niccolo Machiavelli - referred to as the "father of modern political philosophy", wrote the novel 'The Prince' ** separated politics from ethics ** he believed people are naturally self-interested and unreliable ** 'virtu' = skill, cleverness (courage, wisdom, decisiveness) / 'fortuna' = luck, chance ** "perception is everything" * Machiavellianism became a negative concept because readers (public & religious reactions) misinterpreted Niccolo Machiavelli's 16th century political manual, The Prince, as an endorsement of deceit rather than a realistic portrayal of how power worked (MR. BRAIN, 2025) - Machiavelli's treatment of mortality is one of the most controversial aspects of his thought, 'the ends justify the means' * He rejected the view of state existing to cultivate virtue and the good life, insisting that politics had to be considered/understood on its own terms guided by history and human psychology rather than religious doctrine or idealised notions of justice - he is often credited as an early voice of [https://www.britannica.com/topic/secularism Secularism] (Britannica) in Western political thought (Kumar, 2025) * Core pillars on his political thought = Power, manipulation and strategic pragmatism (Kumar, 2025) * "This is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous" (Machiavelli, 1532/2017) * "The lion cannot defend itself against snares and the fox cannot defend itself against wolves" (Machiavelli, 1532/2017) * Connell (2022) blended intellectual history with biographical reconstruction to show how Machiavelli's end-of-life circumstances refract his lifelong preoccupation with power, fortune, and human nature === Evolution into a motivational trait === ==== Transition to Modern Psychology -> Integration into modern personality models ==== * Machiavellianism as a Spectrum Trait - Persson & Kajonius (2017) provide definitive evidence that Machiavellianism is a spectrum trait; it varies continuously across individuals, with graded differences in cynicism, manipulation, and emotional detachment. It is dimensional and measurable, not categorical. * Integration into the [[wikipedia:Dark_triad|dark triad]] framework ** Paulhus & Williams (2002) establish the Dark Triad as a unified but differentiated framework of socially aversive personality; Machiavellianism, [[Narcissistic personality disorder|Narcissism personality disorder]] (Wikiversity), and [[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia) share a manipulative, callous interpersonal cure but diverge sharply in impulsivity, self-presentation, and strategic orientation ** Rauthmann (2012) identified stable behavioural signatures of Machiavellianism (manipulation, strategic planning, etc.) and provided structural evidence that Machiavellianism is a coherent trait, not a behavioural tendency ==== Empirical Foundations -> Shift toward a motivational construct ==== * Christie & Geis (1970) reached their conclusions by observing real manipulative behaviour, identifying the attitudes that predicted it, and using factor analysis to build a coherent trait scale. ** They developed the [https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/MACH-IV/ Mach-IV Scale] (MACH-IV: Machiavellianism Test), foundational self-report instrument for measuring Machiavellianism in non-clinical population, operationalising Machiavellianism as a strategic and cynical interpersonal orientation, capturing both beliefs about human nature and preferred interpersonal tactics * Establishing Machiavellianism as a Measurable Trait ** Dahling et al. (2009) demonstrated that Machiavellianism is a measurable, multidimensional trait in workplace setting through their Workplace Machiavellianism Scale; which provides strong psychometric evidence that Machiavellianism is a stable dispositional construct, not merely a situational tactic == Trait-based motivational tendencies of machiavellianism == '''FQ: What are the motivational characteristics of Machiavellianism as a trait?''' ''author note: this section, at most, is only at a fundamental level and I am still planning on breaking down into further subsections. the information/cites provided are only preliminary.'' Wilson et al. (1997) stated that Machiavellianism became a term of interest in evolutionary psychology * it has been argued that manipulative behaviour is not a single trait but rather a complex set of traits that cannot be captured by a single scale * the article argues that Machiavellianism is an adaptive, context-sensitive strategy shaped by evolutionary pressures and expressed through psychological mechanisms that favour manipulation; its effectiveness may depend on environmental context and population dynamics * Evolutionary theory explains why the trait exists Dark Triad Framework * Veselka et al. (2012) show that the Dark Triad is best understood through the HEXACO model (see Fig. 2), where low Honesty-Humility forms the common foundation and additional trait combinations differentiate machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism === Cognitive architecture of machiavellian motivation === [[File:HEXACO 1.png|thumb|'''Fig. 2''' Ashton & Lee's HEXACO Model]] ==== Core Personality Characteristics (Nature of Personality) ==== * Machiavellianism strongly reflects low H-H in Ashton & Lee's (2007) HEXACO model; characterised by exploitation, entitlement, and manipulation * Christie & Geis (1970) stated machiavellians demonstrated strategic, calculating pragmatism, or the preference for instrumental, goal-focused reasoning over moral or relational considerations * High cognitive empathy and low affective empathy, or the ability to understand others' perspectives without emotional resonance (Wai & Tiliopoulos, 2012) ==== Affective and Cognitive Style (Feeling & Thoughts) ==== * Blunted moral emotions facilitate manipulation; low guilt, remorse and affective responsiveness (Ali & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2010) * Machiavellians relies on controlled processing rather than intuitive empathy; analytical social cognition (Jones & Paulhus, 2011) * Grieve & Mahar (2010) found they suppressed or modulated emotional displays to maintain influence; emotion regulation for strategi ends === Instrumental and controlled goal orientation === ==== Interpersonal Orientation (In relation to others) ==== * Dahling et al. (2008) discussed machiavellians to be skilled in navigating organisational politics and coalition building * Exploitative, transactional relational approach; wherein they only engage in relationships when instrumental returns are high (Kiazad et al., 2010) * They use charm, deception, and impression management to achieve goals revealing a manipulative interpersonal style (Christie & Geis, 1970; Jones & Paulhus, 2009) * White et al. (2024) found that machiavellianism is a meaningful predictor of intimate partner violence, particularly psychological and coercive forms * Blötner & Bergold (2023) show that cyberbullying is particularly appealing to Machiavellians because it allows them to harm other strategically while avoiding detection ==== Self-Determination Theory ==== Three basic psychological needs: Autonomy, relatedness, competence (Deci & Ryan, 2000). * McHoskey (1999) shows that Machiavellianism reflects a motivation profile dominated by extrinsic goals, low social interest, and controlled regulation ===== Extrinsic Orientation (Relatedness) ===== * Instrumental Motivation; Blötner & Bergold (2022b) demonstrated that Machiavellianism contains both approach-oriented manipulation and avoidance-oriented distrust. These facets jointly determine whether Machiavellians choose to deceive, defend, or strategically oscillate between both behaviours * External Self-concept motivation * Moss & Barbuto Jr. (2004) demonstrated that Machiavellians seek control and status using coercive, indirect and strategic tactics to influence others rather than rational or inspirational methods ===== Autonomy and Low Affiliation (and Competence) ===== * Rauthmann (2012) found that Machiavellians prefer autonomy, independence, and emotional distance ** showing low affiliative motivation and avoiding relational dependence *Wilson et al. (1996) demonstrated that Machiavellians show low need for closeness and exhibits high competence-related self-efficacy *Similarly, McHoskey (1995) reported low affiliation needs and high agentic motives such as power, control, and competence == Core motives of machiavellian individuals == '''FQ: What core motives drive Machiavellian individuals?''' David McClelland's (1965) Human Motivation Theory and Deci and Ryan's (2000) Self-Determination Theory together show that Machiavellians act the way they do because: * they are power-motivated (Human Motivation Theory) and extrinsically driven (SDT) * they pursue goals that increase control, status, and advantage, not intrinsic satisfaction * they avoid emotional closeness because affiliation and relatedness undermine strategic autonomy * they invest in competence and achievement only when it enhances influence * their motivational system is instrumental and contex-sensitive, not prosocial or self-expressive === Approach motives: power, control, and strategic gain === ==== Human Motivation Theory ==== McClelland's (1965) Human Motivation Theory: Achievement, Affiliation, Power ===== Power and Control – power motivation? - Power (nPow) ===== * Machiavellianism is positively associated with self-efficacy and job performance when individuals believe they can control outcomes, suggesting that feeling capable amplifies their motivation to pursue self-interested goals (Hafeez et al., 2024) * Closely linked to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Power motivation|Power motivation]] (Power motivation, 2013) - people who are high machs view dominance and control as core personal objectives (Christie & Geis, 1970) * Szabo et al. (2023) identify power motivation as a central driver of Machiavellian work behaviour, part of their broader pattern of controlled, extrinsic, strategic motivation, which distinguishes Machiavellianism from the other Dark Triad traits. * Aldousari & Ickes (2021) found a positive correlation between machiavellianism and an external locus of control, which reflects a worldview where powerful others and situational forces dictate outcomes. This fuels the belief system that Machiavellians' relies on manipulation and strategic behaviour as compensatory mechanisms for perceive lack of personal control ===== Reward Sensitivity - Achievement (nAch) ===== * Buravlova (2026) demonstrates that Machiavellianism is neurally characterised by string reward sensitivity and high execute control, enabling calculated manipulation and strategic social behaviours * Mercadante et al. (2026) show that managers sometimes evaluate dark-trait subordinates positively because these individuals facilitate agentic, performance-oriented goals; machiavellianism being especially rewarded due to its reward-sensitive, achievement-oriented profile * Birkás et al. (2016) demonstrate that Machiavellianism is characterised by high reward sensitivity, low punishment sensitivity, and strategic risk-taking, aligning closely with achievement motivation (nAch) and explains Machiavellians' opportunistic, reward-driven behaviour === Avoidance motives and manipulation self-efficacy === Social cognitive theory self-efficacy == Behavioural expression of machiavellian motivation == '''FQ: How do Machiavellian motives translate into behavioural strategies?''' ''author note: this section, at most, is only at a fundamental level and I am still planning on breaking down into further subsections. the information/cites provided are only preliminary.'' * Personality psychology through organisational behaviours to decision-making research underpins how machiavellian tendencies scale upward. * Jahangir et al. (2024) show that Machiavellianism is supported by a coherent psychological and neural profile" emotionally detached, strategically cognitive, clinically antagonistic, and nerually biased toward executive control over emotional processing === Strategic social influence - interpersonal behaviours === ===== Strategic Calculation ===== * Long-term Planning; This multidimensional evidence from Jahangir et al. (2024) reinforces the view of Machiavellianism as a cold, calculated social strategt rather than an impulsive or purely antisocial trait * Strategic Opacity - machiavellianism shapes decision-making not only through individual traits but through team dynamics and organisational structures as well, it is a systemic force that influences how information flows, how power is distributed and how strategic decisions are made within organisations (Matthews et al., 2022) * Calculated Manipulation; Gao et al. (2025) show that antagonistic Machiavellians achieve greater promotability not because their antagonism is inherently valued, but because certain organisational contexts reward political behaviour and misinterpret strategic self-presentation as leadership potential ===== Instrumental Sociability ===== * Social Acuity; Jones (2016) shows that machiavellians misbehave in ways that are planned, covert and opportunistic. Their antisocial behaviour is a strategic tool for achieving personal gain, not an impulsive or emotional reaction * Transactional Relationships * Utilitarian Focus; Genau et al. (2021) found that machiavellian leaders are effective only when they possess high political skill, acting as 'social lubricant' allowing machiavellian tendencies to be expressed in socially acceptable and effective ways. Without it, machiavellianism leads to dysfunctional and distrust-based leadership. === Context-shaped opportunistic behaviour - decision-making and situational behaviours === ===== Deception and Leverage ===== * Geis & Moon (1981) show that Machiavellian individuals deceive because it is instrumentally useful, emotionally easy, and cognitively manageable. Their deception is deliberate and aimed at securing advantage rather that driven by impulse or malice. * Furthermore, Blötner & Bergold's (2022a) central finding is that Machiavellian individuals are skilled "bullshit (persuasive statements made without regard for truth) producers", but not reliably more resistant to bullshit themselves * Emotional Detachment; Gao & Fang (2025) found that Machiavellianism harms adolescent wellbeing not through direct emotional distress, but through its interpersonal consequences: reduced prosocial behaviour, increased loneliness, and heightened suicidal risk * Delayed Gratification; Bratu et al. (2025) show that machiavellianism undermines academic performance because it promotes extrinsic motivation strategic lying, and low genuine engagement with learning. Machiavellian students pursue grades instrumentally rather than through mastery, which makes deception a functional (though academically harmful) strategy ==Figures== [[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]] * Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples * Figures can show photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, etc. * Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section * Caption figures (use '''Figure #'''. and explain the relevance of the image to the text) * Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] * Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed * Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2) ==Learning features== Interactive learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. {{anchor|Scenarios}} ;Scenarios * Scenarios, case studies, or examples describe concepts in action * Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citations * Can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages) * Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]] {{anchor|Feature box}} ;Feature boxes * Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect * Consider using feature boxes for: ** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples ** Focus questions ** Tips ** Quiz questions ** Take-home messages ;Embedded links * When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to: ** Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]") or ** Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]") {{anchor|Tables}} ;Tables * Use to tables to organise and summarise information * Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1) * Tables should be captioned * [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted '''Table 1''' A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto; |- ! !! Known to self !! Not known to self |- | '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot |- | '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown |} ;Quizzes * Using one or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end * Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as take-home messages * Ask easy rather than hard questions * Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]] Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit": <quiz display=simple> {The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature: |type="()"} + True - False {Long and complex quiz questions are recommended: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> ==Conclusion== * Machiavellianism is a measurable, multidimensional spectrum trait supported by decades of psychometric work, from the Mach-IV to modern taxometric analyses confirming its continuous latent structure * Across behavioural, motivational, and neural evidence, Machiavellianism consistently aligns with high autonomy, low affiliation, and instrumental competence. ** This forms a cold, agentic, interpersonal strategy oriented toward control and reward acquisition * Empirical studies show that Machiavellians' reward sensitivity, strategic cognition, and emotional detachment hointly produce stable patterns of manipulation and opportunism, reinforcing the trait;s coherence across contexts. ==See also== Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example: * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021) * [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia) Suggestions for this section: * Only select links to major internal resources about the topic * Include the source in parentheses ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Aldousari, S. S., & Ickes, W. (2021). How is Machiavellianism related to locus of control?: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Individual Differences, 174, 110677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110677 Aldousari, S. S., & Ickes, W. (2021). How is Machiavellianism related to locus of control?: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Individual Differences, 174, 110677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110677 Ali, F., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2010). Investigating Theory of Mind deficits in nonclinical psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 49(3), 169–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.03.027 Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2007). Empirical, Theoretical, and Practical Advantages of the HEXACO Model of Personality Structure. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 150–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868306294907 Beller, J., & Bosse, S. (2017). Machiavellianism has a dimensional latent structure: Results from taxometric analyses. Personality and Individual Differences, 113, 57–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.03.014 Birkás, B., Csathó, Á., Gács, B., & Bereczkei, T. (2015). Nothing ventured nothing gained: Strong associations between reward sensitivity and two measures of Machiavellianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 74, 112–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.046 Blötner, C., & Bergold, S. (2022a). 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Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9O5lk87z3E ‌ Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6 Philosophies for Life. (2024, November 26). ''Niccolò Machiavelli - 6 Powerful Ways to Command Instant Respect (and Never Be Weak Again)'' [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5nJ4XIHv5Q&t=1s Rauthmann, J. F. (2012). The Dark Triad and interpersonal perception: Similarities and differences in the social consequences of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3(4), 487–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611427608 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68 Spangler, W., & Tikhomirov, A. (2025). Personal power v. socialized power: What Machiavelli and St. Francis can tell us about modern CEOs. https://doi.org/10.64628/aai.h3apd3ujx Szabó, Z. P., Diller, S. J., Czibor, A., Restás, P., Jonas, E., & Frey, D. (2023). “One of these things is not like the others”: The associations between dark triad personality traits, work attitudes, and work-related motivation. Personality and Individual Differences, 205, 112098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2023.112098 Veselka, L., Schermer, J. A., & Vernon, P. A. (2012). The Dark Triad and an expanded framework of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(4), 417–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.01.002 Wai, M., & Tiliopoulos, N. (2012). The affective and cognitive empathic nature of the dark triad of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(7), 794–799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.01.008 White, L. K., Valos, N., Xochitl, & Willis, M. L. (2024). Machiavellianism and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Trauma Violence & Abuse, 25(5). https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380241270027 Wills, M. (2021, November). ''Machiavelli, Prince of…Democracy?'' JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/machiavelli-prince-of-democracy/ Wilson, D. S., Near, D., & Miller, R. R. (1996). Machiavellianism: A synthesis of the evolutionary and psychological literatures. Psychological Bulletin, 119(2), 285–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.285 }} {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]: ** Use "Edit source" ** <nowiki>{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}</nowiki> * Important aspects of APA referencing style ** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces ** Year of publication in parentheses ** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop ** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop ** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable) * The most common mistakes include: ** Incorrect capitalisation ** Incorrect italicisation ** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks ** Citing sources that haven't been consulted }} ==External links== Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example: * [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne) * [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com) {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Only select links to major external resources about the topic * Include the source in parentheses after the link }} [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Machiavellianism]] bwi8wfos4o225qvuts65jb39a94w220 0 331046 2834050 2834012 2026-09-20T23:11:58Z U3253363 3106362 /* Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement */ Editing the SRF section 2834050 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|self-discrepancy theory]] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|Regulatory focus theory]] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory suggests that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure x.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through contingent self-evaluations and self-handicapping. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, reflecting the motivating quality of self-concept and indicating self-concept can hinder goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 2; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should incorporate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 2.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Self-concept is an important guiding system for behaviour. Thus, self-deception through self-defensive strategies can create a dysfunctional self-concept which can have detrimental effects on emotional wellbeing and behaviour motivation. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories have thus far detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes there are different types of motivation, influenced by three innate needs, competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Ryan and Deci (2020) suggest behavioural regulation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. This includes external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 2). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept. This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 2, Van den Broeck et al., 2021).   '''Table 2''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In this study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures of perceived teacher support, STEM identity and STEM interest reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' autonomy, competence and relatedness. This resulted in increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. This indicates self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Marsh, H. W., Seaton, M., Dicke, T., Parker, P. D., & Horwood, M. S. (2019). The centrality of academic self-concept to motivation and learning. In K. A. Renninger, & S. E. Hidi (Eds.), ''The Cambridge handbook of motivation and learning'' (pp. 36-62). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316823279.004 Mason, T. B., Smith, K. E., Engwall, A., Lass, A., Mead, M., Sorby, M., Bjorlie, K., Strauman, T. J., & Wonderlich, S. (2019). Self-discrepancy theory as a transdiagnostic framework: A meta-analysis of self-discrepancy and psychopathology. ''Psychological Bulletin, 145''(4), 372–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000186 Morris, L. S., Grehl, M. M., Rutter, S. B., Mehta, M., & Westwater, M. L. (2022). On what motivates us: A detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation. ''Psychological Medicine, 52''(10), 1801–1816. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611 Nurra, C., & Oyserman, D. (2018). 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''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61'', 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2022). Self-determination theory. In F. Maggino (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research'' (pp. 1–7). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2630-2 Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. ''Journal of Educational Psychology, 114''(3), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706 Seaton, M., Parker, P., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). The reciprocal relations between self-concept, motivation and achievement: Juxtaposing academic self-concept and achievement goal orientations for mathematics success. ''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] d713f3jbrhcaptf1soq426n69nhoziz 2834051 2834050 2026-09-20T23:20:57Z U3253363 3106362 /* How the self directs and energises behaviour */ Copy editing. 2834051 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 2; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should incorporate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 2.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Self-concept is an important guiding system for behaviour. Thus, self-deception through self-defensive strategies can create a dysfunctional self-concept which can have detrimental effects on emotional wellbeing and behaviour motivation. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories have thus far detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes there are different types of motivation, influenced by three innate needs, competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Ryan and Deci (2020) suggest behavioural regulation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. This includes external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 2). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept. This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 2, Van den Broeck et al., 2021).   '''Table 2''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In this study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures of perceived teacher support, STEM identity and STEM interest reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' autonomy, competence and relatedness. This resulted in increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. This indicates self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] gaqwi0kkwzwliai2jd6cchsl4qz7f45 2834052 2834051 2026-09-20T23:30:14Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ 2834052 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Thus, self-deception through self-defensive strategies can create a dysfunctional self-concept which can have detrimental effects on emotional wellbeing and behaviour motivation. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories have thus far detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes there are different types of motivation, influenced by three innate needs, competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Ryan and Deci (2020) suggest behavioural regulation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. This includes external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 2). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept. This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 2, Van den Broeck et al., 2021).   '''Table 2''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In this study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures of perceived teacher support, STEM identity and STEM interest reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' autonomy, competence and relatedness. This resulted in increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. This indicates self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] iupukmg2kl6m7jhsf8kpml6owqte4lw 2834053 2834052 2026-09-20T23:43:24Z U3253363 3106362 /* How does motivation influence self-concept? */ Copy editing. 2834053 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Thus, self-deception through self-defensive strategies can create a dysfunctional self-concept which can have detrimental effects on emotional wellbeing and behaviour motivation. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. Self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] ne41m9iz86xrfj11139dk6mkclcmihw 2834057 2834053 2026-09-20T23:56:05Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ 2834057 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. Self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] 0ef69af7ifrbevs0o8bformhi88iobm 2834062 2834057 2026-09-21T00:03:14Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ added quiz 2834062 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{Robelbox|theme=5|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> True or false: Self-concept always generates motivation to succeed. |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. Self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] 7fyr5kb60p221hkqpv2p34wzizqa5ux 2834064 2834062 2026-09-21T00:06:16Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ changed quiz box style 2834064 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> True or false: Self-concept always generates motivation to succeed. |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. Self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] n9f3diy9zztf3bj5m9d84m95ojuefvk 2834067 2834064 2026-09-21T00:13:45Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ Changed quiz qs to make it more challenging. Used Copilot to brainstorm. https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat/entity1-d870f6cd-4aa5-4d42-9626-ab690c041429/eyJpZCI6IlZYTmxjbFl4ZkdoMGRIQnpPaTh2YzNWaWMzUnlZWFJsTFdsdWRDNXZabVpwWTJVdVkyOXRMM3hQU1VRNll6RmpNMkppWVRFdFpqa3pNaTAwTnpVd0xUZzBNRGt0WWpZNFpUQTBNREUwWW1VNWZHRXpaVEZoTmprNUxUSTVOREV0TkRSa01pMD 2834067 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> What are self-worth contingencies? |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. Self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] 8w3px1q2zvmskuffb49x5i9zzy0caav 2834069 2834067 2026-09-21T00:14:42Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ 2834069 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept.   Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when motivational needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. Self-concept and motivation are inherently intertwined.   === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] inzi4qwq1tce14jmax5ookkvjt6g252 2834071 2834069 2026-09-21T00:22:52Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ Added figure, which I had Gemini create, and added to Wikimedia. 2834071 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] gzrvvay1ko7l2iftap97u15dsnl69jc 2834074 2834071 2026-09-21T00:29:36Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation */ 2834074 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] mntbozsp3m2n5xcajmecahxj06bqk68 2834076 2834074 2026-09-21T00:36:59Z U3253363 3106362 /* Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept */ Added quiz q for self determination theory, used copilot to brainstorm. https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat/entity1-d870f6cd-4aa5-4d42-9626-ab690c041429/eyJpZCI6IlZYTmxjbFl4ZkdoMGRIQnpPaTh2YzNWaWMzUnlZWFJsTFdsdWRDNXZabVpwWTJVdVkyOXRMM3hQU1VRNll6RmpNMkppWVRFdFpqa3pNaTAwTnpVd0xUZzBNRGt0WWpZNFpUQTBNREUwWW1VNWZEWTNOR0UwTVdZMkxUSXpZVEl0TkdZMU5DMDVaRFpqT 2834076 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] p0uzwsvriq02oqmpud1xd4vjk5tk57h 2834077 2834076 2026-09-21T00:39:11Z U3253363 3106362 /* How the self directs and energises behaviour */ 2834077 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{Robelbox|theme=12|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> {Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} - Motivation is determined primarily by physical ability. +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{Robelbox/close}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] dd636h8g63u4pyfku81ohhidb9wfbwh 2834078 2834077 2026-09-21T00:43:26Z U3253363 3106362 /* The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development */ 2834078 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of congruence, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept can help individuals make sense of and strive toward goals (Oyserman, 2024) evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. Nevertheless, these processes inform approaches to motivation-improving interventions. Effective interventions are unlikely to only target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable and high quality motivation by influencing the self-concepts that guide behaviour. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). 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Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] e742fjdfidow5006s3tlnvlijxwo44p 2834082 2834078 2026-09-21T00:49:53Z U3253363 3106362 /* Conclusion */ Refining conclusion 2834082 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. 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''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] 227vmnf7ketzjhqba7vdo4bgq8r2fot 2834083 2834082 2026-09-21T00:51:09Z U3253363 3106362 Added take home message 2834083 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014; Sewasew et al., 2018). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster ''accurate'', positive self-concepts for specific domains. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Takehome message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. 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''Psychological Review, 94''(3), 319. Higgins, E. T. (1989). Self-discrepancy theory: What patterns of self-beliefs cause people to suffer?. In ''Advances in experimental social psychology'' (Vol. 22, pp. 93–136). Academic Press. Higgins, E. T., Shah, J., & Friedman, R. (1997). Emotional responses to goal attainment: Strength of regulatory focus as moderator. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72''(3), 515–525. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.3.515 Hübner, N., Wagner, W., Zitzmann, S., & Nagengast, B. (2023). How strong is the evidence for a causal reciprocal effect? Contrasting traditional and new methods to investigate the reciprocal effects model of self-concept and achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 35'', 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09724-6 Lens, W., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2020). Motivation: About the “why” and “what for” of human behavior. In ''Psychological concepts'' (pp. 249-270). 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The centrality of academic self-concept to motivation and learning. In K. A. Renninger, & S. E. Hidi (Eds.), ''The Cambridge handbook of motivation and learning'' (pp. 36-62). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316823279.004 Mason, T. B., Smith, K. E., Engwall, A., Lass, A., Mead, M., Sorby, M., Bjorlie, K., Strauman, T. J., & Wonderlich, S. (2019). Self-discrepancy theory as a transdiagnostic framework: A meta-analysis of self-discrepancy and psychopathology. ''Psychological Bulletin, 145''(4), 372–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000186 Morris, L. S., Grehl, M. M., Rutter, S. B., Mehta, M., & Westwater, M. L. (2022). On what motivates us: A detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation. ''Psychological Medicine, 52''(10), 1801–1816. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611 Nurra, C., & Oyserman, D. (2018). From future self to current action: An identity-based motivation perspective. 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L. (2022). Self-determination theory. In F. Maggino (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research'' (pp. 1–7). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2630-2 Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. ''Journal of Educational Psychology, 114''(3), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706 Seaton, M., Parker, P., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). The reciprocal relations between self-concept, motivation and achievement: Juxtaposing academic self-concept and achievement goal orientations for mathematics success. ''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] pqydpcxdfntbownugr9vejyi0oy940s 2834084 2834083 2026-09-21T00:55:40Z U3253363 3106362 /* Conclusion */ 2834084 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another. Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (see Figure 3., Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster accurate, positive self-concepts for specific behaviours. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Take-home message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. 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L. (2022). Self-determination theory. In F. Maggino (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research'' (pp. 1–7). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2630-2 Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. ''Journal of Educational Psychology, 114''(3), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706 Seaton, M., Parker, P., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). The reciprocal relations between self-concept, motivation and achievement: Juxtaposing academic self-concept and achievement goal orientations for mathematics success. ''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] hkgployg2h20465kpt7p4xno70e4d1j 2834085 2834084 2026-09-21T00:58:25Z U3253363 3106362 /* The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development */ 2834085 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another (Marsh et al., 2019). Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (see Figure 3., Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster accurate, positive self-concepts for specific behaviours. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Take-home message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. 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The centrality of academic self-concept to motivation and learning. In K. A. Renninger, & S. E. Hidi (Eds.), ''The Cambridge handbook of motivation and learning'' (pp. 36-62). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316823279.004 Mason, T. B., Smith, K. E., Engwall, A., Lass, A., Mead, M., Sorby, M., Bjorlie, K., Strauman, T. J., & Wonderlich, S. (2019). Self-discrepancy theory as a transdiagnostic framework: A meta-analysis of self-discrepancy and psychopathology. ''Psychological Bulletin, 145''(4), 372–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000186 Morris, L. S., Grehl, M. M., Rutter, S. B., Mehta, M., & Westwater, M. L. (2022). On what motivates us: A detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation. ''Psychological Medicine, 52''(10), 1801–1816. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611 Nurra, C., & Oyserman, D. (2018). From future self to current action: An identity-based motivation perspective. 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L. (2022). Self-determination theory. In F. Maggino (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research'' (pp. 1–7). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2630-2 Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. ''Journal of Educational Psychology, 114''(3), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706 Seaton, M., Parker, P., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). The reciprocal relations between self-concept, motivation and achievement: Juxtaposing academic self-concept and achievement goal orientations for mathematics success. ''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] 93kge4old72ng1kba4tk4kmks2ee4bk 2834086 2834085 2026-09-21T01:01:20Z U3253363 3106362 /* How does self-concept shape motivation? */ 2834086 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another (Marsh et al., 2019). Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (see Figure 3., Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster accurate, positive self-concepts for specific behaviours. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Take-home message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. 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L. (2022). Self-determination theory. In F. Maggino (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research'' (pp. 1–7). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2630-2 Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. ''Journal of Educational Psychology, 114''(3), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706 Seaton, M., Parker, P., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). The reciprocal relations between self-concept, motivation and achievement: Juxtaposing academic self-concept and achievement goal orientations for mathematics success. ''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] ar6w8yl4ymjo5ca7yzx44scpwk75agv 2834087 2834086 2026-09-21T01:01:30Z U3253363 3106362 /* References */ 2834087 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == A growing body of research suggests self-concept has important motivational properties. Motivation is an internal process which initiates, directs and sustains behaviour (Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2020). Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another (Marsh et al., 2019). Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (see Figure 3., Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster accurate, positive self-concepts for specific behaviours. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Take-home message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. 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''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] i0xxzoi04llvtwskhxnq6e5x3flw0g3 2834088 2834087 2026-09-21T01:02:30Z U3253363 3106362 /* How does self-concept shape motivation? */ 2834088 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another (Marsh et al., 2019). Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (see Figure 3., Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster accurate, positive self-concepts for specific behaviours. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Take-home message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. 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V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] avq20hd5kvxsg3lupssahawbo0v0ndh 2834089 2834088 2026-09-21T01:05:28Z U3253363 3106362 /* References */ 2834089 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding how and why individuals perceive themselves the way they do, and the impacts of self-concepts, can improve the understanding of human behaviour, help foster positive self-concept and facilitate the motivational properties of self-concept.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation are both central guiding forces of behaviour. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Lack of innovation |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals are motivated to reduce discrepancies between their real and ideal selves. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. Like self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory, it suggests self-concept provides a framework for goal pursuit. Identity-based motivation theory proposes that when behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster identity-based motivation''' Identity-based motivation and self-discrepancy theory suggest interventions should not focus on outcomes as goals, but identities as motivators. Ash will have greater motivation to train for her competition if her goal is identity focused: "I am training hard because I want to be an Olympic swimmer". Whereas, she may adopt a prevention-focus and be less motivated if her goal is directed by an external reward or ought self: "I have to train to please my parents". Supporting Ash to form and recognise identity-consistent goals to strive toward her ideal self will help her feel motivated and approach challenges with creativity. {{RoundBoxBottom}} === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2786 Australian students' found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2., Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles effect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török et al., 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4., Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, resultingly, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another (Marsh et al., 2019). Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that employing different statistical models allowed results to both support and refute the finding that motivation measured by achievement influenced self-concept. Hübner et al. (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (see Figure 3., Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster accurate, positive self-concepts for specific behaviours. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Take-home message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. ''Instructional Science, 52'', 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-023-09642-8 Coudevylle, G. R., Boulley-Escriva, G., Finez, L., Eugène, K., & Robin, N. (2020). An experimental investigation of claimed self-handicapping strategies across motivational climates based on achievement goal and self-determination theories. ''Educational Psychology, 40''(8), 1002–1021. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2020.1746237 Garn, A., & Shen, B. (2015). Physical self-concept and basic psychological needs in exercise: Are there reciprocal effects? ''International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 13''(2), 169–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2014.940994 Higgins, E. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. ''Psychological Review, 94''(3), 319. Higgins, E. T. (1989). Self-discrepancy theory: What patterns of self-beliefs cause people to suffer?. In ''Advances in experimental social psychology'' (Vol. 22, pp. 93–136). Academic Press. Higgins, E. T., Shah, J., & Friedman, R. (1997). Emotional responses to goal attainment: Strength of regulatory focus as moderator. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72''(3), 515–525. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.3.515 Hübner, N., Wagner, W., Zitzmann, S., & Nagengast, B. (2023). How strong is the evidence for a causal reciprocal effect? Contrasting traditional and new methods to investigate the reciprocal effects model of self-concept and achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 35'', 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09724-6 Lietz, R., Whittaker, S., & Su, N. M. (2026). ‘It meant something about who I am’: What the lived experience of failure teaches us about designing for goal setting. ''Behaviour & Information Technology,'' 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2026.2711023 MacIntyre, P. D., & Vincze, L. (2017). Positive and negative emotions in motivation for second language learning. ''Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 7''(1), 61-88. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2017.7.1.4 Marsh, H. W., Martin, A. J., Yeung, A. S., & Craven, R. G. (2018). Chapter 6: Competence self-perceptions. In A. J. Elliot, C. S. Dweck, & D. S. Yeager (Eds.), ''Handbook of competence and motivation: Theory and application'' (pp. 85-115). Guilford Publications. Marsh, H. W., Seaton, M., Dicke, T., Parker, P. D., & Horwood, M. S. (2019). The centrality of academic self-concept to motivation and learning. In K. A. Renninger, & S. E. Hidi (Eds.), ''The Cambridge handbook of motivation and learning'' (pp. 36-62). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316823279.004 Mason, T. B., Smith, K. E., Engwall, A., Lass, A., Mead, M., Sorby, M., Bjorlie, K., Strauman, T. J., & Wonderlich, S. (2019). Self-discrepancy theory as a transdiagnostic framework: A meta-analysis of self-discrepancy and psychopathology. ''Psychological Bulletin, 145''(4), 372–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000186 Morris, L. S., Grehl, M. M., Rutter, S. B., Mehta, M., & Westwater, M. L. (2022). On what motivates us: A detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation. ''Psychological Medicine, 52''(10), 1801–1816. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611 Nurra, C., & Oyserman, D. (2018). From future self to current action: An identity-based motivation perspective. ''Self and Identity, 17''(3), 343-364. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1375003 Oyserman, D. (2015). Identity-based motivation. ''Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 38'', 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0171 Oyserman, D. (2024), Identity-based motivation and the motivational consequences of difficulty. ''Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 18'', e70028. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.70028 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61'', 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2022). Self-determination theory. In F. Maggino (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research'' (pp. 1–7). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2630-2 Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. ''Journal of Educational Psychology, 114''(3), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706 Seaton, M., Parker, P., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). The reciprocal relations between self-concept, motivation and achievement: Juxtaposing academic self-concept and achievement goal orientations for mathematics success. ''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] 74nqrekohhqkcjnt9zym0v1ojydp871 2834090 2834089 2026-09-21T01:28:48Z U3253363 3106362 /* Overview */ Copy editing. 2834090 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Self-concept and motivation:<br>How does self-concept relate to motivation?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sinclair Swimming.JPG|right|thumb|180px|'''Figure 1'''. Ash is a competitive swimmer and swims daily.]] ;Scenario Ash is a swimmer training for a national competition. Being "a swimmer" is the first thing Ash thinks of when she’s asked to describe herself and she’s eager to succeed in the upcoming competition. Ash wakes up at 4:00 am every morning to swim four kilometres (see Figure 1). Her friend Riley is always surprised by how Ash wakes up so early and swims so much. Why is Ash able to do this when many would find this a struggle? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Self-concept is an individual's understanding of who they are and how they feel about themselves. This includes a complex system of the attitudes, beliefs and judgements about oneself. Self-concept guides individuals in answering the question “who am I?” (Wehrle & Fasbender, 2018). But its importance extends beyond that. Self-concept influences thinking, feelings and behaviour. Consider self-concept an internal compass which motivates and guides how an individual navigates the world.   For Ash in the case study, being a swimmer and succeeding in the upcoming swimming competition are core to her self-concept. This guides and motivates her behaviour of swimming early every morning.   This chapter explores how the understanding of oneself influences what one is motivated to do and examines how what one repeatedly does subsequently shapes self-concept. Understanding this reciprocal relationship can help educators, coaches and individuals develop motivation around meaningful identities while reducing the risk that failure becomes a threat to personal worth.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is self-concept? *How does self-concept shape motivation? *How does motivation influence self-concept?{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding self-concept == Self-concept is a cognitive framework containing a system of self-knowledge. It is unique to, but encompasses, many of the popular “self-” constructs such as [[self-esteem]], [[w:Self-efficacy|self-efficacy]], and [[w:Self-image|self-image]]. Although each self-concept theory approaches the construct differently, several common properties emerge and provide the foundation for understanding its motivational effects (see Table 1; Marsh et al., 2019). '''Table 1''' Self-Concept Properties and Their Significance for Motivation ''[note: add back in which theory each property comes from?]'' {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Property !Significance for motivation |- |'''Multidimensional''' |Different aspects of the self motivate different behaviours |- |'''Hierarchical  ''' |General and specific domains influence each other and different behaviours |- |'''Socially developed''' |Social feedback influences which behaviours are pursued   |- |'''Dynamic''' |Self-concept changes with experience |- |'''Evaluative''' |Perceived self-worth affects responses to success/failure |- |'''Descriptive  ''' |Identity beliefs influence goals and expectations |} == How does self-concept shape motivation? == Like self-concept, motivation is multidimensional, ubiquitous and central to human behaviour (Bandhu et al., 2024). This creates an interesting intersection of properties; self-concept and motivation both influence which goals individuals pursue and responses to difficulty. This section explores how self-concept influences motivation.   === Self-discrepancy and regulatory focus theory: How the self directs and energises behaviour === Higgins' (1987) [[w:Self-discrepancy_theory|'''self-discrepancy theory''']] proposes that people have three representations of the self: the actual (who one is), ideal (who one wants to become) and ought self (who one believes others want them to be; see Table 2). Ideal and ought representations of the self set standards for one to strive toward, thus laying a framework for goal-direction. Discrepancies between parts of the self cause emotional vulnerabilities which also generate motivation (see Table 2). Actual/ideal self-discrepancies result in dejection-related emotions (e.g. frustration, dissatisfaction; Higgins, 1987). Actual/ought self-discrepancies result in agitation-related emotions (e.g. anxiety, guilt). The greater the discrepancy, the greater the emotional discomfort and thus motivation to reduce the discrepancy (Higgins, 1989). Meta-analytic findings support that greater discrepancies result in more negative emotions (Mason et al., 2019). However actual/ideal and actual/ought self-discrepancies both correlated with dejection- and agitation-related emotions, contrary to self-discrepancy theory's proposition. Further, while the negative emotions resulting from discrepancies are proposed to motivate individuals to change behaviour and reduce discrepancies, MacIntyre and Vincze (2017) suggest positive emotions have greater motivating strength than negative emotions. This suggests that while self-concepts provide frameworks for goal selection and energise behaviour, self-discrepancies may not be the most significant sources of motivation. '''Table 2''' Dimensions of the Self and Emotional Effects of Discrepancies {| class="wikitable" !Self dimension !Attribute examples !Emotional effect of discrepancy with actual self |- |Actual |Daily behaviours, beliefs | - |- |Ideal |Dreams, aspirations |Dejection-related emotions |- |Ought |Duties, obligations |Agitation-related emotions |}[[w:Regulatory_focus_theory|'''Regulatory focus theory''']] (Higgins, 1997) expands self-discrepancy theory to suggest different self-representations produce different motivational orientations. Ideal-self goals create a promotion focus, whereby one is motivated to seek positive outcomes (see Table 3). Ought-self goals create a prevention focus, whereby one is motivated to avoid negative outcomes. These regulatory focuses both positively correlated with intrinsic motivation in Wang et al.'s (2021) study of adolescent task engagement. However, promotion focus positively correlated with creativity and an innovative cognitive style, whereas a prevention focus negatively correlated with an innovative cognitive style and was characterised by error avoidance. This shows that while both orientations generate self-sustained motivation, they produce different ways to approach tasks. '''Table 3''' Self-concept's Motivational Mechanisms {| class="wikitable" |+ !Self-discrepancy !Motivational focus !Motivational mechanism !Task approach |- |Actual-ideal |Promotion |Seek positive outcomes |Creativity, innovation |- |Actual-ought |Prevention |Avoid negative outcomes |Reduced innovation, error avoidance |} Together, self-discrepancy theory and regulatory focus theory suggest individuals perceived distances from a valued self create a motivating pressure to change. Different discrepancies generate different emotions, which energise behaviour, and different thinking styles, which impacts goal engagement. Thus, what motivates each person and how they subsequently behave depends on individuals' self-concepts. === Identity-based motivation theory: How identities shape goal engagement === Oyserman’s (2024) '''[[wikipedia:Identity_based_motivation|identity-based motivation theory]]''' explains that active identities change interpretations of difficulty and thus influence motivation. The theory proposes that situations influence which aspects of self-concept are active and thus influence behaviour. When behaviour is congruent with one’s identity, challenges in completing that behaviour are interpreted as evidence the behaviour is important (Oyserman, 2015). This is because identity-congruent behaviours provide information about who one is and who one wants to become, making difficulty meaningful rather than discouraging (Oyserman, 2024). Incongruent actions that have the same challenges are interpreted as pointless. Together, this means that identities mediate motivation and help goal selection through the process of difficulty interpretation (Oyserman, 2024). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash is finding her long training sessions for the upcoming swimming competition difficult. However, when she's training, her future-self identity as an Olympic swimmer is active and helps her interpret this as a meaningful challenge. For her non-swimmer friend, Riley, these difficulties may be interpreted as evidence swimming is not for them.{{RoundBoxBottom}} Illustrating the motivating role of the self-concept within this framework, Nurra and Oyserman (2018) found that motivation to pursue future identity-relevant goals in school children, and subsequent achievement, increased when children thought about their future selves. Students were primed to think of their adult-self as near or far. Students in the adult-self-is-near group achieved significantly higher final grades than the adult-self-is-far group. These findings indicate that identifying with one’s future self can motivate goal attainment. Together, these results support identity-based motivation theory and detail that self-concept drives behaviour by defining desirable outcomes and shaping how challenges and opportunities are interpreted. === Perceived competence: The motivational power of self-evaluations === Self-concept incorporates evaluative beliefs about competence which influence how individuals approach goals. Individuals engage with goals they believe they are more capable of achieving (Marsh et al., 2019). For example, Seaton et al.'s (2014) longitudinal study of 2,786 Australian students found prior mathematics self-concept was a significant positive predictor of mastery-approach and a positive, but weaker predictor of performance-approach goal orientations. According to '''[[wikipedia:Goal_orientation|goal orientation theory]]''', a mastery goal approach involves being motivated to learn, whereas a performance goal approach is motivated by wanting to demonstrate competence (see Figure 2; Vandewalle et al., 2019). Seaton et al.'s (2014) results, therefore, suggest that domain-specific self-concepts provide a motivational foundation for how students engage with learning tasks. When students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to be motivated to learn, rather than merely demonstrate their competence to others. [[File:Mastery versus performance orientation illustration.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 2.''' Illustration of mastery and performance goal orientations.]] === Self-worth contingencies: How self-concept can undermine motivation === The theories and research discussed so far optimistically show how self-concept facilitates motivation. However, self-concept can also undermine motivation, through self-worth contingencies. '''[[wikipedia:Contingent_self-esteem#Self-esteem_and_contingent_self-worth|Self-worth contingencies]]''' refer to the standards one feels they must meet to have value as a person (Showers et al., 2015). For individuals who have highly contingent self-worth, goal attainment is closely tied to their self-concept, meaning failure threatens their self-concept. Contingent self-worth motivates pursuit of success for domains that are important for one's self-worth, but can result in avoidant behaviour and strong responses to failure. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''What are self-worth contingencies?''' |type="()"} - How you feel about yourself + Standards people feel they must meet to have value as a person - Skills needed to be successful - The ways people compare themselves to others </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} Lietz et al. (2026) qualitatively studied 17 participants' identity-shaped goals and found that failing to achieve these goals resulted in negative and severe emotional responses. Further, participants tended to attribute failure to personal shortcomings, due to how closely held the goal was to their self-concept. This resulted in reduced motivation to reattempt, or blind pursuit of the same goal without re-examining the approach (Lietz et al., 2026). This is consistent with '''[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Attribution theory and emotion|attribution theory]]''' (Weiner, 1985), which suggests that causal thinking processes, whereby one attributes outcomes to stable, uncontrollable factors, results in low motivation. Attributional styles affect self-evaluations and thus can undermine motivation when failure is attributed to stable aspects of the self (Bandhu et al., 2024). This can cause maladaptive behaviours to emerge. One such response to the threat of failure is self-handicapping. '''[[w:Self-handicapping|Self-handicapping]]''' involves creating obstacles to one's own goal so that failure may not be self-attributed (Török & Szabó, 2018). A handicap generates a plausible external explanation for an outcome other than the self. This indicates that a handicapper is willing to increase the probability of failure to protect their self-concept, demonstrating that self-concept can impact motivation by hindering goal pursuit (Coudevylle et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}'''Case study comprehension check:''' Ash cares a lot about succeeding in her swimming competition. To protect her self-concept as a successful swimmer, Ash may feign a mild illness at the competition so that any failure is attributed to her illness, rather than her competence. {{RoundBoxBottom}} Schwinger et al. (2022) found a medium negative correlation between general self-evaluations and self-handicapping and a medium positive correlation between fear of failure and self-handicapping. This highlights self-concept as an antecedent to self-handicapping and related motivations. In this study, general, rather than domain-specific measures were used. As the multidimensional theory of self-concept suggests, self-concept is a hierarchical multi-faceted construct and more specific self-concept branches are more closely related to actual behaviour (see Figure 3; Marsh et al., 2019). Accordingly, future research should investigate domain-specific measures of self-concept and fear of failure to illustrate their direct influence on self-handicapping and task motivation.[[File:Multidimensional model of self-concept diagram.png|thumb|600x600px|'''Figure 3.''' The hierarchical multidimensional model of self-concept (Marsh et al., 2019).|center]]Repeatedly self-handicapping as motivated by threats to the self-concept, may further threaten self-concept (Schwinger et al., 2022). Recurrent self-handicapping may result in patterns of underperformance which may become incorporated into one's self-concept. This is consistent with reciprocal models of self-concept development, wherein self-concept-motivated behaviours can form patterns which circularly shape self-concept; these will be explored later in this chapter. Self-handicapping demonstrates that self-concept-driven motivation is not always directed towards achieving valued outcomes. Protecting self-worth can become more important than goal engagement. Together, this research suggests self-concept can act both as a motivational resource, and motivational vulnerability. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Reduce self-threat''' As illustrated by self-handicapping, holding success as a contingency for self-worth can be damaging (Showers et al., 2015). Thus, interventions can improve wellbeing by deemphasising the extent self-worth depends on outcomes. Promoting self-compassion, diverse positive self-concept domains, self-concept flexibility, and growth-oriented interpretations of failure may therefore improve both wellbeing and motivation.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == How does motivation influence self-concept? == The research and theories so far discussed have detailed how self-concept directs and motivates behaviour. The following section explores how, and whether, this relationship works in reverse.   === Self-determination theory: How internalising motivation shapes self-concept === '''[[Self-determination theory]]''' (Ryan & Deci, 2020) proposes motivation exists on a continuum of self-determination, ranging from externally to increasingly internally regulated behaviour. The continuum consists of external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation. These motivation types are influenced by three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (see Figure 4; Ryan & Deci, 2020). Understanding the temporal progression of these needs and motivation types can provide insight into how motivational processes influence self-concept. [[File:Self-determination theory psychological needs.jpg|center|thumb|450x450px|'''Figure 4.''' Self-determination theory psychological needs.]] Intrinsic motivation refers to autonomous behaviours completed for enjoyment (see Table 4; Morris et al., 2022). Extrinsic motivation is the drive to obtain an external reward or avoid punishment (Morris et al., 2022). How self-determined one's motivations are depends on the extent to which one has internalised the values, beliefs and perceptions of the behaviour into their self-concept. Meeting the needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness supports motivations to become progressively internalised, and behaviour increasingly self-endorsed (Chiu, 2023). But it should be noted that this process does not necessarily occur in a fixed sequence. This illustrates how self-concept and motivation reciprocally form one another. The degree to which one identifies with a behaviour shapes their motivation to engage with the behaviour; when needs are met, motivated behaviours and psychological processes shape the self-concept (Van den Broeck et al., 2021). This internalisation process helps explain how Ash came to identify as a swimmer (see Table 4).   '''Table 4''' Applying Self-Determination Theory to Ash's Motivation and Self-Concept Development. {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" !Type of motivation !Ash's circumstances   !Mechanism |- |External regulation |Ash received a lollipop after swimming lessons.   |Non-self-determined drive.   |- |Introjected regulation |Ash wants her parents to think she is dedicated to swimming. |Partially internalised extrinsic motivation, low self-determination.   |- |Identified regulation |Swimming becomes important to Ash as she starts feeling like a good swimmer (competence) and drives herself to training (autonomy).   |More internalised and self-determined. |- |Integrated regulation |Ash starts to identify as a swimmer and with her swim team (relatedness).   |Fully integrated into self-concept. Highly self-determined but performed for valued outcome not enjoyment. |- |Intrinsic motivation |After the swimming competition, Ash continues swimming for the joy of it.   |Fully autonomous motivation for enjoyment. |} Chiu (2023) provided compelling evidence for how motivation shapes self-concept within the context of self-determination theory. In their study, 342 Hong Kong high school students completed STEM activities taught using a standard teaching approach or a self-determination theory teaching method, focusing on supporting needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (see Figure 4). Self-report measures reflected that the needs-supporting teaching approach increased students' feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness; and, consequently, increased STEM identity and interest. This supports the developmental pathway of self-determination theory proposed whereby fulfilling core psychological needs promotes more autonomous motivation and thus develops one's identity. Further supporting this relationship, Yip et al.'s (2024) longitudinal study of 236 anti-poverty activists who completed self-reported social attitudes and personality measures at two timepoints found that increases in self-determined motivations positively correlated with group identification. However, non-self-determined motivations, such as external regulation, did not correlate with group identification. This suggests that self-determined motivation facilitates the incorporation of behaviour and group membership into one's self-concept.   Together, self-determination theory suggests self-concepts develop as values and behaviours are progressively internalised. Ash was not initially motivated because she identified as a swimmer. Her repeated engagement in swimming gradually transformed swimming into part of her identity. This demonstrates that motivation can be a mechanism through which self-concept develops and is not simply a motivating force. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}} <quiz display=simple> '''Which statement best reflects how motivation shapes self-concept?''' |type="()"} - People are only motivated to engage in behaviours that are part of their self-concept. - Self-concept does not change through motivational processes. + Repeated engagement with a behaviour and satisfaction of psychological needs gradually makes a behaviour part of one's self-concept. </quiz>{{RoundBoxBottom}} === The reciprocal effects model: The cyclical process of motivation and self-concept development === The '''reciprocal effects model''' proposes that self-concept and achievement reinforce one another over time (Marsh et al., 2018). Individuals with stronger self-concepts tend to achieve more highly, while achievement experiences subsequently shape self-concept. Motivation plays an important role in this process, by influencing how individuals behave toward achievement experiences. There is a growing body of research investigating this model. For example, Sewasew et al.'s (2018) longitudinal study with 2,342 German high schoolers demonstrated mathematics self-concept was positively correlated with mathematics achievement. The effect of achievement on self-concept was moderated by motivational constructs of goal approach theory (Vandewalle et al., 2019). Their study highlighted a mutually dependent relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, each mediated by motivation. However, Garn and Shen's (2015) longitudinal study of 329 participants found motivational needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) posited by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2022) did not predict physical self-concept at follow ups. Physical self-concept was only supported as an antecedent to exercise motivation. This result conflicts the reciprocal effects model and may be explained by the timeframe of the study. An explanation for why no reciprocal effect was identified here when they were in Sewasew et al.'s (2018) study of mathematical self-concept is that reciprocal effects may be domain specific. The multidimensional model suggests academic and physical self-concepts function independently, meaning findings from one domain may not generalise to another (Marsh et al., 2019). Similarly, Sorjonen et al. (2024) reanalysed meta-analytic results (Wu et al., 2021) which had provided evidence for the reciprocal effects model. Sorjonen et al. (2024) found that conclusions about the longitudinal relationship between achievement and academic self-concept changed depending on the statistical model used. Hübner et al.'s (2023) support for the reciprocal effects model was also inconsistent between statistical models. This may indicate a spurious correlation that undermines the credibility of the reciprocal effects model. Taken together, these findings suggest that achievement can shape self-concept, but the strength and direction of this relationship may depend on the domain being examined and the methodological approach used. Although the reciprocal effects model remains influential, current evidence indicates that the relationship between motivation, achievement, and self-concept is more complex than originally proposed. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=9}}'''Intervention application: Foster domain-specific self-concept''' The multidimensional model (see Figure 3., Marsh et al., 2019) suggests behaviour and outcomes are more closely linked to specific domains of self-concept than general self-concepts (Seaton et al., 2014). Therefore, motivational self-concept interventions should target specific behaviours and identities, not global self-concept. However, it is important for interventions to foster accurate, positive self-concepts for specific behaviours. As Vu et al. (2024) note, only enhancing self-concept may reduce learning effort and thus negatively impact achievement, consequently impacting self-concept. Similarly, findings challenging the reciprocal effects model indicate that self-concept interventions should be combined with genuine opportunities for achievement (Sewasew et al., 2018; Sorjonen et al., 2024). This means interventions should focus on developing accurate positive beliefs about subject-specific capabilities, through achievement opportunities, rather than broadly encouraging feeling good about oneself.{{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conclusion == Self-concept is one's internal perception of oneself. Self-concept acts as a guiding compass that motivates and directs behaviours through processes of self-discrepancies, perceived self-competence, and responses to failure. While self-concept shapes how individuals approach goals (Oyserman, 2024), evaluations of competence (Vandewalle et al., 2019) and contingencies of self-worth (Showers et al., 2015) can undermine motivation. These processes provide insight that motivation-improving interventions should not solely target behaviour. Rather, interventions that shape how individuals understand themselves may produce more sustainable motivation. Motivation and subsequent behaviours also form self-concept through internalisation processes when psychological needs are met, as proposed by the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2020). However, inconsistent support for the reciprocal effects model (Garn & Shen, 2015; Sewasew et al., 2018) emphasises that motivation may not have as great a role in shaping self-concept as once thought, underscoring the complexity of these processes. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Take-home message''' With self-concept and motivation inherently linked, who one believes they are shapes the goals they pursue, while motivations, behaviours, and experiences continually reshape who one becomes. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop|theme=11|title=Quiz}}<quiz display=simple> {'''Chapter comprehension check quiz:''' Ash wakes up at 4:00 a.m. each day to train because being a swimmer is a central part of her identity. According to the chapter, what best explains Ash's motivation? |type="()"} +Self-concept acts as an internal compass that guides goals and behaviour. -Motivation is caused only by external rewards and punishment. -Self-concept remains fixed and has little influence on actions. </quiz> {{RoundBoxBottom}} == See also == * [[wikipedia:Self-concept|Self-concept]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Self-concept clarity|Self-concept clarity]] (Book chapter, 2019) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Self-efficacy and motivation|Self-efficacy and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2014) == References == {{Hanging indent|Bandhu, D., Mohan, M. M., Nittala, N. A. P., Jadhav, P., Bhadauria, A., & Saxena, K. K. (2024). Theories of motivation: A comprehensive analysis of human behavior drivers. ''Acta Psychologica, 244'', 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104177 Chiu, T.K. (2023). Using self-determination theory (SDT) to explain student STEM interest and identity development. ''Instructional Science, 52'', 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-023-09642-8 Coudevylle, G. R., Boulley-Escriva, G., Finez, L., Eugène, K., & Robin, N. (2020). An experimental investigation of claimed self-handicapping strategies across motivational climates based on achievement goal and self-determination theories. ''Educational Psychology, 40''(8), 1002–1021. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2020.1746237 Garn, A., & Shen, B. (2015). Physical self-concept and basic psychological needs in exercise: Are there reciprocal effects? ''International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 13''(2), 169–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2014.940994 Higgins, E. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. ''Psychological Review, 94''(3), 319. Higgins, E. T. (1989). Self-discrepancy theory: What patterns of self-beliefs cause people to suffer?. In ''Advances in experimental social psychology'' (Vol. 22, pp. 93–136). Academic Press. Higgins, E. T., Shah, J., & Friedman, R. (1997). Emotional responses to goal attainment: Strength of regulatory focus as moderator. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72''(3), 515–525. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.3.515 Hübner, N., Wagner, W., Zitzmann, S., & Nagengast, B. (2023). How strong is the evidence for a causal reciprocal effect? Contrasting traditional and new methods to investigate the reciprocal effects model of self-concept and achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 35'', 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09724-6 Lietz, R., Whittaker, S., & Su, N. M. (2026). ‘It meant something about who I am’: What the lived experience of failure teaches us about designing for goal setting. ''Behaviour & Information Technology,'' 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2026.2711023 MacIntyre, P. D., & Vincze, L. (2017). Positive and negative emotions in motivation for second language learning. ''Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 7''(1), 61-88. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2017.7.1.4 Marsh, H. W., Martin, A. J., Yeung, A. S., & Craven, R. G. (2018). Chapter 6: Competence self-perceptions. In A. J. Elliot, C. S. Dweck, & D. S. Yeager (Eds.), ''Handbook of competence and motivation: Theory and application'' (pp. 85-115). Guilford Publications. Marsh, H. W., Seaton, M., Dicke, T., Parker, P. D., & Horwood, M. S. (2019). The centrality of academic self-concept to motivation and learning. In K. A. Renninger, & S. E. Hidi (Eds.), ''The Cambridge handbook of motivation and learning'' (pp. 36-62). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316823279.004 Mason, T. B., Smith, K. E., Engwall, A., Lass, A., Mead, M., Sorby, M., Bjorlie, K., Strauman, T. J., & Wonderlich, S. (2019). Self-discrepancy theory as a transdiagnostic framework: A meta-analysis of self-discrepancy and psychopathology. ''Psychological Bulletin, 145''(4), 372–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000186 Morris, L. S., Grehl, M. M., Rutter, S. B., Mehta, M., & Westwater, M. L. (2022). On what motivates us: A detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation. ''Psychological Medicine, 52''(10), 1801–1816. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611 Nurra, C., & Oyserman, D. (2018). From future self to current action: An identity-based motivation perspective. ''Self and Identity, 17''(3), 343-364. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1375003 Oyserman, D. (2015). Identity-based motivation. ''Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 38'', 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0171 Oyserman, D. (2024), Identity-based motivation and the motivational consequences of difficulty. ''Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 18'', e70028. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.70028 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61'', 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2022). Self-determination theory. In F. Maggino (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research'' (pp. 1–7). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2630-2 Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2022). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. ''Journal of Educational Psychology, 114''(3), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706 Seaton, M., Parker, P., Marsh, H. W., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). The reciprocal relations between self-concept, motivation and achievement: Juxtaposing academic self-concept and achievement goal orientations for mathematics success. ''Educational Psychology, 34''(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.825232 Sewasew, D., Schroeders, U., Schiefer, I. M., Weirich, S., & Artelt, C. (2018). Development of sex differences in math achievement, self-concept, and interest from grade 5 to 7. ''Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54'', 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.05.003 Showers, C. J., Ditzfeld, C. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Self-concept structure and the quality of self-knowledge. ''Journal of Personality, 83''(5), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12130 Sorjonen, K., Ingre, M., Melin, B., & Nilsonne, G. (2024). Questioning the reciprocal effects model of academic self-concept and achievement: A reanalysis of a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and a simulation. ''Sage Open, 14''(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241292826 Török, L., & Szabó, Z. P. (2018). The theory of self-handicapping: Forms, influencing factors and measurement. ''Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 62''(2), 173-188. Van Den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation. ''Organizational Psychology Review, 11''(3), 240–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866211006173 Vandewalle, D., Nerstad, C. G., & Dysvik, A. (2019). Goal orientation: A review of the miles traveled and the miles to go. ''Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6''(1), 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062547 Vu, T. V., Scharmer, A. L., van Triest, E., van Atteveldt, N., & Meeter, M. (2024). The reciprocity between various motivation constructs and academic achievement: Asystematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. ''Educational Psychology, 44''(2), 136–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960 Wang, L., Cui, Y., Wang, X., Wang, J., Du, K., & Luo, Z. (2021). Regulatory focus, motivation, and their relationship with creativity among adolescents. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 12'', 666071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666071 Wehrle, K., & Fasbender, U. (2018). Self-concept. In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T. (Eds.), ''Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences'' (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2001-1 Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. ''Psychological Review, 92''(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548 Wu H., Guo Y., Yang Y., Zhao L., & Guo C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the longitudinal relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement. ''Educational Psychology Review, 33''(4), 1749–1778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09600-1 Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Amiot, C., Louis, W. R., & McGarty, C. (2024). Autonomous motives foster sustained commitment to action: Integrating self-determination theory and the social identity approach. ''Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50''(5), 750-765. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221148396 }} == External links == * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-self-concept-the-secret-to-changing-who-you-are/ Being well podcast: Self-concept: The secret to changing WHO you are] (Being Well Podcast) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck7lP-6C2g Unlocking success: The power of self-efficacy and self-concept] (TEDx Talks) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Self-concept]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] 615oub6khw4m1zgmf0meio2ghsdjj42 2 331051 2834072 2834001 2026-09-21T00:25:15Z U3253363 3106362 2834072 wikitext text/x-wiki == About me == Hi, my name is [https://www.linkedin.com/in/pepper-white/ Pepper]. I am a third-year Bachelor of Science in Psychology student at the [https://www.canberra.edu.au/ University of Canberra]. I am passionate about preventative mental health care and supporting those in need. This passion motivates me in my studies and at work. === Work experience === * '''Mental Health Educator''' with [https://mieact.org.au/ Mental Illness Education ACT]. In this role, I facilitate discussions about [[Stress (psychological)|stress]], [https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/depression?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21934835275&gbraid=0AAAAADuibRbKbycJc05RErZ8UMCld1aGB&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkOvTBhDgARIsAKUNyRuK4CGO5WdRCpr1RDshuiDIlyi_ZwRe8ZFfvAygSGrvK0TbjFm7VtYaAkf8EALw_wcB depression], and [[wikipedia:Help-seeking|help-seeking]] with ACT school students. * '''Student Advocate''' in the [https://www.canberra.edu.au/content/myuc/home/support/student-advocacy-and-src/student-advocacy.html Student Advocacy Office] at the University of Canberra. In this role, I help my peer university students navigate university policies and procedures. === Hobbies === * [[wikipedia:Oil_painting|Oil painting]] * Figure drawing * Running * Playing water polo with the [https://www.revolutionise.com.au/dragonswp/home/ Gungahlin Dragons Water Polo Club] * Travelling == Book chapter == The book chapter I am writing is [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Self-concept and motivation|Self-concept and motivation]]. The chapter navigates the question "How does self-concept relate to motivation?" I chose this topic to explore due to my fascination with how the perception of oneself can influence one's behaviour. == Social contributions == My approach for social contributions has been to edit or comment on a peer's page every time I work on my own book chapter. My hope is that this approach helps me stay engaged with others' ideas and contribute as regularly to others' work as I do my own. # I engaged with conversations in a [https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/455261?entry_id=804001 discussion post] on Canvas about topics of interest within motivation and emotion. My goal with this post was to take inititative by being an early contributor to help build a sense of comfort and normality amongst the group. I also hope by posting some topics of interest, others may feel inspired by these focus areas, thus helping them choose their book chapter topic. # In familiarising myself with Wikiversity, I read the Spirituality and resilience 2025 book chapter. I noticed the writing required edits for readability, so I [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FSpirituality_and_resilience&diff=2824208&oldid=2774009 edited the first two paragraphs] of the overview. I fixed spelling, grammar, and wording issues. This is an important fix to help capture the reader’s attention and demonstrate credibility when the audience begins reading. # I went through the topics others have chosen and the topic “Empathy and jury decision-making" caught my attention. I [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AMotivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FEmpathy_and_jury_decision-making#Exploring_empathy_within_similar_contexts commented] on this book chapter with some additional ideas from my own passion about researching empathy to support this students’ topic development. # To better illustrate the multidimensional model of self-concept Marsh et al. (1992), which I refer to in my book chapter, I [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AMultidimensional_model_of_self-concept_diagram.png&diff=1265404333&oldid=1265404322 created a diagram and uploaded it to Wikimedia]. # I looked through the book chapter "Empathy and jury decision-making" and [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FEmpathy_and_jury_decision-making&diff=2826959&oldid=2824982 made edits] to the ordering of citations within a bracket in the conclusion to ensure they were alphabetical. # I read the book chapter "Falling in love" and [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AMotivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FFalling_in_love#Interesting_theories_to_incorporate suggested a few theories and angles to explore] within this fascinating topic. # I read the book chapter "Charismatic leadership and follower motivation" and [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Charismatic leadership and follower motivation#Interesting real-life case study to consider incorporating|suggested exploring the Jonestown cult]] as a real life case study to give insight into the extreme side of charismatic leadership and follower motivation. # To connect with others also writing 'self-' related chapters, I read the book chapter "Possible selves and goal pursuit". I identified areas which may require more research and [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Possible selves and goal pursuit#c-U3253363-20260909032900-Jshottt-20260827141800|posted on their discussion forum]] some of the research I have been using which could be relevant to their chapter. # I reviewed the book chapter "Love styles and relationship satisfaction" and [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FLove_styles_and_relationship_satisfaction&diff=2832497&oldid=2759229 made stylistic and grammatical edits throughout,] in particular I fixed capitalisation to sentence casing in headings and fixed the broken Wiki links. # I [https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/461216?entry_id=816875 suggested an easy and new way to check your chapter's word count] in a Canvas discussion board. # In reviewing a chapter of interest to me, Volunteer counsellor motivation: Difference between revisions, I noticed the scenario being used did not involve a made up person or factual story, it instead had an introduction to a theory. To help the author catch the reader's attention, I [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FVolunteer_counsellor_motivation&diff=2833605&oldid=2832761 added a suggestion for a scenario] which involves a concrete case and a real person to help the reader connect immediately with the chapter. # I read the drafted book chapter called Body neutrality and emotional wellbeing and noticed headings need to be [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FBody_neutrality_and_emotional_well-being&diff=2833988&oldid=2830006 adjusted to sentence case,] so I assisted the author by fixing this up. # To better illustrate goal orientation theory when I reference it in my book chapter, I tried [[c:File:Mastery_versus_performance_orientation_illustration.jpg|making a diagram using Gemini and uploaded it to WikiMedia]]. # I tried searching for a clipart-style image to support readers' understanding of self-determination theory's psychological needs but could not find one. So, I used [[c:File:Self-determination_theory_psychological_needs.jpg|Gemini to help me create a diagram and uploaded it to WikiMedia]]. 7otyl3uk3jlgrk69z9hdvwevubwfoys 2834094 2834072 2026-09-21T01:48:43Z U3253363 3106362 2834094 wikitext text/x-wiki == About me == Hi, my name is [https://www.linkedin.com/in/pepper-white/ Pepper]. I am a third-year Bachelor of Science in Psychology student at the [https://www.canberra.edu.au/ University of Canberra]. I am passionate about preventative mental health care and supporting those in need. This passion motivates me in my studies and at work. === Work experience === * '''Mental Health Educator''' with [https://mieact.org.au/ Mental Illness Education ACT]. In this role, I facilitate discussions about [[Stress (psychological)|stress]], [https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/depression?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21934835275&gbraid=0AAAAADuibRbKbycJc05RErZ8UMCld1aGB&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkOvTBhDgARIsAKUNyRuK4CGO5WdRCpr1RDshuiDIlyi_ZwRe8ZFfvAygSGrvK0TbjFm7VtYaAkf8EALw_wcB depression], and [[wikipedia:Help-seeking|help-seeking]] with ACT school students. * '''Student Advocate''' in the [https://www.canberra.edu.au/content/myuc/home/support/student-advocacy-and-src/student-advocacy.html Student Advocacy Office] at the University of Canberra. In this role, I help my peer university students navigate university policies and procedures. === Hobbies === * [[wikipedia:Oil_painting|Oil painting]] * Figure drawing * Running * Playing water polo with the [https://www.revolutionise.com.au/dragonswp/home/ Gungahlin Dragons Water Polo Club] * Travelling == Book chapter == The book chapter I am writing is [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Self-concept and motivation|Self-concept and motivation]]. The chapter navigates the question "How does self-concept relate to motivation?" I chose this topic to explore due to my fascination with how the perception of oneself can influence one's behaviour. == Social contributions == My approach for social contributions has been to edit or comment on a peer's page every time I work on my own book chapter. My hope is that this approach helps me stay engaged with others' ideas and contribute as regularly to others' work as I do my own. # I engaged with conversations in a [https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/455261?entry_id=804001 discussion post] on Canvas about topics of interest within motivation and emotion. My goal with this post was to take inititative by being an early contributor to help build a sense of comfort and normality amongst the group. I also hope by posting some topics of interest, others may feel inspired by these focus areas, thus helping them choose their book chapter topic. # In familiarising myself with Wikiversity, I read the Spirituality and resilience 2025 book chapter. I noticed the writing required edits for readability, so I [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FSpirituality_and_resilience&diff=2824208&oldid=2774009 edited the first two paragraphs] of the overview. I fixed spelling, grammar, and wording issues. This is an important fix to help capture the reader’s attention and demonstrate credibility when the audience begins reading. # I went through the topics others have chosen and the topic “Empathy and jury decision-making" caught my attention. I [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AMotivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FEmpathy_and_jury_decision-making#Exploring_empathy_within_similar_contexts commented] on this book chapter with some additional ideas from my own passion about researching empathy to support this students’ topic development. # To better illustrate the multidimensional model of self-concept Marsh et al. (1992), which I refer to in my book chapter, I [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AMultidimensional_model_of_self-concept_diagram.png&diff=1265404333&oldid=1265404322 created a diagram and uploaded it to Wikimedia]. # I looked through the book chapter "Empathy and jury decision-making" and [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FEmpathy_and_jury_decision-making&diff=2826959&oldid=2824982 made edits] to the ordering of citations within a bracket in the conclusion to ensure they were alphabetical. # I read the book chapter "Falling in love" and [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AMotivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FFalling_in_love#Interesting_theories_to_incorporate suggested a few theories and angles to explore] within this fascinating topic. # I read the book chapter "Charismatic leadership and follower motivation" and [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Charismatic leadership and follower motivation#Interesting real-life case study to consider incorporating|suggested exploring the Jonestown cult]] as a real life case study to give insight into the extreme side of charismatic leadership and follower motivation. # To connect with others also writing 'self-' related chapters, I read the book chapter "Possible selves and goal pursuit". I identified areas which may require more research and [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Possible selves and goal pursuit#c-U3253363-20260909032900-Jshottt-20260827141800|posted on their discussion forum]] some of the research I have been using which could be relevant to their chapter. # I reviewed the book chapter "Love styles and relationship satisfaction" and [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FLove_styles_and_relationship_satisfaction&diff=2832497&oldid=2759229 made stylistic and grammatical edits throughout,] in particular I fixed capitalisation to sentence casing in headings and fixed the broken Wiki links. # I [https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/461216?entry_id=816875 suggested an easy and new way to check your chapter's word count] in a Canvas discussion board. # In reviewing a chapter of interest to me, Volunteer counsellor motivation: Difference between revisions, I noticed the scenario being used did not involve a made up person or factual story, it instead had an introduction to a theory. To help the author catch the reader's attention, I [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FVolunteer_counsellor_motivation&diff=2833605&oldid=2832761 added a suggestion for a scenario] which involves a concrete case and a real person to help the reader connect immediately with the chapter. # I read the drafted book chapter called Body neutrality and emotional wellbeing and noticed headings need to be [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FBody_neutrality_and_emotional_well-being&diff=2833988&oldid=2830006 adjusted to sentence case,] so I assisted the author by fixing this up. # To better illustrate goal orientation theory when I reference it in my book chapter, I tried [[c:File:Mastery_versus_performance_orientation_illustration.jpg|making a diagram using Gemini and uploaded it to WikiMedia]]. # I tried searching for a clipart-style image to support readers' understanding of self-determination theory's psychological needs but could not find one. So, I used [[c:File:Self-determination_theory_psychological_needs.jpg|Gemini to help me create a diagram and uploaded it to WikiMedia]]. # I read the textbook chapter, Relatedness motivation in self-determination theory, and noticed the scenario warranted a few minor edits for readability, so [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FRelatedness_motivation_in_self-determination_theory&diff=2834093&oldid=2833064 I made some wording adjustments and added a more complete caption] to the scenario figure. mku1kqn3uimsa5q00jjfafvxez82m7f 0 331097 2834141 2833547 2026-09-21T09:03:46Z StretchBeyond 3105744 Prompted by a UC Canvas post I reviewed the chapter and will provide written feedback, but I also assisted author by correcting some paragraph subheading spaces and use of sub title headings to support creation of the menu on the left. 2834141 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Hypothalamus and homeostatic motivation:<br>How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related motivations?}} __TOC__ == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} ;Picture this You wake up late and sprint to university. There is no time for breakfast. You also skip water. For a short while, you can still sit in class and try to follow the lecture. Then the hours pass. Your body starts to push back. Your mouth feels rough and dry. Your stomach is upset and empty. You look at the slides, but your mind keeps drifting to where you might get something to eat or drink. At first it is just a small problem. Soon it feels like a strong pull. It changes how you think, where your focus goes, and what you end up doing. These small body signals show that basic needs can drive your choices. When your inner balance slips, your brain notices it. Neural activity then turns on so you are more likely to act in a way that helps you get back to normal. Feeling hungry pushes you to look for food. Feeling thirsty pushes you to find water. The hypothalamus is a key part of this. It takes in info about how your body is doing. It also helps set up the body responses and the actions that match the situation. Special neural pathways in this area help run hunger and thirst. They also support other survival urges, which helps the body stay stable. {{RoundBoxBottom}} The hypothalamus is a small region of the brain that plays an important role in maintaining hypothalamus, which is the body's ability to keep its internal conditions relatively stable. Biological needs such as hunger and thirst can become powerful sources of motivation when the body's internal conditions move away from balance. Hypothalamic and related neural circuits detect and integrate physiological information and contribute to behaviours such as eating and drinking that help restore energy and fluid balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017; Zimmerman et al., 2017). Understanding these processes is important because hunger and thirst are fundamental survival-related motivations that can strongly influence behaviour. Neuroscience research indicates that these motivations involve specialised and interconnected neural circuits that respond to physiological need and help generate appropriate consumption behaviours (Augustine et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is homeostasis and how does the hypothalamus contribute to its regulation? *How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger and eating behaviour? *How do neural circuits regulate thirst and drinking behaviour? *How do hormones and physiological signals communicate biological needs to the hypothalamus? *How do hypothalamic systems transform biological needs into motivated survival behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis is how the body keeps its internal conditions within limits that work for daily life. It is not a fixed state. The body makes adjustments so the range stays workable. A key brain area here is the hypothalamus. It takes in signals about what is happening inside the body. Then it helps line up the needed responses, both physical and behavioural. If the internal conditions drift too far from the set range, the body reacts. Those reactions can create strong urges. That is when drives like eating or drinking can show up. * Even when the body or the surroundings change, homeostasis aims to hold things steady. * The hypothalamus also gathers input from more than one source. It uses signals from nerves, hormones, and metabolic processes. * Not all parts of the hypothalamus do the same job. Different nuclei and groups of neurons link to different functions. Some shifts affect bodily regulation, while others shape motivation * When balance is disrupted, motivation can rise. Those urges steer actions that help bring the body back toward the right conditions. [[File:Hypothalamus in coronal view.jpg|thumb|140x140px|'''Figure 2'''. Sagittal diagram of the hypothalamus showing major nuclei involved in regulating physiological and survival-related processes, including the arcuate, ventromedial, paraventricular, supraoptic, anterior, posterior, and dorsomedial nuclei.]] == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis means your body keeps its internal conditions within a safe range. This helps you work the way you should. The hypothalamus is key here. It takes in data about what is going on inside the body. Then it helps set off the right body actions. Those actions can include shifts in body functions and changes in behaviour. If things drift too far from the normal range, the body does not just “notice” it. Homeostatic systems can also push you toward certain urges. Those urges can lead to actions like eating or drinking. * Homeostasis helps maintain relatively stable internal conditions despite changes within the body or environment. * The hypothalamus integrates neural, hormonal, and metabolic information involved in homeostatic regulation (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * The hypothalamus contains several specialised nuclei that contribute to different aspects of physiological and homeostatic regulation (see Figure 2). * Homeostatic disturbances can produce motivational states that encourage behaviours capable of restoring biological balance (Augustine et al., 2020). === ''Hypothalamic regulation of hunger'' === Hunger is a biological motivational state that encourages food-seeking and eating behaviour when the body requires energy. Rather than being controlled by a single "hunger centre", feeding behaviour involves interacting neural populations that receive information about the body's energy state and contribute to appropriate behavioural responses ==== '''''Hunger and energy balance''''' ==== * Your central nervous system gets signals about how much energy is available. It does this using nutrients, nerve messages, and hormones in the blood. * Part of the hypothalamus helps steer both eating and how fast the body uses energy. This work supports a stable energy balance, as described by Timper and Brüning in 2017. * When you feel hunger, food may start to feel more valuable. That feeling can push you toward actions like looking for food, moving toward it, and eating it. * Biology matters, but it is not the only thing. Food choice and eating can also shift with reward, past experiences, learning, and cues from the food around you. Liu and Kanoski discuss this in 2018. ==== ''The arcuate nucleus'' ==== * The arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus contains important neuronal populations involved in the regulation of appetite and energy balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * AgRP/NPY-related {{ic|explain technical terms}} neurons are associated with hunger and can promote feeding when energy availability is low. * POMC-related neurons contribute to signalling involved in reduced food intake and energy regulation. * These neuronal populations interact with other hypothalamic and extra-hypothalamic regions, showing that feeding is * regulated by an interconnected neural network rather than one isolated brain structure. ==== Ghrelin and leptin ==== * Hormones allow peripheral organs and tissues to communicate information about energy availability to the brain {{ic|hypothalamus?}}. * Ghrelin is associated with hunger signalling and can influence neural systems involved in food intake. * Leptin is produced primarily by adipose tissue and provides the brain with information related to stored energy. * Metabolic and hormonal signals such as leptin act on hypothalamic neuronal populations involved in appetite and energy homeostasis (Timper & Brüning, 2017). === Quiz === <quiz display="simple"> {The hypothalamus contains specialised neural circuits that help regulate homeostatic processes such as hunger and thirst: |type="()"} + True - False {Hunger and thirst are each controlled by a single hypothalamic “switch” that turns the motivation on or off: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> === ''Hypothalamic regulation of thirst'' === Thirst is a powerful homeostatic motivation that encourages drinking when the body's fluid balance is disturbed. Neural circuits continuously monitor physiological signals related to hydration and generate behavioural and hormonal responses that help restore fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==== '''Detecting fluid imbalance''' ==== * Your body’s hydration status shows up in several blood measurements. Blood osmolality, sodium levels, blood volume, and blood pressure all shift when you are getting more or less fluid. * The brain also has special sensory areas. Two of them are the subfornical organ, or SFO, and the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis, the OVLT. These regions help pick up changes linked to fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). * After that, these cues reach the hypothalamus and nearby pathways. Those networks help drive thirst. They also push you toward finding and drinking water. * Thirst therefore demonstrates how a physiological imbalance can be transformed into a powerful motivational state. ==== '''Drinking and anticipatory regulation''' ==== * Thirst can begin decreasing before consumed water has been fully absorbed and restored the body's fluid balance. * Sensory information associated with drinking provides rapid feedback to neural circuits involved in thirst (Zimmerman & Knight, 2020). * This anticipatory regulation allows the brain to predict how ongoing drinking will affect the body's future physiological state. * These mechanisms help prevent excessive water consumption while still allowing fluid balance to be restored. === ''Other Survival-Related Motivations'' === Although hunger and thirst provide clear examples of homeostatic motivation, the hypothalamus contributes to several other processes necessary for survival. Different hypothalamic nuclei and neural populations participate in coordinating physiological and behavioural responses according to the body's current needs. * The hypothalamus helps control body temperature, sleep, daily cycles, mating patterns, hormone balance, and reactions to stress. * Not every part of the hypothalamus does the same job. Each nucleus has its own role, and they link up with each other. So it is not one single “motivation hub” that drives everything. * When something goes wrong in the body, the priorities can shift. A person may feel a strong, short-term need, and that need can override other aims. * That is what hunger and thirst show. Signals from inside the body can create drive states. Those drives then shape actions that keep a person alive. {| class="wikitable" |+Table 1: Comparison of hunger and thirst as homeostatic motivations !Biological need !Example signals !Key neural systems !Motivated behaviour |- |Hunger |Energy availability, ghrelin, leptin |Arcuate and interconnected hypothalamic circuits |Food seeking and eating |- |Thirst |Osmolality, sodium and blood-volume signals |SFO, OVLT, MnPO {{ic|explain abbreviations}} and hypothalamic circuits |Water seeking and drinking |} As shown in Table 1, hunger and thirst involve different physiological signals and specialised neural systems, but both demonstrate how disturbances in homeostasis can generate motivated behaviour (Augustine et al., 2020; Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==Conclusion== The hypothalamus is key for keeping the body stable. It merges signals from the body and then helps drive brain and body actions. These actions can be neural, hormonal, automatic, and even behavioural. If energy levels or fluid levels shift out of range, the brain does not just react once. Instead, specific neural pathways help create a motivation to act. The goal of that motivation is to bring the body back toward balance. Studies show that hunger depends on linked hypothalamic pathways. One part of this involves neuron groups in the arcuate nucleus. These neurons react to signals tied to metabolism and hormones. They then help shape appetite and control of energy use (Timper & Brüning, 2017). Thirst seems to work in a related way. Other neural circuits pick up changes in body-fluid balance and push the body toward drinking (Zimmerman et al., 2017). Motivation here is not just a light switch. The neural systems bring together what is happening inside the body. They also pull in cues from senses, what the body expects, what is in the surroundings, and what feels rewarding (Augustine et al., 2020; Liu & Kanoski, 2018). Taken together, these hypothalamic and connected circuits turn body needs into actions that help survival and restore homeostasis === Key take-home points === * The hypothalamus helps connect physiological needs with motivated behaviour. * Specialised neural circuits contribute differently to hunger, thirst, and other homeostatic processes. * Hormonal, metabolic, sensory, and neural signals work together to communicate the body's needs. * Homeostatic motivation is flexible and interacts with learning, reward, cognition, and environmental information. * Hunger and thirst demonstrate how changes inside the body can become powerful psychological motivations. {{tip|Take-home message:The hypothalamus helps maintain homeostasis by detecting biological needs and motivating behaviours that restore balance. Specialised neural circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related processes, showing how changes within the body can strongly influence motivation and behaviour. }} ==See also== * [[Motivation and emotion/Brain structures|Brain structures]] (Wikiversity) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Homeostasis and basic drives|Homeostasis and basic drives]] (Book chapter, 2025) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Hypothalamus and motivation|Hypothalamus and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) * [[w:Homeostasis|Homeostasis]] (Wikipedia) * [[w:Hypothalamus|Hypothalamus]] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Augustine, V., Lee, S., & Oka, Y. (2020). Neural control and modulation of thirst, sodium appetite, and hunger. Cell, 180(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.040 Liu, C. M., & Kanoski, S. E. (2018). Homeostatic and non-homeostatic controls of feeding behavior: Distinct vs. common neural systems. Physiology & Behavior, 193, 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.02.011 Timper, K., & Brüning, J. C. (2017). Hypothalamic circuits regulating appetite and energy homeostasis: Pathways to obesity. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 10(6), 679–689. https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.026609 Williams, G., Bing, C., Cai, X. J., Harrold, J. A., King, P. J., & Liu, X. H. (2001). The hypothalamus and the control of energy homeostasis: Different circuits, different purposes. Physiology & Behavior, 74(4–5), 683–701. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(01)00612-6 Zimmerman, C. A., Leib, D. E., & Knight, Z. A. (2017). Neural circuits underlying thirst and fluid homeostasis. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(8), 459–469. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.71 Zimmerman, C. A., & Knight, Z. A. (2020). Layers of signals that regulate appetite. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 64, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2020.03.007 }} ==External links== * [https://www.brainfacts.org/3d-brain 3D Brain] (BrainFacts) * [https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22566-hypothalamus Hypothalamus] (Cleveland Clinic) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hypothalamus]] tf5gqx5j0aelzgkitg86jo8m3xzw17z 2834142 2834141 2026-09-21T09:04:22Z StretchBeyond 3105744 /* Hypothalamic regulation of hunger */ 2834142 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Hypothalamus and homeostatic motivation:<br>How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related motivations?}} __TOC__ == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} ;Picture this You wake up late and sprint to university. There is no time for breakfast. You also skip water. For a short while, you can still sit in class and try to follow the lecture. Then the hours pass. Your body starts to push back. Your mouth feels rough and dry. Your stomach is upset and empty. You look at the slides, but your mind keeps drifting to where you might get something to eat or drink. At first it is just a small problem. Soon it feels like a strong pull. It changes how you think, where your focus goes, and what you end up doing. These small body signals show that basic needs can drive your choices. When your inner balance slips, your brain notices it. Neural activity then turns on so you are more likely to act in a way that helps you get back to normal. Feeling hungry pushes you to look for food. Feeling thirsty pushes you to find water. The hypothalamus is a key part of this. It takes in info about how your body is doing. It also helps set up the body responses and the actions that match the situation. Special neural pathways in this area help run hunger and thirst. They also support other survival urges, which helps the body stay stable. {{RoundBoxBottom}} The hypothalamus is a small region of the brain that plays an important role in maintaining hypothalamus, which is the body's ability to keep its internal conditions relatively stable. Biological needs such as hunger and thirst can become powerful sources of motivation when the body's internal conditions move away from balance. Hypothalamic and related neural circuits detect and integrate physiological information and contribute to behaviours such as eating and drinking that help restore energy and fluid balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017; Zimmerman et al., 2017). Understanding these processes is important because hunger and thirst are fundamental survival-related motivations that can strongly influence behaviour. Neuroscience research indicates that these motivations involve specialised and interconnected neural circuits that respond to physiological need and help generate appropriate consumption behaviours (Augustine et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is homeostasis and how does the hypothalamus contribute to its regulation? *How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger and eating behaviour? *How do neural circuits regulate thirst and drinking behaviour? *How do hormones and physiological signals communicate biological needs to the hypothalamus? *How do hypothalamic systems transform biological needs into motivated survival behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis is how the body keeps its internal conditions within limits that work for daily life. It is not a fixed state. The body makes adjustments so the range stays workable. A key brain area here is the hypothalamus. It takes in signals about what is happening inside the body. Then it helps line up the needed responses, both physical and behavioural. If the internal conditions drift too far from the set range, the body reacts. Those reactions can create strong urges. That is when drives like eating or drinking can show up. * Even when the body or the surroundings change, homeostasis aims to hold things steady. * The hypothalamus also gathers input from more than one source. It uses signals from nerves, hormones, and metabolic processes. * Not all parts of the hypothalamus do the same job. Different nuclei and groups of neurons link to different functions. Some shifts affect bodily regulation, while others shape motivation * When balance is disrupted, motivation can rise. Those urges steer actions that help bring the body back toward the right conditions. [[File:Hypothalamus in coronal view.jpg|thumb|140x140px|'''Figure 2'''. Sagittal diagram of the hypothalamus showing major nuclei involved in regulating physiological and survival-related processes, including the arcuate, ventromedial, paraventricular, supraoptic, anterior, posterior, and dorsomedial nuclei.]] == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis means your body keeps its internal conditions within a safe range. This helps you work the way you should. The hypothalamus is key here. It takes in data about what is going on inside the body. Then it helps set off the right body actions. Those actions can include shifts in body functions and changes in behaviour. If things drift too far from the normal range, the body does not just “notice” it. Homeostatic systems can also push you toward certain urges. Those urges can lead to actions like eating or drinking. * Homeostasis helps maintain relatively stable internal conditions despite changes within the body or environment. * The hypothalamus integrates neural, hormonal, and metabolic information involved in homeostatic regulation (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * The hypothalamus contains several specialised nuclei that contribute to different aspects of physiological and homeostatic regulation (see Figure 2). * Homeostatic disturbances can produce motivational states that encourage behaviours capable of restoring biological balance (Augustine et al., 2020). === '''''Hypothalamic regulation of hunger''''' === Hunger is a biological motivational state that encourages food-seeking and eating behaviour when the body requires energy. Rather than being controlled by a single "hunger centre", feeding behaviour involves interacting neural populations that receive information about the body's energy state and contribute to appropriate behavioural responses ==== '''''Hunger and energy balance''''' ==== * Your central nervous system gets signals about how much energy is available. It does this using nutrients, nerve messages, and hormones in the blood. * Part of the hypothalamus helps steer both eating and how fast the body uses energy. This work supports a stable energy balance, as described by Timper and Brüning in 2017. * When you feel hunger, food may start to feel more valuable. That feeling can push you toward actions like looking for food, moving toward it, and eating it. * Biology matters, but it is not the only thing. Food choice and eating can also shift with reward, past experiences, learning, and cues from the food around you. Liu and Kanoski discuss this in 2018. ==== ''The arcuate nucleus'' ==== * The arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus contains important neuronal populations involved in the regulation of appetite and energy balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * AgRP/NPY-related {{ic|explain technical terms}} neurons are associated with hunger and can promote feeding when energy availability is low. * POMC-related neurons contribute to signalling involved in reduced food intake and energy regulation. * These neuronal populations interact with other hypothalamic and extra-hypothalamic regions, showing that feeding is * regulated by an interconnected neural network rather than one isolated brain structure. ==== Ghrelin and leptin ==== * Hormones allow peripheral organs and tissues to communicate information about energy availability to the brain {{ic|hypothalamus?}}. * Ghrelin is associated with hunger signalling and can influence neural systems involved in food intake. * Leptin is produced primarily by adipose tissue and provides the brain with information related to stored energy. * Metabolic and hormonal signals such as leptin act on hypothalamic neuronal populations involved in appetite and energy homeostasis (Timper & Brüning, 2017). === Quiz === <quiz display="simple"> {The hypothalamus contains specialised neural circuits that help regulate homeostatic processes such as hunger and thirst: |type="()"} + True - False {Hunger and thirst are each controlled by a single hypothalamic “switch” that turns the motivation on or off: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> === ''Hypothalamic regulation of thirst'' === Thirst is a powerful homeostatic motivation that encourages drinking when the body's fluid balance is disturbed. Neural circuits continuously monitor physiological signals related to hydration and generate behavioural and hormonal responses that help restore fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==== '''Detecting fluid imbalance''' ==== * Your body’s hydration status shows up in several blood measurements. Blood osmolality, sodium levels, blood volume, and blood pressure all shift when you are getting more or less fluid. * The brain also has special sensory areas. Two of them are the subfornical organ, or SFO, and the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis, the OVLT. These regions help pick up changes linked to fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). * After that, these cues reach the hypothalamus and nearby pathways. Those networks help drive thirst. They also push you toward finding and drinking water. * Thirst therefore demonstrates how a physiological imbalance can be transformed into a powerful motivational state. ==== '''Drinking and anticipatory regulation''' ==== * Thirst can begin decreasing before consumed water has been fully absorbed and restored the body's fluid balance. * Sensory information associated with drinking provides rapid feedback to neural circuits involved in thirst (Zimmerman & Knight, 2020). * This anticipatory regulation allows the brain to predict how ongoing drinking will affect the body's future physiological state. * These mechanisms help prevent excessive water consumption while still allowing fluid balance to be restored. === ''Other Survival-Related Motivations'' === Although hunger and thirst provide clear examples of homeostatic motivation, the hypothalamus contributes to several other processes necessary for survival. Different hypothalamic nuclei and neural populations participate in coordinating physiological and behavioural responses according to the body's current needs. * The hypothalamus helps control body temperature, sleep, daily cycles, mating patterns, hormone balance, and reactions to stress. * Not every part of the hypothalamus does the same job. Each nucleus has its own role, and they link up with each other. So it is not one single “motivation hub” that drives everything. * When something goes wrong in the body, the priorities can shift. A person may feel a strong, short-term need, and that need can override other aims. * That is what hunger and thirst show. Signals from inside the body can create drive states. Those drives then shape actions that keep a person alive. {| class="wikitable" |+Table 1: Comparison of hunger and thirst as homeostatic motivations !Biological need !Example signals !Key neural systems !Motivated behaviour |- |Hunger |Energy availability, ghrelin, leptin |Arcuate and interconnected hypothalamic circuits |Food seeking and eating |- |Thirst |Osmolality, sodium and blood-volume signals |SFO, OVLT, MnPO {{ic|explain abbreviations}} and hypothalamic circuits |Water seeking and drinking |} As shown in Table 1, hunger and thirst involve different physiological signals and specialised neural systems, but both demonstrate how disturbances in homeostasis can generate motivated behaviour (Augustine et al., 2020; Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==Conclusion== The hypothalamus is key for keeping the body stable. It merges signals from the body and then helps drive brain and body actions. These actions can be neural, hormonal, automatic, and even behavioural. If energy levels or fluid levels shift out of range, the brain does not just react once. Instead, specific neural pathways help create a motivation to act. The goal of that motivation is to bring the body back toward balance. Studies show that hunger depends on linked hypothalamic pathways. One part of this involves neuron groups in the arcuate nucleus. These neurons react to signals tied to metabolism and hormones. They then help shape appetite and control of energy use (Timper & Brüning, 2017). Thirst seems to work in a related way. Other neural circuits pick up changes in body-fluid balance and push the body toward drinking (Zimmerman et al., 2017). Motivation here is not just a light switch. The neural systems bring together what is happening inside the body. They also pull in cues from senses, what the body expects, what is in the surroundings, and what feels rewarding (Augustine et al., 2020; Liu & Kanoski, 2018). Taken together, these hypothalamic and connected circuits turn body needs into actions that help survival and restore homeostasis === Key take-home points === * The hypothalamus helps connect physiological needs with motivated behaviour. * Specialised neural circuits contribute differently to hunger, thirst, and other homeostatic processes. * Hormonal, metabolic, sensory, and neural signals work together to communicate the body's needs. * Homeostatic motivation is flexible and interacts with learning, reward, cognition, and environmental information. * Hunger and thirst demonstrate how changes inside the body can become powerful psychological motivations. {{tip|Take-home message:The hypothalamus helps maintain homeostasis by detecting biological needs and motivating behaviours that restore balance. Specialised neural circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related processes, showing how changes within the body can strongly influence motivation and behaviour. }} ==See also== * [[Motivation and emotion/Brain structures|Brain structures]] (Wikiversity) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Homeostasis and basic drives|Homeostasis and basic drives]] (Book chapter, 2025) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Hypothalamus and motivation|Hypothalamus and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) * [[w:Homeostasis|Homeostasis]] (Wikipedia) * [[w:Hypothalamus|Hypothalamus]] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Augustine, V., Lee, S., & Oka, Y. (2020). Neural control and modulation of thirst, sodium appetite, and hunger. Cell, 180(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.040 Liu, C. M., & Kanoski, S. E. (2018). Homeostatic and non-homeostatic controls of feeding behavior: Distinct vs. common neural systems. Physiology & Behavior, 193, 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.02.011 Timper, K., & Brüning, J. C. (2017). Hypothalamic circuits regulating appetite and energy homeostasis: Pathways to obesity. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 10(6), 679–689. https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.026609 Williams, G., Bing, C., Cai, X. J., Harrold, J. A., King, P. J., & Liu, X. H. (2001). The hypothalamus and the control of energy homeostasis: Different circuits, different purposes. Physiology & Behavior, 74(4–5), 683–701. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(01)00612-6 Zimmerman, C. A., Leib, D. E., & Knight, Z. A. (2017). Neural circuits underlying thirst and fluid homeostasis. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(8), 459–469. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.71 Zimmerman, C. A., & Knight, Z. A. (2020). Layers of signals that regulate appetite. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 64, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2020.03.007 }} ==External links== * [https://www.brainfacts.org/3d-brain 3D Brain] (BrainFacts) * [https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22566-hypothalamus Hypothalamus] (Cleveland Clinic) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hypothalamus]] 6sukuqz2xpc42xiyc91l5rvh0r0fnjt 2834143 2834142 2026-09-21T09:05:08Z StretchBeyond 3105744 /* Hunger and energy balance */ 2834143 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Hypothalamus and homeostatic motivation:<br>How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related motivations?}} __TOC__ == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} ;Picture this You wake up late and sprint to university. There is no time for breakfast. You also skip water. For a short while, you can still sit in class and try to follow the lecture. Then the hours pass. Your body starts to push back. Your mouth feels rough and dry. Your stomach is upset and empty. You look at the slides, but your mind keeps drifting to where you might get something to eat or drink. At first it is just a small problem. Soon it feels like a strong pull. It changes how you think, where your focus goes, and what you end up doing. These small body signals show that basic needs can drive your choices. When your inner balance slips, your brain notices it. Neural activity then turns on so you are more likely to act in a way that helps you get back to normal. Feeling hungry pushes you to look for food. Feeling thirsty pushes you to find water. The hypothalamus is a key part of this. It takes in info about how your body is doing. It also helps set up the body responses and the actions that match the situation. Special neural pathways in this area help run hunger and thirst. They also support other survival urges, which helps the body stay stable. {{RoundBoxBottom}} The hypothalamus is a small region of the brain that plays an important role in maintaining hypothalamus, which is the body's ability to keep its internal conditions relatively stable. Biological needs such as hunger and thirst can become powerful sources of motivation when the body's internal conditions move away from balance. Hypothalamic and related neural circuits detect and integrate physiological information and contribute to behaviours such as eating and drinking that help restore energy and fluid balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017; Zimmerman et al., 2017). Understanding these processes is important because hunger and thirst are fundamental survival-related motivations that can strongly influence behaviour. Neuroscience research indicates that these motivations involve specialised and interconnected neural circuits that respond to physiological need and help generate appropriate consumption behaviours (Augustine et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is homeostasis and how does the hypothalamus contribute to its regulation? *How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger and eating behaviour? *How do neural circuits regulate thirst and drinking behaviour? *How do hormones and physiological signals communicate biological needs to the hypothalamus? *How do hypothalamic systems transform biological needs into motivated survival behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis is how the body keeps its internal conditions within limits that work for daily life. It is not a fixed state. The body makes adjustments so the range stays workable. A key brain area here is the hypothalamus. It takes in signals about what is happening inside the body. Then it helps line up the needed responses, both physical and behavioural. If the internal conditions drift too far from the set range, the body reacts. Those reactions can create strong urges. That is when drives like eating or drinking can show up. * Even when the body or the surroundings change, homeostasis aims to hold things steady. * The hypothalamus also gathers input from more than one source. It uses signals from nerves, hormones, and metabolic processes. * Not all parts of the hypothalamus do the same job. Different nuclei and groups of neurons link to different functions. Some shifts affect bodily regulation, while others shape motivation * When balance is disrupted, motivation can rise. Those urges steer actions that help bring the body back toward the right conditions. [[File:Hypothalamus in coronal view.jpg|thumb|140x140px|'''Figure 2'''. Sagittal diagram of the hypothalamus showing major nuclei involved in regulating physiological and survival-related processes, including the arcuate, ventromedial, paraventricular, supraoptic, anterior, posterior, and dorsomedial nuclei.]] == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis means your body keeps its internal conditions within a safe range. This helps you work the way you should. The hypothalamus is key here. It takes in data about what is going on inside the body. Then it helps set off the right body actions. Those actions can include shifts in body functions and changes in behaviour. If things drift too far from the normal range, the body does not just “notice” it. Homeostatic systems can also push you toward certain urges. Those urges can lead to actions like eating or drinking. * Homeostasis helps maintain relatively stable internal conditions despite changes within the body or environment. * The hypothalamus integrates neural, hormonal, and metabolic information involved in homeostatic regulation (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * The hypothalamus contains several specialised nuclei that contribute to different aspects of physiological and homeostatic regulation (see Figure 2). * Homeostatic disturbances can produce motivational states that encourage behaviours capable of restoring biological balance (Augustine et al., 2020). === '''''Hypothalamic regulation of hunger''''' === Hunger is a biological motivational state that encourages food-seeking and eating behaviour when the body requires energy. Rather than being controlled by a single "hunger centre", feeding behaviour involves interacting neural populations that receive information about the body's energy state and contribute to appropriate behavioural responses ==== ''Hunger and energy balance'' ==== * Your central nervous system gets signals about how much energy is available. It does this using nutrients, nerve messages, and hormones in the blood. * Part of the hypothalamus helps steer both eating and how fast the body uses energy. This work supports a stable energy balance, as described by Timper and Brüning in 2017. * When you feel hunger, food may start to feel more valuable. That feeling can push you toward actions like looking for food, moving toward it, and eating it. * Biology matters, but it is not the only thing. Food choice and eating can also shift with reward, past experiences, learning, and cues from the food around you. Liu and Kanoski discuss this in 2018. ==== ''The arcuate nucleus'' ==== * The arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus contains important neuronal populations involved in the regulation of appetite and energy balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * AgRP/NPY-related {{ic|explain technical terms}} neurons are associated with hunger and can promote feeding when energy availability is low. * POMC-related neurons contribute to signalling involved in reduced food intake and energy regulation. * These neuronal populations interact with other hypothalamic and extra-hypothalamic regions, showing that feeding is * regulated by an interconnected neural network rather than one isolated brain structure. ==== Ghrelin and leptin ==== * Hormones allow peripheral organs and tissues to communicate information about energy availability to the brain {{ic|hypothalamus?}}. * Ghrelin is associated with hunger signalling and can influence neural systems involved in food intake. * Leptin is produced primarily by adipose tissue and provides the brain with information related to stored energy. * Metabolic and hormonal signals such as leptin act on hypothalamic neuronal populations involved in appetite and energy homeostasis (Timper & Brüning, 2017). === Quiz === <quiz display="simple"> {The hypothalamus contains specialised neural circuits that help regulate homeostatic processes such as hunger and thirst: |type="()"} + True - False {Hunger and thirst are each controlled by a single hypothalamic “switch” that turns the motivation on or off: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> === ''Hypothalamic regulation of thirst'' === Thirst is a powerful homeostatic motivation that encourages drinking when the body's fluid balance is disturbed. Neural circuits continuously monitor physiological signals related to hydration and generate behavioural and hormonal responses that help restore fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==== Detecting fluid imbalance ==== * Your body’s hydration status shows up in several blood measurements. Blood osmolality, sodium levels, blood volume, and blood pressure all shift when you are getting more or less fluid. * The brain also has special sensory areas. Two of them are the subfornical organ, or SFO, and the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis, the OVLT. These regions help pick up changes linked to fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). * After that, these cues reach the hypothalamus and nearby pathways. Those networks help drive thirst. They also push you toward finding and drinking water. * Thirst therefore demonstrates how a physiological imbalance can be transformed into a powerful motivational state. ==== Drinking and anticipatory regulation ==== * Thirst can begin decreasing before consumed water has been fully absorbed and restored the body's fluid balance. * Sensory information associated with drinking provides rapid feedback to neural circuits involved in thirst (Zimmerman & Knight, 2020). * This anticipatory regulation allows the brain to predict how ongoing drinking will affect the body's future physiological state. * These mechanisms help prevent excessive water consumption while still allowing fluid balance to be restored. === ''Other Survival-Related Motivations'' === Although hunger and thirst provide clear examples of homeostatic motivation, the hypothalamus contributes to several other processes necessary for survival. Different hypothalamic nuclei and neural populations participate in coordinating physiological and behavioural responses according to the body's current needs. * The hypothalamus helps control body temperature, sleep, daily cycles, mating patterns, hormone balance, and reactions to stress. * Not every part of the hypothalamus does the same job. Each nucleus has its own role, and they link up with each other. So it is not one single “motivation hub” that drives everything. * When something goes wrong in the body, the priorities can shift. A person may feel a strong, short-term need, and that need can override other aims. * That is what hunger and thirst show. Signals from inside the body can create drive states. Those drives then shape actions that keep a person alive. {| class="wikitable" |+Table 1: Comparison of hunger and thirst as homeostatic motivations !Biological need !Example signals !Key neural systems !Motivated behaviour |- |Hunger |Energy availability, ghrelin, leptin |Arcuate and interconnected hypothalamic circuits |Food seeking and eating |- |Thirst |Osmolality, sodium and blood-volume signals |SFO, OVLT, MnPO {{ic|explain abbreviations}} and hypothalamic circuits |Water seeking and drinking |} As shown in Table 1, hunger and thirst involve different physiological signals and specialised neural systems, but both demonstrate how disturbances in homeostasis can generate motivated behaviour (Augustine et al., 2020; Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==Conclusion== The hypothalamus is key for keeping the body stable. It merges signals from the body and then helps drive brain and body actions. These actions can be neural, hormonal, automatic, and even behavioural. If energy levels or fluid levels shift out of range, the brain does not just react once. Instead, specific neural pathways help create a motivation to act. The goal of that motivation is to bring the body back toward balance. Studies show that hunger depends on linked hypothalamic pathways. One part of this involves neuron groups in the arcuate nucleus. These neurons react to signals tied to metabolism and hormones. They then help shape appetite and control of energy use (Timper & Brüning, 2017). Thirst seems to work in a related way. Other neural circuits pick up changes in body-fluid balance and push the body toward drinking (Zimmerman et al., 2017). Motivation here is not just a light switch. The neural systems bring together what is happening inside the body. They also pull in cues from senses, what the body expects, what is in the surroundings, and what feels rewarding (Augustine et al., 2020; Liu & Kanoski, 2018). Taken together, these hypothalamic and connected circuits turn body needs into actions that help survival and restore homeostasis === Key take-home points === * The hypothalamus helps connect physiological needs with motivated behaviour. * Specialised neural circuits contribute differently to hunger, thirst, and other homeostatic processes. * Hormonal, metabolic, sensory, and neural signals work together to communicate the body's needs. * Homeostatic motivation is flexible and interacts with learning, reward, cognition, and environmental information. * Hunger and thirst demonstrate how changes inside the body can become powerful psychological motivations. {{tip|Take-home message:The hypothalamus helps maintain homeostasis by detecting biological needs and motivating behaviours that restore balance. Specialised neural circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related processes, showing how changes within the body can strongly influence motivation and behaviour. }} ==See also== * [[Motivation and emotion/Brain structures|Brain structures]] (Wikiversity) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Homeostasis and basic drives|Homeostasis and basic drives]] (Book chapter, 2025) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Hypothalamus and motivation|Hypothalamus and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) * [[w:Homeostasis|Homeostasis]] (Wikipedia) * [[w:Hypothalamus|Hypothalamus]] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Augustine, V., Lee, S., & Oka, Y. (2020). Neural control and modulation of thirst, sodium appetite, and hunger. Cell, 180(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.040 Liu, C. M., & Kanoski, S. E. (2018). Homeostatic and non-homeostatic controls of feeding behavior: Distinct vs. common neural systems. Physiology & Behavior, 193, 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.02.011 Timper, K., & Brüning, J. C. (2017). Hypothalamic circuits regulating appetite and energy homeostasis: Pathways to obesity. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 10(6), 679–689. https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.026609 Williams, G., Bing, C., Cai, X. J., Harrold, J. A., King, P. J., & Liu, X. H. (2001). The hypothalamus and the control of energy homeostasis: Different circuits, different purposes. Physiology & Behavior, 74(4–5), 683–701. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(01)00612-6 Zimmerman, C. A., Leib, D. E., & Knight, Z. A. (2017). Neural circuits underlying thirst and fluid homeostasis. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(8), 459–469. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.71 Zimmerman, C. A., & Knight, Z. A. (2020). Layers of signals that regulate appetite. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 64, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2020.03.007 }} ==External links== * [https://www.brainfacts.org/3d-brain 3D Brain] (BrainFacts) * [https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22566-hypothalamus Hypothalamus] (Cleveland Clinic) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hypothalamus]] 43mc48r8v52nd7vdk58si6p4g1h281l 2834144 2834143 2026-09-21T09:06:26Z StretchBeyond 3105744 /* Hypothalamic regulation of hunger */ 2834144 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Hypothalamus and homeostatic motivation:<br>How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related motivations?}} __TOC__ == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} ;Picture this You wake up late and sprint to university. There is no time for breakfast. You also skip water. For a short while, you can still sit in class and try to follow the lecture. Then the hours pass. Your body starts to push back. Your mouth feels rough and dry. Your stomach is upset and empty. You look at the slides, but your mind keeps drifting to where you might get something to eat or drink. At first it is just a small problem. Soon it feels like a strong pull. It changes how you think, where your focus goes, and what you end up doing. These small body signals show that basic needs can drive your choices. When your inner balance slips, your brain notices it. Neural activity then turns on so you are more likely to act in a way that helps you get back to normal. Feeling hungry pushes you to look for food. Feeling thirsty pushes you to find water. The hypothalamus is a key part of this. It takes in info about how your body is doing. It also helps set up the body responses and the actions that match the situation. Special neural pathways in this area help run hunger and thirst. They also support other survival urges, which helps the body stay stable. {{RoundBoxBottom}} The hypothalamus is a small region of the brain that plays an important role in maintaining hypothalamus, which is the body's ability to keep its internal conditions relatively stable. Biological needs such as hunger and thirst can become powerful sources of motivation when the body's internal conditions move away from balance. Hypothalamic and related neural circuits detect and integrate physiological information and contribute to behaviours such as eating and drinking that help restore energy and fluid balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017; Zimmerman et al., 2017). Understanding these processes is important because hunger and thirst are fundamental survival-related motivations that can strongly influence behaviour. Neuroscience research indicates that these motivations involve specialised and interconnected neural circuits that respond to physiological need and help generate appropriate consumption behaviours (Augustine et al., 2020). {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is homeostasis and how does the hypothalamus contribute to its regulation? *How do hypothalamic circuits regulate hunger and eating behaviour? *How do neural circuits regulate thirst and drinking behaviour? *How do hormones and physiological signals communicate biological needs to the hypothalamus? *How do hypothalamic systems transform biological needs into motivated survival behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis is how the body keeps its internal conditions within limits that work for daily life. It is not a fixed state. The body makes adjustments so the range stays workable. A key brain area here is the hypothalamus. It takes in signals about what is happening inside the body. Then it helps line up the needed responses, both physical and behavioural. If the internal conditions drift too far from the set range, the body reacts. Those reactions can create strong urges. That is when drives like eating or drinking can show up. * Even when the body or the surroundings change, homeostasis aims to hold things steady. * The hypothalamus also gathers input from more than one source. It uses signals from nerves, hormones, and metabolic processes. * Not all parts of the hypothalamus do the same job. Different nuclei and groups of neurons link to different functions. Some shifts affect bodily regulation, while others shape motivation * When balance is disrupted, motivation can rise. Those urges steer actions that help bring the body back toward the right conditions. [[File:Hypothalamus in coronal view.jpg|thumb|140x140px|'''Figure 2'''. Sagittal diagram of the hypothalamus showing major nuclei involved in regulating physiological and survival-related processes, including the arcuate, ventromedial, paraventricular, supraoptic, anterior, posterior, and dorsomedial nuclei.]] == Homeostasis and the hypothalamus == Homeostasis means your body keeps its internal conditions within a safe range. This helps you work the way you should. The hypothalamus is key here. It takes in data about what is going on inside the body. Then it helps set off the right body actions. Those actions can include shifts in body functions and changes in behaviour. If things drift too far from the normal range, the body does not just “notice” it. Homeostatic systems can also push you toward certain urges. Those urges can lead to actions like eating or drinking. * Homeostasis helps maintain relatively stable internal conditions despite changes within the body or environment. * The hypothalamus integrates neural, hormonal, and metabolic information involved in homeostatic regulation (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * The hypothalamus contains several specialised nuclei that contribute to different aspects of physiological and homeostatic regulation (see Figure 2). * Homeostatic disturbances can produce motivational states that encourage behaviours capable of restoring biological balance (Augustine et al., 2020). === Hypothalamic regulation of hunger === Hunger is a biological motivational state that encourages food-seeking and eating behaviour when the body requires energy. Rather than being controlled by a single "hunger centre", feeding behaviour involves interacting neural populations that receive information about the body's energy state and contribute to appropriate behavioural responses ==== Hunger and energy balance ==== * Your central nervous system gets signals about how much energy is available. It does this using nutrients, nerve messages, and hormones in the blood. * Part of the hypothalamus helps steer both eating and how fast the body uses energy. This work supports a stable energy balance, as described by Timper and Brüning in 2017. * When you feel hunger, food may start to feel more valuable. That feeling can push you toward actions like looking for food, moving toward it, and eating it. * Biology matters, but it is not the only thing. Food choice and eating can also shift with reward, past experiences, learning, and cues from the food around you. Liu and Kanoski discuss this in 2018. ==== The arcuate nucleus ==== * The arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus contains important neuronal populations involved in the regulation of appetite and energy balance (Timper & Brüning, 2017). * AgRP/NPY-related {{ic|explain technical terms}} neurons are associated with hunger and can promote feeding when energy availability is low. * POMC-related neurons contribute to signalling involved in reduced food intake and energy regulation. * These neuronal populations interact with other hypothalamic and extra-hypothalamic regions, showing that feeding is * regulated by an interconnected neural network rather than one isolated brain structure. ==== Ghrelin and leptin ==== * Hormones allow peripheral organs and tissues to communicate information about energy availability to the brain {{ic|hypothalamus?}}. * Ghrelin is associated with hunger signalling and can influence neural systems involved in food intake. * Leptin is produced primarily by adipose tissue and provides the brain with information related to stored energy. * Metabolic and hormonal signals such as leptin act on hypothalamic neuronal populations involved in appetite and energy homeostasis (Timper & Brüning, 2017). === Quiz === <quiz display="simple"> {The hypothalamus contains specialised neural circuits that help regulate homeostatic processes such as hunger and thirst: |type="()"} + True - False {Hunger and thirst are each controlled by a single hypothalamic “switch” that turns the motivation on or off: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> === Hypothalamic regulation of thirst === Thirst is a powerful homeostatic motivation that encourages drinking when the body's fluid balance is disturbed. Neural circuits continuously monitor physiological signals related to hydration and generate behavioural and hormonal responses that help restore fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==== Detecting fluid imbalance ==== * Your body’s hydration status shows up in several blood measurements. Blood osmolality, sodium levels, blood volume, and blood pressure all shift when you are getting more or less fluid. * The brain also has special sensory areas. Two of them are the subfornical organ, or SFO, and the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis, the OVLT. These regions help pick up changes linked to fluid balance (Zimmerman et al., 2017). * After that, these cues reach the hypothalamus and nearby pathways. Those networks help drive thirst. They also push you toward finding and drinking water. * Thirst therefore demonstrates how a physiological imbalance can be transformed into a powerful motivational state. ==== Drinking and anticipatory regulation ==== * Thirst can begin decreasing before consumed water has been fully absorbed and restored the body's fluid balance. * Sensory information associated with drinking provides rapid feedback to neural circuits involved in thirst (Zimmerman & Knight, 2020). * This anticipatory regulation allows the brain to predict how ongoing drinking will affect the body's future physiological state. * These mechanisms help prevent excessive water consumption while still allowing fluid balance to be restored. === Other Survival-Related Motivations === Although hunger and thirst provide clear examples of homeostatic motivation, the hypothalamus contributes to several other processes necessary for survival. Different hypothalamic nuclei and neural populations participate in coordinating physiological and behavioural responses according to the body's current needs. * The hypothalamus helps control body temperature, sleep, daily cycles, mating patterns, hormone balance, and reactions to stress. * Not every part of the hypothalamus does the same job. Each nucleus has its own role, and they link up with each other. So it is not one single “motivation hub” that drives everything. * When something goes wrong in the body, the priorities can shift. A person may feel a strong, short-term need, and that need can override other aims. * That is what hunger and thirst show. Signals from inside the body can create drive states. Those drives then shape actions that keep a person alive. {| class="wikitable" |+Table 1: Comparison of hunger and thirst as homeostatic motivations !Biological need !Example signals !Key neural systems !Motivated behaviour |- |Hunger |Energy availability, ghrelin, leptin |Arcuate and interconnected hypothalamic circuits |Food seeking and eating |- |Thirst |Osmolality, sodium and blood-volume signals |SFO, OVLT, MnPO {{ic|explain abbreviations}} and hypothalamic circuits |Water seeking and drinking |} As shown in Table 1, hunger and thirst involve different physiological signals and specialised neural systems, but both demonstrate how disturbances in homeostasis can generate motivated behaviour (Augustine et al., 2020; Zimmerman et al., 2017). ==Conclusion== The hypothalamus is key for keeping the body stable. It merges signals from the body and then helps drive brain and body actions. These actions can be neural, hormonal, automatic, and even behavioural. If energy levels or fluid levels shift out of range, the brain does not just react once. Instead, specific neural pathways help create a motivation to act. The goal of that motivation is to bring the body back toward balance. Studies show that hunger depends on linked hypothalamic pathways. One part of this involves neuron groups in the arcuate nucleus. These neurons react to signals tied to metabolism and hormones. They then help shape appetite and control of energy use (Timper & Brüning, 2017). Thirst seems to work in a related way. Other neural circuits pick up changes in body-fluid balance and push the body toward drinking (Zimmerman et al., 2017). Motivation here is not just a light switch. The neural systems bring together what is happening inside the body. They also pull in cues from senses, what the body expects, what is in the surroundings, and what feels rewarding (Augustine et al., 2020; Liu & Kanoski, 2018). Taken together, these hypothalamic and connected circuits turn body needs into actions that help survival and restore homeostasis === Key take-home points === * The hypothalamus helps connect physiological needs with motivated behaviour. * Specialised neural circuits contribute differently to hunger, thirst, and other homeostatic processes. * Hormonal, metabolic, sensory, and neural signals work together to communicate the body's needs. * Homeostatic motivation is flexible and interacts with learning, reward, cognition, and environmental information. * Hunger and thirst demonstrate how changes inside the body can become powerful psychological motivations. {{tip|Take-home message:The hypothalamus helps maintain homeostasis by detecting biological needs and motivating behaviours that restore balance. Specialised neural circuits regulate hunger, thirst, and other survival-related processes, showing how changes within the body can strongly influence motivation and behaviour. }} ==See also== * [[Motivation and emotion/Brain structures|Brain structures]] (Wikiversity) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Homeostasis and basic drives|Homeostasis and basic drives]] (Book chapter, 2025) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Hypothalamus and motivation|Hypothalamus and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) * [[w:Homeostasis|Homeostasis]] (Wikipedia) * [[w:Hypothalamus|Hypothalamus]] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Augustine, V., Lee, S., & Oka, Y. (2020). Neural control and modulation of thirst, sodium appetite, and hunger. Cell, 180(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.040 Liu, C. M., & Kanoski, S. E. (2018). Homeostatic and non-homeostatic controls of feeding behavior: Distinct vs. common neural systems. Physiology & Behavior, 193, 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.02.011 Timper, K., & Brüning, J. C. (2017). Hypothalamic circuits regulating appetite and energy homeostasis: Pathways to obesity. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 10(6), 679–689. https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.026609 Williams, G., Bing, C., Cai, X. J., Harrold, J. A., King, P. J., & Liu, X. H. (2001). The hypothalamus and the control of energy homeostasis: Different circuits, different purposes. Physiology & Behavior, 74(4–5), 683–701. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(01)00612-6 Zimmerman, C. A., Leib, D. E., & Knight, Z. A. (2017). Neural circuits underlying thirst and fluid homeostasis. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(8), 459–469. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.71 Zimmerman, C. A., & Knight, Z. A. (2020). Layers of signals that regulate appetite. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 64, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2020.03.007 }} ==External links== * [https://www.brainfacts.org/3d-brain 3D Brain] (BrainFacts) * [https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22566-hypothalamus Hypothalamus] (Cleveland Clinic) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hypothalamus]] 4f4g041hpk6d0zrpancy8eesj8lndgf 0 331100 2834147 2834008 2026-09-21T11:12:59Z U3239236 3106753 2834147 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Emotional intelligence:<br>How does emotional intelligence affect emotional wellbeing?}} __TOC__ == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Sophie emotional regulation scenario.png|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' A university student pausing to regulate her emotions after receiving a disappointing grade, generated with ai ]] '''Scenario''' Imagine Sophie, a university student who has several assessments due while also dealing with conflict with a close friend. After receiving a disappointing mark, Sophie initially feels frustrated, embarrassed, and overwhelmed. Rather than immediately reacting, she recognises that disappointment and stress are influencing how she is thinking about the situation. She takes some time to regulate her emotions, considers why the result affected her so strongly, and later talks calmly with her friend about the conflict. Another student experiencing the same circumstances might struggle to identify what they are feeling, become increasingly overwhelmed, or react impulsively. Why might people respond so differently to similar emotional situations? One possible explanation involves emotional intelligence the capacity to perceive, understand, use, and regulate emotion. Emotional intelligence may influence how people interpret and respond to emotional experiences and, consequently, their emotional wellbeing. Emotional wellbeing involves more than simply experiencing positive emotions or avoiding negative ones. It concerns how people experience and manage emotions and their broader capacity to function psychologically. Understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing is important because difficult emotions are unavoidable. Psychological research can help explain whether emotionally intelligent abilities support wellbeing, which components of emotional intelligence may be particularly important, and the psychological processes that could explain this relationship. {{RoundBoxBottom}} {{RoundBoxTop}} ; Focus questions # What are emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing? # What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing? #Which components of emotional intelligence are particularly important for emotional wellbeing? # How can emotional intelligence be developed to support emotional wellbeing? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == What are emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing? == Emotional intelligence may play an important role in how people recognise, understand, and regulate their emotions. These emotional abilities may influence how people cope with difficult experiences, maintain positive emotions, and support their overall emotional wellbeing. However, emotional intelligence is a complex construct, and different emotional abilities may contribute to wellbeing in different ways. Before examining their relationship, it is important to establish what psychologists mean by emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing. Both are multidimensional concepts, and different theoretical approaches influence how they are measured and understood. === Defining emotional intelligence === Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognise, understand, use, and manage emotions (Givon et al., 2020). There are several approaches to understanding EI. Ability models view EI as a form of intelligence, trait models focus on people's perceptions of their own emotional abilities, and mixed models combine emotional abilities with personality characteristics (Luna et al., 2021). One of the most influential ability approaches is Mayer and Salovey's four-branch model. This model describes EI through four related abilities: perceiving emotions, using emotions to support thinking, understanding emotions, and managing emotions. In comparison, trait EI focuses more on how people perceive their own emotional abilities and tendencies. At its core, emotional intelligence is the way people process and manage emotional information: noticing emotional cues, making sense of what they mean, and using that information to guide thought and behaviour (Givon et al., 2020). This is a somewhat different idea from how the term "emotional" is often used in everyday language. Describing someone as "emotional" usually refers to how frequently or intensely they display feelings, while emotional intelligence refers to how skilfully a person processes emotional information, regardless of how expressive they are (Luna et al., 2021). Similarly, EI should not be understood as simply being a nice person. Kindness and emotional intelligence are not the same. Kindness relates to a person's values and how they treat others, whereas emotional intelligence involves recognising, understanding, and managing emotions. Someone can be emotionally intelligent while setting boundaries or giving difficult feedback, just as someone can be kind and friendly but struggle to understand or regulate their own emotions. Similarly, a person who appears calm and reserved may be highly skilled at processing emotions, while someone who openly expresses their feelings may still find it difficult to understand or manage them (Villanueva et al., 2020). Because EI has been conceptualised in more than one way, it is useful to introduce these major approaches before going further. Ability models treat EI as a form of intelligence: a set of cognitive abilities for processing emotional information, assessed using performance-based tasks with objectively better or worse answers, in much the same way as other cognitive abilities are tested (Carfagno, 2020). Trait models instead focus on people's own perceptions of their emotional abilities and tendencies, typically measured through self-report questionnaires. Mixed models combine emotional abilities with broader personality-like characteristics, such as optimism, motivation, or assertiveness. These differences in definition matter a great deal when examining research on EI and wellbeing. A study using a trait self-report measure is not necessarily capturing the same underlying construct as a study using a performance-based ability test; the two can produce meaningfully different results, including different-strength relationships with wellbeing outcomes (Barbash, 2015). Keeping this distinction in mind will be important later in this chapter, when comparing what the evidence shows across different EI models. '''The ability model of emotional intelligence''' One of the most influential ability approaches is Mayer and Salovey's four-branch model, which defines EI as the ability to perceive, appraise, and express emotion; access and generate feelings when they facilitate thought; understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). This model describes EI as four related abilities, summarised in Table 1 below: '''Table 1.''' ''Mayer and Salovey's four-branch model of emotional intelligence'' {| class="wikitable" !Branch !Description |- |'''Perceiving emotions''' |Accurately identifying emotions in oneself and others, including through facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language. |- |'''Using emotions to facilitate thought''' |Harnessing emotional information to guide attention, reasoning, and problem-solving. |- |'''Understanding emotions''' |Comprehending emotional causes, consequences, and the way emotions change or combine over time. |- |'''Managing emotions''' |Regulating one's own emotions and, where appropriate, the emotions of others, in ways that support goals and wellbeing. |}[[File:Model of emotional intelligence.png|thumb|'''Figure 2.''' ''Mayer and Salovey's Emotional Intelligence model'' ]]<quiz display="simple"> Quiz 1. Which statement best describes emotional intelligence? |type="()"} + The ability to perceive, understand, use, and manage emotions. - The ability to avoid experiencing negative emotions. - The ability to remain happy in all situations. - The ability to control the emotions of other people. } </quiz>Each branch can support well-being in a different way, as shown in Figure 2. When people accurately notice emotions, they become more aware of what they and others are feeling. Using emotions to guide thinking helps shape attention and judgment. Understanding emotions helps people figure out why feelings come up and how they change over time. Managing emotions means handling emotional responses, which can be especially helpful during tough times, like when Sophie takes a moment to calm herself before talking to her friend. === Trait emotional intelligence === Trait EI focuses on how people perceive their own emotional abilities and tendencies, rather than how well they perform on an objective test. It is usually measured through self-report questionnaires, similar to those used to assess personality traits. These questionnaires examine how people typically recognise, understand, and manage their emotions in everyday life. In contrast, performance-based tests aim to measure a person's emotional abilities under test conditions. However, the distinction is not always clear, as self-report questionnaires can still reflect genuine emotional skills, while performance-based tests may not always capture a person's full emotional ability. Chapman (2005) explains that trait EI is more closely related to personality, while ability EI is more closely associated with cognitive abilities. This helps explain why they are measured differently. Performance-based tests, such as the Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, assess responses as correct or incorrect. However, deciding what counts as a correct emotional response can be difficult because emotions are personal and influenced by individual experiences'''.''' Expert scoring relies on the judgements of selected experts, while consensus scoring reflects the most common responses, which may not be appropriate for everyone. Trait EI avoids this particular issue by focusing on people's perceptions rather than judging their answers as right or wrong. Common self-report measures include the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, which examines how people recognise, understand, and manage emotions, and the 33-item Schutte Self-Report Inventory of Emotional Intelligence, based on Salovey and Mayer's model self-report measures have limitations. Trait EI may influence emotional wellbeing because believing you can understand and manage your emotions can help you approach difficult situations with greater confidence. However, confidence does not always mean someone is managing their emotions effectively. For example, a person might believe they handle conflict well when they actually avoid difficult conversations or dismiss other people's feelings. This shows why perceived emotional ability does not always reflect actual emotional functioning. Another limitation is that trait EI and emotional wellbeing are often measured using similar self-report questionnaires, which may make their relationship appear stronger than it really is. These are two different concerns one relates to whether people accurately judge their emotional abilities, while the other concerns how the way researchers measure EI and wellbeing may influence the results. === Defining emotional wellbeing === Emotional wellbeing refers to people's emotional experiences and how they evaluate their lives. Psychological research often distinguishes between two approaches to wellbeing: hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. Hedonic wellbeing focuses on experiences such as pleasure, enjoyment, and comfort, whereas eudaimonic wellbeing emphasises personal growth, meaning, and authenticity (Huta & Waterman, 2014). Both approaches are important for understanding wellbeing, although researchers differ in how they define and measure these concepts. Importantly, emotional wellbeing does not mean feeling happy or positive all the time. Negative emotions such as sadness, anger, anxiety, and disappointment are normal responses to difficult experiences. Chen et al. (2023) explain that adaptive stress responses can help individuals cope with stressful situations or adjust to challenges they cannot resolve, whereas maladaptive responses may increase the risk of stress-related difficulties. This highlights why wellbeing involves more than experiencing positive emotions; how people respond to difficult situations is also important. Another approach is Seligman's PERMA model, which identifies five elements of flourishing: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (seligman citation). Unlike approaches that focus primarily on emotional experiences, PERMA considers several aspects of a fulfilling life see Table 2. '''Table''' '''2.''' ''Different approaches to understanding wellbeing'' ''based on Perma Model.'' {| class="wikitable" !Approach !Description |- |Hedonic wellbeing |Focuses on pleasure, enjoyment, positive emotions, and life satisfaction. |- |Eudaimonic wellbeing |Focuses on meaning, personal growth, and living in accordance with one's values. |- |'''PERMA model''' |Seligman's model identifies five elements of flourishing: '''P'''ositive emotion, '''E'''ngagement, '''R'''elationships, '''M'''eaning, and '''A'''ccomplishment. |} Psychologists have proposed different approaches to understanding wellbeing, including hedonic wellbeing, eudaimonic wellbeing, and Seligman's PERMA model see Table 2. . * Distinguish emotional wellbeing from the absence of mental illness or psychological distress. * Briefly explain how emotional wellbeing is measured in psychological research, as this will be important when you later discuss its relationship with emotional intelligence. == What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing? == After defining both concepts, this section examines what psychological research shows about the overall relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing. === Emotional intelligence and positive and negative wellbeing === * Examine whether higher emotional intelligence is associated with greater emotional wellbeing. * Discuss research involving positive affect, happiness, life satisfaction, and subjective or psychological wellbeing. * Explain the strength of the relationship where research allows. * Avoid assuming that emotional intelligence directly causes greater happiness. * Examine the relationship between EI and stress. * Discuss emotional distress and negative affect. * Consider relevant research involving anxiety or depressive symptoms. * Explain that higher EI does not mean that someone will never experience negative emotions. * Instead, people with stronger emotional abilities may be better able to understand and respond to difficult emotions. === Trait and ability emotional intelligence === * Compare research findings for trait and ability EI. * Examine whether trait EI shows different relationships with wellbeing than ability EI. * Consider how the way EI is measured could influence research findings. * Discuss the limitations of relying heavily on self-report measures. === What does the evidence tell us? === * Bring the research together. * Establish whether there is consistent evidence for an association between EI and emotional wellbeing. * Distinguish correlation from causation. * Identify any inconsistencies or limitations in the evidence. Finding an association between emotional intelligence and wellbeing does not necessarily explain why the two are related. Several psychological processes may help explain how emotional intelligence contributes to emotional wellbeing. '''How does emotional intelligence influence emotional wellbeing?''' (Discuss the psychological processes that may explain the relationship. Emotional intelligence may help people recognise what they are feeling, understand why they are experiencing an emotion, regulate difficult emotions, cope with stress, and manage interpersonal situations. These processes may help explain why emotional intelligence is associated with wellbeing.) '''Research needed:''' Research connecting emotional intelligence with emotion regulation, coping, stress management, and social functioning, as well as research linking these processes with wellbeing (Zomer, 2012; MacCann et al., 2022). === Emotional awareness and perception === * Explain the importance of accurately recognising emotions. * Discuss how identifying an emotional state can help a person decide how to respond. * Explain what may happen when people have difficulty recognising their emotions. * Connect emotional awareness with emotional wellbeing. === Understanding emotions === * Discuss the ability to understand why an emotion has occurred. * Explain how people can recognise changes and combinations of emotions. * Consider how understanding the causes and consequences of emotions may support emotional functioning. * Explain how emotional understanding may make it easier to choose an appropriate response. === Emotion regulation === * Define emotion regulation. * Explain how EI may support the regulation of difficult emotional experiences. * Discuss adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. * Consider cognitive reappraisal and suppression where relevant. * Explain that regulating an emotion does not necessarily mean removing or suppressing it. * Examine whether emotion regulation helps explain the relationship between EI and wellbeing. === Coping with stress === * Examine how EI may influence responses to stressful situations. * Discuss appraisal and coping strategies. * Consider emotional recovery and resilience. * Connect effective coping with emotional wellbeing. === Social relationships and support === * Explain how EI may help people recognise other people's emotions. * Discuss emotional communication. * Examine interpersonal conflict and relationship management. * Consider whether stronger relationships and social support provide another pathway between EI and wellbeing. '''Figure 3. Possible pathways through which emotional intelligence may support emotional wellbeing.''' Emotional intelligence may contribute to emotional wellbeing through several interacting processes, including emotional awareness, understanding, emotion regulation, coping with stress, and social functioning. These processes may work together rather than occurring in a simple step-by-step sequence. == Which components of emotional intelligence are particularly important for emotional wellbeing? == Although emotional intelligence is often discussed as a single concept, its individual components may not contribute equally to emotional wellbeing. (Discuss whether different components of emotional intelligence contribute differently to wellbeing. Consider emotion perception, using emotion, emotion understanding, and emotion management/regulation. Emotion regulation may be particularly relevant, but this needs to be evaluated using research rather than assumed.) '''Research needed:''' Studies comparing different dimensions or branches of emotional intelligence and their relationships with wellbeing, particularly emotion regulation/management (Blasco-Belled et al., 2019). === Emotion perception === * Examine the benefits of accurately recognising emotional states. * Discuss the importance of identifying emotional cues in oneself and others. * Consider limitations: recognising an emotion does not necessarily mean someone will manage it effectively. === Using emotions === * Explain what it means to use emotions to support thinking. * Discuss how emotional information may guide attention, judgement, or problem-solving. * Examine whether this component has a clear relationship with emotional wellbeing. === Emotion understanding === * Discuss understanding the causes and consequences of emotions. * Consider emotional complexity and changes in emotional states. * Examine how understanding emotions may support coping and regulation. === Emotion regulation and management === * Examine whether emotion regulation is particularly strongly related to emotional wellbeing. * Discuss positive affect and negative affect. * Consider emotional distress. * Examine connections with resilience and coping. * Consider whether emotion regulation could help explain the broader relationship between EI and wellbeing. === Comparing the components === * Compare evidence across the different EI components. * Consider whether any component appears particularly important for wellbeing. * Avoid assuming that emotion regulation is the most important unless the research supports this conclusion. * Consider whether the different abilities work together. '''Table 2.''' Emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing {| class="wikitable" !Concept !Central concern !Example |- |Emotional intelligence |Processing, understanding and managing emotional information |Recognising why you feel anxious and choosing an appropriate response |- |Emotional wellbeing |Quality of emotional experience and functioning |Experiencing manageable negative emotion while maintaining positive functioning |- |Emotion regulation |Influencing emotional experiences or responses |Reappraising a stressful situation rather than reacting impulsively |} == How can emotional intelligence be developed to support emotional wellbeing? == Discuss whether emotional intelligence can be improved through training or psychological interventions. Consider strategies aimed at emotional awareness, understanding emotions, emotion regulation, and interpersonal skills. Examine whether improving these abilities actually leads to improvements in wellbeing and acknowledge limitations in the evidence.) '''Research needed:''' Intervention studies and preferably systematic reviews or meta-analyses of emotional intelligence training and its effects on emotional or psychological wellbeing (Hodzic et al., 2018); (Nadler et al., 2020) == Figures == [[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 3'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]] * Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples * Figures can show photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, etc. * Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section * Caption figures (use '''Figure #'''. and explain the relevance of the image to the text) * Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] * Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed * Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2) ==Learning features== ;Scenarios * Scenarios, case studies, or examples describe concepts in action * Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citations * Can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages) * Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]] {{anchor|Feature box}} ;Feature boxes * Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect * Consider using feature boxes for: ** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples ** Focus questions ** Tips ** Quiz questions ** Take-home messages ;Embedded links * When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to: ** Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]") or ** Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]") {{anchor|Tables}} ;Tables * Use to tables to organise and summarise information * Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1) * Tables should be captioned * [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted ; ; '''Quizzes''' * Using one or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end * Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as take-home messages * Ask easy rather than hard questions * Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]] ==Conclusion== * Emotional wellbeing involves healthy emotional experience and functioning rather than simply experiencing positive emotions. * Research suggests that higher emotional intelligence is generally associated with better indicators of wellbeing. * Emotion regulation, coping and interpersonal functioning may help explain this relationship. * Different EI components and models may show different relationships with wellbeing. * Emotional intelligence may be partly developable, creating potential applications for wellbeing interventions. * or universal cause of emotional wellbeing. Return briefly to Sophie: Sophie's situation demonstrates that emotional intelligence does not remove disappointment, stress, or conflict. Instead, emotional abilities may help her recognise what she is experiencing, understand why she feels that way, regulate her response, and choose behaviours that support her wellbeing. * Recommended length: 150 to 330 words {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? * What are the answers to the focus questions? * What are the practical, take-home messages? }} ==See also== * [[Emotional intelligence]] * Emotional regulation * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_well-being?wprov=srpw1_1 Subjective wellbeing] {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} * Psychological wellbeing * Coping * Stress * Positive psychology * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2011/Emotional intelligence|Emotional intelligence]] (Book chapter, 2011) * [[wikibooks:Foundations_of_Education_and_Instructional_Assessment/Effective_Teaching/Intelligence#Introduction_to_Emotional_Intelligence|How are all children smart?]] (Wikibooks) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity) * Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example: * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021) {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Only select links to major internal resources about the topic * Include the source in parentheses }} ==References== This section lists the cited references in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. '''APA style example:''' {{Hanging indent|1= Barbash, E. H. (2015). Emotional intelligence in professional psychology doctoral students: A cross-sectional study (Publication No. 3724176) [Doctoral dissertation, The Florida State University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.https://www.proquest.com/psychology/docview/1725144779/3E4CE21A1D6E4E64PQ/1?accountid=28889&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses Blasco-Belled, A., Rogoza, R., Torrelles-Nadal, C., & Alsinet, C. (2019). Emotional intelligence structure and its relationship with life satisfaction and happiness: New findings from the bifactor model. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(6), 2031–2049. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00167-x Chapman, B. P. (2005). Emotional intelligence at mid life: A cross sectional investigation of structural variance, social correlates, and relationship to established personality and ability taxonomies. Proquest.Com. https://www.proquest.com/psychology/docview/305400900/8D98674B36744231PQ/2?accountid=28889&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses Carfagno, N. (2020). The factor structures of ability and trait emotional intelligences relative to general intelligence and personality. Proquest.Com. https://www.proquest.com/psychology/docview/2466049130/3E4CE21A1D6E4E64PQ/4?accountid=28889&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses Chen, C., Kotozaki , Y., Okubo , R., & Nakagawa , S. (2023, July 13). Editorial: New insights into stress coping and resilience . Canberra.Edu.Au. https://pmc-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/articles/PMC10374303/ Givon, E., Itzhak-Raz, A., Danieli, G., Karmon-Presser, A., & Meiran, N. (2020, March). How Does the Emotional Experience Evolve? Feeling Generation as Evidence Accumulation. Canberra.Edu.Au. https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/c/aprr63/viewer/pdf/3yqigdmzyv?route=details Hodzic, S., Scharfen, J., Ripoll, P., Holling, H., & Zenasni, F. (2017). How efficient are emotional intelligence trainings: A meta-analysis. Emotion Review, 10(2), 138–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073917708613 Huta, V., & Waterman, A. S. (2014). Eudaimonia and its distinction from hedonia: Developing a classification and terminology for understanding conceptual and operational definitions. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(6), 1425–1456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9485-0 Llamas-Díaz, D., Cabello, R., Megías-Robles, A., & Fernández-Berrocal, P. (2022). Systematic review and meta-analysis: The association between emotional intelligence and subjective well-being in adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 94(7), 925–938. PubMed. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12075 Luna, L. M. B., Vilar, M. M., Soto, C. M., & Santiago, J. L. C. (2021). Emotional intelligence measures: A systematic review. Healthcare, 9(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9121696 MacCann, C., Double, K. S., & Clarke, I. E. (2022). Lower avoidant coping mediates the relationship of emotional intelligence with well-being and ill-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 835819. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.835819 Nadler, R., Carswell , J., & Minda, J. P. (2020, February). Online mindfulness training increases well-being, trait emotional intelligence, and workplace competency ratings: A randomized waitlist-controlled trial. Canberra.Edu.Au. https://pmc-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/articles/PMC7048000/ Robinson, T. J., & Zell, E. (2026). Robust associations of emotional intelligence with human flourishing: A second-order meta-analysis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 123(19), e2532963123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2532963123 Salovey, P., & Grewal, D. (2005). The Science of Emotional Intelligence. Current Directions in Psychological Science : A Journal of the American Psychological Society, 14(6), 281–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00381 Xu, X., Pang, W., & Xia, M. (2021, December). Are emotionally intelligent people happier? A meta‐analysis of the relationship between emotional intelligence and subjective well‐being using Chinese samples. Canberra.Edu.Au. https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/c/aprr63/viewer/pdf/cwosfaeugr?route=details Villanueva, L., Prado-Gascó, V., & Montoya-Castilla, I. (2020). Longitudinal analysis of subjective well-being in preadolescents: The role of emotional intelligence, self-esteem and perceived stress. Journal of Health Psychology, 27(2), 135910532095160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320951605 Zomer, L. (2012a). The relationships among emotional intelligence, gender, coping strategies, and well-being in the management of stress in close interpersonal relationships and the workplace [Master's thesis, University of Toronto]. https://www.proquest.com/openview/723018a77700f5c01e4992096ca8f1fa/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750 }} {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]: ** Use "Edit source" ** <nowiki>{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}</nowiki> * Important aspects of APA referencing style ** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces ** Year of publication in parentheses ** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop ** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop ** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable) * The most common mistakes include: ** Incorrect capitalisation ** Incorrect italicisation ** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks ** Citing sources that haven't been consulted }} ==External links== Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example: * [https://www.ted.com/talks/maximilian_park_emotional_intelligence_from_a_teenage_perspective Emotional Intelligence From a Teenage Perspective] * [https://rickhanson.com/being-well-podcast-emotional-intelligence-improving-self-awareness-self-regulation-and-empathy-2/ Being Well Podcast: Emotional Intelligence: Improving Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, and Empathy] {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Only select links to major external resources about the topic * Include the source in parentheses after the link }} [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Emotional intelligence]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Well-being]] r9ys1f3va4ntc76364jxk5kwg1hyj65 0 331213 2834055 2829794 2026-09-20T23:52:59Z U3260591 3104152 /* Understanding Exercise Gamification */ 2834055 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == === What is exercise gamification? === * Gamification involves incorporating game-design elements into non-game contexts, such as fitness apps and physical-activity programs, rather than turning exercise itself into a complete game (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === * Common exercise gamification features include points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards, which can provide users with goals and information about their progress (Shameli et al., 2017). * Gamification is increasingly used in digital physical-activity interventions, although research indicates that the effectiveness of different game elements can vary across interventions and populations (Wang et al., 2025). * Gamification can be understood as a potential behaviour-change strategy, making it important to examine the psychological mechanisms through which game elements may influence motivation and exercise behaviour (Mazeas et al., 2022). == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === * Self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Different forms of motivation range from autonomous/intrinsic motivation to controlled/extrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2020). === How gamification can support motivation === * Gamification features such as progress feedback, achievable challenges and goals may support feelings of competence by helping users recognise improvement and successful performance. * Social features such as leaderboards, competition and shared challenges may influence relatedness and social comparison, although their effects may depend on the individual and how the feature is designed (Karabiber & Gürol, 2026). === When gamification can undermine motivation === * External rewards and points may encourage behaviour, but gamification should not be assumed to automatically produce autonomous motivation; the psychological quality of the motivation matters. * Research applying SDT to physical activity generally finds positive relationships between more self-determined forms of motivation and physical activity, while controlled motivation and amotivation show weaker or negative relationships (Teixeira et al., 2012). == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === * Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour, so research needs to distinguish between motivation, engagement and actual physical activity. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === * A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials involving 2,407 participants found that gamified interventions had a small-to-medium positive effect on physical activity, although the effect was weaker at longer-term follow-up (Mazeas et al., 2021). === Do different gamification features work differently? === * Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021). * Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 4ov32tuhfuqcmxyqrvpfrlr6ry7trgn 2834073 2834055 2026-09-21T00:28:36Z U3260591 3104152 /* What is exercise gamification? */ 2834073 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a uniform effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === * Self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Different forms of motivation range from autonomous/intrinsic motivation to controlled/extrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2020). === How gamification can support motivation === * Gamification features such as progress feedback, achievable challenges and goals may support feelings of competence by helping users recognise improvement and successful performance. * Social features such as leaderboards, competition and shared challenges may influence relatedness and social comparison, although their effects may depend on the individual and how the feature is designed (Karabiber & Gürol, 2026). === When gamification can undermine motivation === * External rewards and points may encourage behaviour, but gamification should not be assumed to automatically produce autonomous motivation; the psychological quality of the motivation matters. * Research applying SDT to physical activity generally finds positive relationships between more self-determined forms of motivation and physical activity, while controlled motivation and amotivation show weaker or negative relationships (Teixeira et al., 2012). == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === * Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour, so research needs to distinguish between motivation, engagement and actual physical activity. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === * A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials involving 2,407 participants found that gamified interventions had a small-to-medium positive effect on physical activity, although the effect was weaker at longer-term follow-up (Mazeas et al., 2021). === Do different gamification features work differently? === * Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021). * Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 4o9xd6ix0v5pt1dqpu3vxu9700btu9d 2834075 2834073 2026-09-21T00:30:46Z U3260591 3104152 2834075 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === * Self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Different forms of motivation range from autonomous/intrinsic motivation to controlled/extrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2020). === How gamification can support motivation === * Gamification features such as progress feedback, achievable challenges and goals may support feelings of competence by helping users recognise improvement and successful performance. * Social features such as leaderboards, competition and shared challenges may influence relatedness and social comparison, although their effects may depend on the individual and how the feature is designed (Karabiber & Gürol, 2026). === When gamification can undermine motivation === * External rewards and points may encourage behaviour, but gamification should not be assumed to automatically produce autonomous motivation; the psychological quality of the motivation matters. * Research applying SDT to physical activity generally finds positive relationships between more self-determined forms of motivation and physical activity, while controlled motivation and amotivation show weaker or negative relationships (Teixeira et al., 2012). == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === * Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour, so research needs to distinguish between motivation, engagement and actual physical activity. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === * A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials involving 2,407 participants found that gamified interventions had a small-to-medium positive effect on physical activity, although the effect was weaker at longer-term follow-up (Mazeas et al., 2021). === Do different gamification features work differently? === * Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021). * Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] hcx1bvf97mpfgvro4k38pjmn27p92na 2834091 2834075 2026-09-21T01:30:40Z U3260591 3104152 2834091 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === * Gamification features such as progress feedback, achievable challenges and goals may support feelings of competence by helping users recognise improvement and successful performance. * Social features such as leaderboards, competition and shared challenges may influence relatedness and social comparison, although their effects may depend on the individual and how the feature is designed (Karabiber & Gürol, 2026). === When gamification can undermine motivation === * External rewards and points may encourage behaviour, but gamification should not be assumed to automatically produce autonomous motivation; the psychological quality of the motivation matters. * Research applying SDT to physical activity generally finds positive relationships between more self-determined forms of motivation and physical activity, while controlled motivation and amotivation show weaker or negative relationships (Teixeira et al., 2012). == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === * Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour, so research needs to distinguish between motivation, engagement and actual physical activity. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === * A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials involving 2,407 participants found that gamified interventions had a small-to-medium positive effect on physical activity, although the effect was weaker at longer-term follow-up (Mazeas et al., 2021). === Do different gamification features work differently? === * Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021). * Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 5v1s1xdtic5hhk0flqm1qmxtxamg677 2834095 2834091 2026-09-21T01:49:19Z U3260591 3104152 2834095 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. === When gamification can undermine motivation === * External rewards and points may encourage behaviour, but gamification should not be assumed to automatically produce autonomous motivation; the psychological quality of the motivation matters. * Research applying SDT to physical activity generally finds positive relationships between more self-determined forms of motivation and physical activity, while controlled motivation and amotivation show weaker or negative relationships (Teixeira et al., 2012). == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === * Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour, so research needs to distinguish between motivation, engagement and actual physical activity. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === * A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials involving 2,407 participants found that gamified interventions had a small-to-medium positive effect on physical activity, although the effect was weaker at longer-term follow-up (Mazeas et al., 2021). === Do different gamification features work differently? === * Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021). * Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] b1m9aeu4up41exrkjeky8d8kpvcvwgs 2834098 2834095 2026-09-21T02:08:27Z U3260591 3104152 2834098 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. === When gamification can undermine motivation === * External rewards and points may encourage behaviour, but gamification should not be assumed to automatically produce autonomous motivation; the psychological quality of the motivation matters. * Research applying SDT to physical activity generally finds positive relationships between more self-determined forms of motivation and physical activity, while controlled motivation and amotivation show weaker or negative relationships (Teixeira et al., 2012). == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === * Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour, so research needs to distinguish between motivation, engagement and actual physical activity. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === * A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials involving 2,407 participants found that gamified interventions had a small-to-medium positive effect on physical activity, although the effect was weaker at longer-term follow-up (Mazeas et al., 2021). === Do different gamification features work differently? === * Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021). * Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] adqrp0x1l9jt4ux61prwfzfn3ae3tkp 2834104 2834098 2026-09-21T02:45:36Z U3260591 3104152 2834104 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. === When gamification can undermine motivation === Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at longer-term follow-up, averaging approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness therefore depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === * Research on gamified smartphone applications similarly indicates small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity but the large variation between studies suggests that the effectiveness of gamification depends partly on how interventions are designed (Yang et al., 2021). * Long-term exercise adherence should therefore be considered separately from short-term increases in engagement, especially because gamification effects may become smaller over time. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2021). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] s1szxvsz2u8hbbib0qhh3i44j5o5z7d 2834108 2834104 2026-09-21T05:13:27Z U3260591 3104152 /* Short-term motivation and long-term adherence */ 2834108 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. === When gamification can undermine motivation === Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == === Supporting meaningful motivation === * Effective gamification should be based on psychological principles and behaviour-change evidence, rather than simply adding game elements such as points or badges. * Features that provide meaningful goals, feedback and opportunities for progress may help support motivation, particularly when they encourage feelings of competence and autonomy (Krath et al., 2021). === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === * Competitive features such as leaderboards may motivate some users but could discourage others, highlighting the importance of individual differences and the way gamification features are implemented. * Gamification should aim to support sustained exercise behaviour, rather than relying only on novelty, rewards or short-term engagement. === Designing for sustained exercise === * Future exercise-gamification interventions should investigate which combinations of game elements are most effective for the majority of people as current research shows considerable variation between interventions (Xu et al., 2022). <quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 1xxmllq4bp1a4fgz0sr8wrbzx6sqlff 2834109 2834108 2026-09-21T05:29:47Z U3260591 3104152 2834109 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: A little more motivation''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. === When gamification can undermine motivation === Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour.<quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 5if8572qf576sbo2o7i7y9gbquvpgud 2834113 2834109 2026-09-21T06:28:19Z U3260591 3104152 /* Overview */ 2834113 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour.<quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] iayohyiygbs6leluv3dtnmqbmr9g4gp 2834114 2834113 2026-09-21T06:30:56Z U3260591 3104152 2834114 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour.<quiz display=simple> '''Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation?'''} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. </quiz> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 5gt1vj2ygrj5upvs0svcp020nalf7ey 2834115 2834114 2026-09-21T06:32:35Z U3260591 3104152 /* Designing for sustained exercise */ 2834115 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] kbrtwrt178gviczkgvwjaralzaizyzf 2834116 2834115 2026-09-21T06:41:42Z U3260591 3104152 /* When gamification can undermine motivation */ 2834116 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 0nhg4pwkz847wb882qdjzuhr7xx04a8 2834117 2834116 2026-09-21T06:50:20Z U3260591 3104152 /* How gamification can support motivation */ 2834117 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|300px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] knlhsxt3t1yjdl2032euqrw6ac1hmxj 2834118 2834117 2026-09-21T06:51:26Z U3260591 3104152 /* How gamification can support motivation */ 2834118 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|400px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] libhdi8f11zc4hcwjzip3i8lbu29zdd 2834119 2834118 2026-09-21T06:51:52Z U3260591 3104152 /* How gamification can support motivation */ 2834119 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] fokjbppj5gg7ax7fm56vfdxgww2ot8w 2834120 2834119 2026-09-21T06:55:36Z U3260591 3104152 /* Designing for sustained exercise */ 2834120 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Learning features== A short case study will compare two people who respond differently to the same gamified fitness app and ask readers to explain the difference using motivational theory. A feature box will also be added to summarise key evidence-based principles for using gamification to support sustainable exercise motivation ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] nmlbta4cs4yjr4bfbyyyysvolqqjerr 2834121 2834120 2026-09-21T06:55:52Z U3260591 3104152 /* Learning features */ 2834121 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== * Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by incorporating game elements such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction that can make exercise more engaging. * Psychological theories, especially Self-Determination Theory, can help explain why gamification may strengthen or weaken motivation depending on how game elements support or frustrate psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. * Research suggests that gamification can increase physical activity and engagement, but effects vary between individuals and may decrease over time, highlighting the importance of considering long-term exercise adherence. * Effective exercise gamification should support meaningful and sustainable motivation rather than relying solely on external rewards. Practical strategies may include providing meaningful choices, achievable challenges, progress feedback and opportunities for social connection while avoiding excessive pressure or competition. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] os0c37x2somywkus04u20oe8a93e8x1 2834122 2834121 2026-09-21T07:02:11Z U3260591 3104152 /* Conclusion */ 2834122 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use internal link style as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== {{ic|Use bullet points}} [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 563gtjiqtp7cqva582z5b567k5am6k0 2834133 2834122 2026-09-21T07:40:23Z U3260591 3104152 /* External links */ 2834133 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 1rfq7o4gn4ly08b97cqf1i4b5w3so2v 2834134 2834133 2026-09-21T07:41:45Z U3260591 3104152 /* References */ 2834134 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Le Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Karabiber, H., & Gürol, Y. D. (2026). Feedback, competition, and cooperation: Behavioral effects of gamification elements in individual and team settings. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106908 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] hhr2af57j4z73zsya9ddu6r7gzwj3mh 2834135 2834134 2026-09-21T07:46:16Z U3260591 3104152 /* References */ 2834135 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from a video game as physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification uses selected game elements to influence motivation and behaviour within an existing activity (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Le Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 2q2kzp5scf565y02ocq7ul1ig8wm0ag 2834136 2834135 2026-09-21T07:47:41Z U3260591 3104152 /* What is exercise gamification? */ 2834136 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from an exergame, where physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification adds selected game elements to an existing activity to influence motivation and behaviour (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence, (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness, (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Le Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] drnh4h3iajmau5shk7coir7ktzg543v 2834137 2834136 2026-09-21T07:48:45Z U3260591 3104152 /* Psychological mechanisms of gamification */ 2834137 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from an exergame, where physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification adds selected game elements to an existing activity to influence motivation and behaviour (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another. === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Le Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 0kdqok1mmo6da53kt25m3sgu1gdhoj0 2834138 2834137 2026-09-21T07:50:20Z U3260591 3104152 /* Overview */ 2834138 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes increasingly motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from an exergame, where physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification adds selected game elements to an existing activity to influence motivation and behaviour (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another. === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all elements. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Le Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] kmd85mcya3hlb9ccmnf4v7lnvs4qkyj 2834139 2834138 2026-09-21T07:50:40Z U3260591 3104152 /* Effects on physical activity */ 2834139 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes increasingly motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from an exergame, where physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification adds selected game elements to an existing activity to influence motivation and behaviour (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another. === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all interventions. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Le Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] 22a94qxi6v8uq5pyasrb6tng9mov62t 2834140 2834139 2026-09-21T07:54:55Z U3260591 3104152 /* External links */ 2834140 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Exercise gamification motivation:<br>How can gamification affect exercise motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}} [[File:WORKOUT.jpg|thumb|Man earning points for exercising (figure 1)]] '''Case study: Meet Alex''' Alex has recently started using a fitness app to become more physically active. The app awards points for completing workouts, gives badges for reaching milestones, displays weekly challenges, and allows users to compare their progress with friends (see figure 1). At first, Alex exercises mainly to improve their health, but soon becomes increasingly motivated by earning enough points to reach the next level. When Alex moves up the leaderboard, they feel a sense of achievement and become more motivated to exercise again. However, after falling behind other users, Alex begins to lose interest and considers stopping. Alex's experience raises an important question: why can the same gamification features that motivate exercise for some people have different effects on motivation and behaviour for others? {{RoundBoxBottom}} Regular physical activity provides important physical and psychological benefits, yet maintaining exercise behaviour can be difficult. Digital fitness technologies increasingly use gamification, such as points, rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, to encourage people to become more active. Gamification may make exercise more engaging and provide users with goals and feedback, but its effects on motivation and behaviour are not necessarily straightforward. Psychological science can help explain why gamification may influence exercise motivation and whether increased motivation translates into sustained exercise behaviour. Understanding theories of motivation can also help identify when gamification is likely to support engagement and when it may instead reduce motivation or discourage participation. {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' *What is exercise gamification and how is it used to influence motivation? *What psychological mechanisms explain how gamification can affect exercise motivation? *How does gamification influence actual exercise behaviour and adherence? *When might gamification support or undermine exercise motivation? *How can gamification be designed to encourage sustainable exercise behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Understanding exercise gamification == Digital technologies have changed the way people monitor and engage with physical activity. Smartphones, fitness applications and wearable devices can track behaviours such as daily steps, workout frequency and exercise intensity while providing immediate feedback about progress. Additionally, these technologies also include features traditionally associated with games to make physical activity more engaging. This approach is known as gamification and is commonly used to encourage participation and maintain motivation for exercise. === What is exercise gamification? === Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements in non-game contexts. In exercise settings, this involves adding game-like features to an activity that is not itself necessarily a game. For example, a person may earn points for completing a workout, maintain a streak for reaching a daily step goal or compete against friends on a leaderboard. This differs from an exergame, where physical activity forms part of the gaming experience. Instead, gamification adds selected game elements to an existing activity to influence motivation and behaviour (Krath et al., 2021). === Common gamification features === Exercise gamification can take many forms including points, badges, rewards, challenges, progress tracking, feedback and leaderboards. These features transform physical activity into measurable goals and achievements, allowing users to monitor their performance and receive feedback about their progress. For example, Shameli et al. (2017) examined how app-based walking challenges could encourage users to increase their daily physical activity, demonstrating how a relatively simple game element can be applied to an everyday behaviour such as walking. A systematic review of 50 gamified physical activity interventions found that goal-setting was the most frequently used game element, appearing in 60% of studies, followed by progress bars (52%), rewards (50%), points (44%) and feedback (42%). Competition, collaboration, leaderboards, challenges and badges were also identified, showing that gamification can involve considerably more than simply earning points or rewards (Xu et al., 2022). Importantly, different game elements may not be equally effective. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that the effects of gamified physical activity interventions among children and adolescents differed according to factors including the game elements used, theoretical approach and intervention duration (Wang et al., 2025). Gamification should therefore not be considered a single behaviour-change strategy with a consistent effect. Instead, different features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour through different psychological processes. Understanding these processes requires examining the psychological theories that explain why gamification can motivate exercise in the first place. == Psychological mechanisms of gamification == Gamification can influence exercise motivation through several psychological processes, rather than simply making physical activity more entertaining. Understanding these processes helps explain why the same game feature may support motivation for one person while creating pressure or discouragement for another. === Self-determination theory === Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework for understanding why the same exercise goal can feel motivating in one situation but pressuring in another. SDT proposes that motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy (the feeling of having choice and control over one's actions), competence (the feeling of being capable and effective) and relatedness (the feeling of connection and belonging with others) (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Environments that support these needs are more likely to encourage higher-quality motivation, whereas environments that frustrate them may undermine motivation. Importantly, SDT distinguishes between different qualities of motivation rather than simply asking how motivated someone is. Autonomous motivation occurs when a behaviour is enjoyable or personally valued (Yaban & Gaschler, 2025). For example, someone may exercise because running is enjoyable or because improving their health is personally important. In contrast, controlled motivation involves internal or external pressure, such as exercising to avoid guilt, gain approval or obtain a reward (Claes et al., 2026). At the far end of the spectrum, amotivation describes a lack of intention or meaningful motivation to act (Hardcastle et al., 2015). These distinctions are important because two people could complete the same workout while being motivated for very different reasons. Research supports the relevance of these distinctions to exercise behaviour. A systematic review of 66 studies found that autonomous forms of motivation were consistently associated with exercise participation, with identified regulation appearing particularly relevant to initial exercise adoption and intrinsic motivation showing stronger links with long-term adherence (Teixeira et al., 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis involving 15,984 children and adolescents found moderate positive associations between autonomous motivation and physical activity, whereas controlled forms of motivation showed weak negative associations (Owen et al., 2014). More recent evaluation of SDT research suggests that interventions informed by the theory can improve physical activity, although effects are generally small to moderate and appear to operate particularly through autonomous motivation and competence need satisfaction (Ntoumanis & Moller, 2025). SDT therefore offers more than an explanation of whether gamification can make exercise motivating. It raises the more important question of what type of motivation gamification creates. A progress indicator that helps someone recognise improvement may support competence, whereas a reward that makes exercise feel obligatory could create external pressure. Understanding whether game features support or frustrate psychological needs may therefore help explain why gamification can strengthen motivation in some circumstances but undermine it in others. === How gamification can support motivation === Gamification supports exercise motivation when game elements help satisfy the psychological needs described by self-determination theory. Rather than motivation arising simply because an activity contains points or rewards, it is more important to understand how these features are experienced. Gamification can provide clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progression and opportunities for social interaction, all of which can contribute to motivational experiences (Krath et al., 2021). Competence may be particularly relevant to exercise gamification. Features such as progress bars, performance feedback, levels and achievable challenges allow users to see evidence of improvement. For example, watching a weekly step goal gradually fill provides immediate information about progress towards an achievable target. Gamification can also adjust the difficulty of tasks according to a user's abilities, potentially allowing challenges to remain achievable while still requiring effort (Krath et al., 2021). These features may help users feel increasingly capable rather than viewing exercise as an activity in which they are unsuccessful. Gamification may also support autonomy when users are given meaningful choices over their goals and how they pursue them. Personalised goals, optional challenges and different progression paths can provide greater control than systems that impose the same targets on every user. Similarly, relatedness may be supported through social features that allow users to cooperate, share progress or work towards common goals. Social interaction may therefore provide encouragement and a sense of connection alongside the exercise itself. However, the presence of these features does not necessarily mean that psychological needs will be satisfied. Reviews of health gamification have noted that interventions often combine multiple game elements, making it difficult to determine which specific features produce motivational effects (Johnson et al., 2016). This distinction is important because a leaderboard that creates connection and friendly competition for one person could create pressure or discouragement for another. Therefore, the motivational value of gamification may depend less on whether game elements are present and more on how those elements are designed and experienced. Figure 2 illustrates how game elements may influence exercise behaviour through their effects on psychological experiences and motivation. [[File:Gamification features.png|thumb|Gamification exercise motivation pathway|center|550px|'''Figure 2.''' A simplified pathway through which gamification features may influence exercise motivation and behaviour.]] <quiz display=simple> Which feature is most likely to support autonomous exercise motivation? |type="()"} - Users lose points whenever they miss a workout. || Punishing missed workouts may create pressure to exercise, making motivation feel more controlled rather than self-directed. + Users choose their own exercise goals and receive feedback about their progress. || Providing choice can support autonomy, while progress feedback can support competence. Both are important psychological needs within self-determination theory. - Users are publicly ranked against other users. || Public rankings emphasise comparison and external performance. For some users, this may shift attention towards external outcomes rather than autonomous reasons for exercising. </quiz> === When gamification can undermine motivation === <div style="border: 2px solid #4a7ebb; background-color: #f2f7fc; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Case study: Same app, different motivation''' Jordan and Sam use the same fitness app, which awards points, tracks exercise streaks, and ranks users on a leaderboard. Jordan enjoys seeing their progress and feels encouraged to exercise regularly. Sam becomes anxious about losing their streak and discouraged when they fall behind other users. '''Reflection question''' Using self-determination theory, how could the different responses of Jordan and Sam be explained? ''Think about how the app may affect each person's autonomy, competence, and reasons for exercising.'' </div> Gamification does not always support autonomous exercise motivation. From an SDT perspective, rewards, competition and performance targets may become controlling when users feel pressured to exercise for an external outcome rather than because the activity is enjoyable or personally meaningful (Ryan & Deci, 2020). For example, maintaining an exercise streak may initially encourage consistency but the desire to avoid losing the streak could shift motivation towards pressure and obligation. Competition can also produce different experiences across users. Leaderboards may provide enjoyable social comparison for some people but may discourage users who repeatedly see themselves performing below others. Research on gamification similarly suggests that individual responses to game elements can vary, meaning that features intended to motivate do not necessarily benefit every user in the same way (Krath et al., 2021). This distinction highlights a potential limitation of exercise gamification. Increasing engagement with a gamified system is not necessarily the same as developing sustainable motivation for exercise. A person may exercise to earn points, maintain a streak or outperform others without developing a personally meaningful reason to remain active. Whether this motivation persists when the game element disappears therefore becomes an important question. == Gamification and exercise behaviour == Increased motivation does not necessarily mean that a person will maintain exercise behaviour. Research must therefore distinguish between motivation, engagement with gamified features and actual changes in physical activity. === Effects on physical activity === Overall, research suggests that gamification can produce measurable increases in physical activity. A meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity compared with non-gamified conditions, indicating that game elements can influence behaviour rather than simply increasing interest in an application (Yang et al., 2022). However, substantial variation between studies suggests that gamification does not produce consistent effects across all interventions. Differences in the game elements used, intervention design and participant characteristics may partly explain these mixed outcomes. === Short-term motivation and long-term adherence === Evidence that gamification increases physical activity in the short term does not necessarily mean these changes will be maintained. Mazeas et al. (2022) found that gamified interventions produced a small-to-moderate positive effect on physical activity immediately after the intervention (''g'' = 0.42). However, at a longer-term follow-up, at approximately 14 weeks, the effect was considerably smaller (''g'' = 0.15), although it remained statistically significant. This suggests that gamification may be more effective at encouraging initial engagement than producing substantial long-term behaviour change. Importantly, continued use of an app or pursuit of rewards should not automatically be interpreted as sustained exercise motivation. Long-term effectiveness depends not only on whether gamification encourages activity while game elements are present, but whether exercise behaviour persists over time. === Do different gamification features work differently? === The effectiveness of gamification may depend on which game elements are used and how they are designed. A systematic review and meta-analysis of gamified smartphone applications found small-to-moderate improvements in physical activity, but considerable variation between interventions (Yang et al., 2022). This variation may partly reflect differences in features such as rewards, challenges, feedback and social comparison, as well as how these elements are combined. Research also suggests that individual game elements can create different psychological experiences rather than producing a consistent motivational effect (Krath et al., 2021). Therefore, successful gamification may depend less on including as many game elements as possible and more on selecting features that support the intended motivational and behavioural outcomes. == Designing effective and sustainable exercise gamification == Understanding why gamification influences motivation can help inform how exercise technologies are designed. Effective gamification should apply psychological and behaviour-change principles rather than simply adding game elements in the hope that they will increase engagement. === Supporting meaningful motivation === Effective gamification should support meaningful reasons for exercising rather than focusing only on external rewards. Features such as personalised goals, progress feedback and achievable challenges may support feelings of autonomy and competence by giving users greater control and making improvement visible (Krath et al., 2021). From an SDT perspective, this may encourage more autonomous motivation than systems that pressure users towards predetermined targets. Gamification design should therefore consider the psychological experience created by game elements, not simply the number of features included. === Balancing rewards, competition and pressure === Rewards and competitive features require careful design because they may motivate users in different ways. Leaderboards and challenges can provide achievement and social comparison, but they may also create pressure or discourage users who consistently perform below others (Krath et al., 2021). Similarly, rewards may encourage participation without necessarily developing autonomous motivation. Exercise gamification should therefore avoid making points, streaks or rankings the primary reason for being active and instead use these features to complement personally meaningful exercise goals. === Designing for sustained exercise === Sustainable gamification should ultimately encourage continued exercise rather than dependence on the gamified system. Evidence that gamification effects become smaller at longer-term follow-up suggests that initial increases in activity do not always translate into lasting behaviour change (Mazeas et al., 2022). Future studies should also investigate which combinations and implementations of game elements are most effective as existing studies show mixed results and considerable variation in their design (Xu et al., 2022). Gamification should therefore aim to support meaningful goals, feedback and psychological needs while helping exercise become a personally valued and sustainable behaviour. <div style="border: 2px solid #4f8a5b; background-color: #eef8f0; padding: 15px; margin: 20px 0; border-radius: 8px;"> '''Key principles for sustainable exercise gamification''' ✓ '''Support meaningful goals''' — Connect gamification with personally valued reasons for exercising. ✓ '''Make progress visible''' — Provide useful feedback that supports feelings of competence. ✓ '''Provide meaningful choice''' — Allow personalisation rather than imposing identical goals on every user. ✓ '''Use rewards and competition carefully''' — Avoid creating excessive pressure or dependence on external rewards. ✓ '''Think beyond short-term engagement''' — Design gamification to support sustained exercise behaviour, not simply continued app use. </div> ==Conclusion== Gamification can influence exercise motivation and behaviour by using features such as goals, feedback, rewards, progress tracking and social interaction to make physical activity more engaging. However, simply adding game elements does not guarantee meaningful or lasting behaviour change. Self-determination theory helps explain this difference as gamification may strengthen motivation when it supports autonomy, competence and relatedness, but may create pressure or controlled motivation when these psychological needs are frustrated. Research suggests that gamification can produce small-to-moderate increases in physical activity, although effects vary across interventions and tend to weaken over time. This highlights an important distinction between increasing short-term engagement and supporting long-term exercise adherence. Different users may also experience the same game elements differently, meaning that effective design should consider the psychological experience created rather than simply the number of features included. Sustainable exercise gamification should therefore support meaningful motivation through personalised goals, achievable challenges, useful progress feedback, meaningful choice and opportunities for social connection. Ultimately, gamification is most useful when game elements support continued physical activity rather than becoming the primary reason for exercising. ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2017/Gamification and motivation|Gamification and motivation]] (Book chapter, 2017) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Physical activity motivation|Physical activity motivation]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation|Physical activity tracking and exercise motivation]] (Book chapter, 2023) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory Self-Determination Theory] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Claes, S., De Wit, S., Le Clercq, B. L., & Annemans, L. (2026). What moves you? The relation between exercise motivation and well-being using a person-centered approach. BMC Public Health, 26(1), 497. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-26028-2 Hardcastle, S. J., Hancox, J., Hattar, A., Maxwell-Smith, C., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Hagger, M. S. (2015). Motivating the unmotivated: how can health behavior be changed in those unwilling to change? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00835 Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002 Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106963 Mazeas, A., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., & Chalabaev, A. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of gamification on physical activity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e26779. https://doi.org/10.2196/26779 Ntoumanis, N., & Moller, A. C. (2025). Self-determination theory informed research for promoting physical activity: Contributions, debates, and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80, 102879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102879 Owen, K. B., Smith, J., Lubans, D. R., Ng, J. Y., & Lonsdale, C. (2014). Self-determined motivation and physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 67, 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.033 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860 Shameli, A., Althoff, T., Saberi, A., & Leskovec, J. (2017). How Gamification Affects Physical Activity. Proc Int World Wide Web Conf, 2017, 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1145/3041021.3054172 Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: A systematic review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78 Wang, M., Xu, J., Zhou, X., Li, X., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Effectiveness of Gamification Interventions to Improve Physical activity and Sedentary Behavior in Children and Adolescents: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 13, e68151. https://doi.org/10.2196/68151 Xu, L., Shi, H., Shen, M., Ni, Y., Zhang, X., Pang, Y., Yu, T., Lian, X., Yu, T., Yang, X., & Li, F. (2022). The Effects of MHealth-Based Gamification Interventions on Participation in Physical Activity: Systematic review. JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth, 10(2), e27794. https://doi.org/10.2196/27794 Yaban, E. H., & Gaschler, R. (2025). Autonomous Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and developmental regulation processes in distance education across diverse age groups. American Journal of Distance Education, 40(3), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2025.2484047 Yang, Y., Hu, H., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2022). Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(4), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.10.005 }} ==External links== [https://www.health.gov.au/topics/physical-activity/24-hour-movement-guidelines-for-all-australians?language=en 24-hour movement guidelines for all Australians] (Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) [https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity Physical activity] (World Health Organization) [https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/topics/application-sportsandexercise/ Self-Determination Theory: Sports and Exercise] (Center for Self-Determination Theory) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Exercise]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gamification]] fyx9puht30tphoeic0wjelniksh7yep 2 331218 2834145 2833674 2026-09-21T09:40:11Z StretchBeyond 3105744 2834145 wikitext text/x-wiki == About Me == I am a military veteran, working to complete a Bachelor of Science in Psychology as part of a lifelong approach to learning. After a military career working with people around the world on a spectrum of operations, I wanted to better understand the human dimension and the science behind what makes us all tick. Along the way, I want to give back to the community where I can. I have an interest in veterans' PTSD, advocacy and international affairs. == Book Chapter == [[File:PTSD.png|left|thumb|250x250px|'''Figure 1.''' PTSD can have a deep and lasting impact on our emotions.]] I am writing a book chapter titled [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Immersive therapy for PTSD treatment|Immersive Therapy for PTSD: How does it work and what are the effects?]] This chapter is an individual student contribution as part of a larger [https://www.canberra.edu.au/ University of Canberra] class effort in 2026 to write a book [[Motivation and emotion/Book]]. The 2026 book extends a Wikiversity book series started in 2010, with over 1,800 online book chapters on how psychological science can improve human lives. The book editor and University psychology unit convener is [[User:Jtneill|Dr. James Neill]] {{clear}} == Social Contributions == #'''18 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Defence mechanisms and emotion regulation. Edits at https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FDefence_mechanisms_and_emotion_regulation&diff=2822629&oldid=2763661 # '''18 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Neurodivergence and trauma. Edits at https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FNeurodivergence_and_trauma&diff=2822636&oldid=2812805 # '''19 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Incentive theory of motivation. Edits at<nowiki/>https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FIncentive_theory_of_motivation&diff=2822844&oldid=2814898 # '''19 Aug 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Introduced the book chapter intent to the class and welcomed anyone with sim<nowiki/>ilar topics or interests to contribute. I offered the same. https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/456450 # '''20 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some peer-reviewed ideas on starter references f<nowiki/>or a Chapter page. [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Perfectionism and procrastination#Reference material]] # '''20 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some peer-reviewed ideas on starter references f<nowiki/>or a Chapter page.[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Irritability#Reference material]] # '''22 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Mental health in astronauts. Edits at [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FMental_health_in_astronauts&diff=2824159&oldid=2804667 ht]<nowiki/>[https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FMental_health_in_astronauts&diff=2824159&oldid=2804667 tps://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FMental_health_in_astronauts&diff=2824159&oldid=2804667] # '''25 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some peer-reviewed ideas on starter references f<nowiki/>or a Chapter page.[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Feedback literacy#Reference]] # '''25 Aug 26''': UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query.[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457190 https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/201]<nowiki/>[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457190 43/discussion_topics/457190] # '''26 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some external link ideas for a Chapter page.[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Dark empathy#Reference|Talk]]<nowiki/>[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Dark empathy#Reference|:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Dark empathy#Reference]] # '''26 Aug 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query with data from a Random Game of Dice scenar<nowiki/>io.https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457412 # '''27 Aug 26:''' Wiki thanks and editing conversation: [[User talk:Jtneill#Punctuation change in book title]] # '''28 Aug 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query<nowiki/> https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457809 # '''4 Sep 26:''' Comment: Included creation of graphics for Wiki page.[[c:File:Avoidance_and_Processing_Cycles.png|ht]]<nowiki/>[[c:File:Avoidance_and_Processing_Cycles.png|tps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avoidance_and_Processing_Cycles.png]] # '''4 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted other Wiki user by adding a quiz temp<nowiki/>late to their chapter page https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FBuilding_therapeutic_alliance&diff=2831108&oldid=2830050 # '''8 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted other Wiki user by adding a quiz temp<nowiki/>late to their chapter page https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FSelf-concept_and_motivation&diff=2832141&oldid=2831622 # '''9 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted another Wiki user by adding a quiz te<nowiki/>mplate to their chapter page<nowiki/>https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FOutdoor_play_and_children%27s_emotional_well-being&diff=2832147&oldid=2828722 # '''9 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query <nowiki/>https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457888 # '''11 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Chapter word count question - in<nowiki/>cludes great response advice from other contributors on tools and techniques https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/461216 # '''14 Sep:''' Comment: Assisted another Wiki user by adding some advice<nowiki/> on prediction error references [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Fear extinction#Prediction Error and Extinction]] # '''15 Sep 26:''' Correspondence: Email exchange between chapter author <nowiki/>and Professor Vermetten, who is credited with creating the 3MDR therapy and referenced in the chapter. "I have looked at the Wikiversity page and think you are on the right path. You have brought together the concepts of immersion, embodiment, motivation, and trauma-focused treatment in a thoughtful and relevant way." # '''16 Sep 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapt<nowiki/>er due to links with PTSD and prediction error ,https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FNeuroscience_of_unexpected_positive_outcomes&diff=2833368&oldid=2762078 # '''16 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student request for<nowiki/> chapter feedback on impulsivity and sensation seeking https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/461607 # '''16 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student request for<nowiki/> chapter feedback on brain implants for chronic pain<nowiki/>https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457902 # '''17 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Chapter referencing question abo<nowiki/>ut integration of non-academic journal sources neede<nowiki/>d to source financial market analysis relating to immersive PTSD forecasts. https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/462166 # '''21 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted another Wiki user by making formatti<nowiki/>ng changes in chapter heading styles to create page <nowiki/>menu. https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FHypothalamus_and_homeostatic_motivation&diff=2834144&oldid=2833547 # '''21 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Chapter feedback provided on UC <nowiki/>Canvas at the request of the author.[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457901 https://uclearn.]<nowiki/>[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457901 canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457901] 221a00e29bgg7v4x9qqs55akk2i2yy3 2834146 2834145 2026-09-21T10:09:04Z StretchBeyond 3105744 2834146 wikitext text/x-wiki == About Me == I am a military veteran, working to complete a Bachelor of Science in Psychology as part of a lifelong approach to learning. After a military career working with people around the world on a spectrum of operations, I wanted to better understand the human dimension and the science behind what makes us all tick. Along the way, I want to give back to the community where I can. I have an interest in veterans' PTSD, advocacy and international affairs. == Book Chapter == [[File:PTSD.png|left|thumb|250x250px|'''Figure 1.''' PTSD can have a deep and lasting impact on our emotions.]] I am writing a book chapter titled [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Immersive therapy for PTSD treatment|Immersive Therapy for PTSD: How does it work and what are the effects?]] This chapter is an individual student contribution as part of a larger [https://www.canberra.edu.au/ University of Canberra] class effort in 2026 to write a book [[Motivation and emotion/Book]]. The 2026 book extends a Wikiversity book series started in 2010, with over 1,800 online book chapters on how psychological science can improve human lives. The book editor and University psychology unit convener is [[User:Jtneill|Dr. James Neill]] {{clear}} == Social Contributions == #'''18 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Defence mechanisms and emotion regulation. Edits at https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FDefence_mechanisms_and_emotion_regulation&diff=2822629&oldid=2763661 # '''18 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Neurodivergence and trauma. Edits at https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FNeurodivergence_and_trauma&diff=2822636&oldid=2812805 # '''19 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Incentive theory of motivation. Edits at<nowiki/>https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FIncentive_theory_of_motivation&diff=2822844&oldid=2814898 # '''19 Aug 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Introduced the book chapter intent to the class and welcomed anyone with sim<nowiki/>ilar topics or interests to contribute. I offered the same. https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/456450 # '''20 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some peer-reviewed ideas on starter references f<nowiki/>or a Chapter page. [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Perfectionism and procrastination#Reference material]] # '''20 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some peer-reviewed ideas on starter references f<nowiki/>or a Chapter page.[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Irritability#Reference material]] # '''22 Aug 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapter, Mental health in astronauts. Edits at [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FMental_health_in_astronauts&diff=2824159&oldid=2804667 ht]<nowiki/>[https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FMental_health_in_astronauts&diff=2824159&oldid=2804667 tps://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FMental_health_in_astronauts&diff=2824159&oldid=2804667] # '''25 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some peer-reviewed ideas on starter references f<nowiki/>or a Chapter page.[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Feedback literacy#Reference]] # '''25 Aug 26''': UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query.[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457190 https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/201]<nowiki/>[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457190 43/discussion_topics/457190] # '''26 Aug 26:''' Comment: Supported another Wiki user by providing some external link ideas for a Chapter page.[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Dark empathy#Reference|Talk]]<nowiki/>[[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Dark empathy#Reference|:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Dark empathy#Reference]] # '''26 Aug 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query with data from a Random Game of Dice scenar<nowiki/>io.https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457412 # '''27 Aug 26:''' Wiki thanks and editing conversation: [[User talk:Jtneill#Punctuation change in book title]] # '''28 Aug 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query<nowiki/> https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457809 # '''4 Sep 26:''' Comment: Included creation of graphics for Wiki page.[[c:File:Avoidance_and_Processing_Cycles.png|ht]]<nowiki/>[[c:File:Avoidance_and_Processing_Cycles.png|tps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avoidance_and_Processing_Cycles.png]] # '''4 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted other Wiki user by adding a quiz temp<nowiki/>late to their chapter page https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FBuilding_therapeutic_alliance&diff=2831108&oldid=2830050 # '''8 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted other Wiki user by adding a quiz temp<nowiki/>late to their chapter page https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FSelf-concept_and_motivation&diff=2832141&oldid=2831622 # '''9 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted another Wiki user by adding a quiz te<nowiki/>mplate to their chapter page<nowiki/>https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FOutdoor_play_and_children%27s_emotional_well-being&diff=2832147&oldid=2828722 # '''9 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student topic query <nowiki/>https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457888 # '''11 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Chapter word count question - in<nowiki/>cludes great response advice from other contributors on tools and techniques https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/461216 # '''14 Sep:''' Comment: Assisted another Wiki user by adding some advice<nowiki/> on prediction error references [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Fear extinction#Prediction Error and Extinction]] # '''15 Sep 26:''' Correspondence: Email exchange between chapter author <nowiki/>and Professor Vermetten, who is credited with creating the 3MDR therapy and referenced in the chapter. "I have looked at the Wikiversity page and think you are on the right path. You have brought together the concepts of immersion, embodiment, motivation, and trauma-focused treatment in a thoughtful and relevant way." # '''16 Sep 26:''' Grammar and content editing improvements on 2025 chapt<nowiki/>er due to links with PTSD and prediction error ,https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2025%2FNeuroscience_of_unexpected_positive_outcomes&diff=2833368&oldid=2762078 # '''16 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student request for<nowiki/> chapter feedback on impulsivity and sensation seeking https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/461607 # '''16 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Responded to student request for<nowiki/> chapter feedback on brain implants for chronic pain<nowiki/>https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457902 # '''17 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas Discussion: Chapter referencing question abo<nowiki/>ut integration of non-academic journal sources neede<nowiki/>d to source financial market analysis relating to immersive PTSD forecasts. https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/462166 # '''21 Sep 26:''' Comment: Assisted another Wiki user by making formatti<nowiki/>ng changes in chapter heading styles to create page <nowiki/>menu. https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FHypothalamus_and_homeostatic_motivation&diff=2834144&oldid=2833547 # '''21 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas discussion: Chapter feedback provided on UC <nowiki/>Canvas at the request of the author.[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457901 https://uclearn.]<nowiki/>[https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457901 canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457901] # '''21 Sep 26:''' UC Canvas discussion: Assisted user with search for li<nowiki/>terature. Provided a number of contemporary meta-ana<nowiki/>lyses and systetemic reviews from the library that may help their research. https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/459237 qhmpf2g2lg8idbmwyajos3b6f21tt34 0 331262 2834092 2833213 2026-09-21T01:43:48Z U3228742 3005570 /* Overview */ Updating the scenario and focus questions 2834092 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Dark empathy:<br>What is dark empathy, what are its consequences, and what can be done to address it?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}{{ic|Make it more clear how this connects to dark empathy}} Imagine your extroverted friend, Nikki, has lost their confidence and is isolating herself. After months of attempting to catch up for coffee, she shows up late and spend most of the time glued to her phone. She apologizes as she sends messages every 10 minutes to let her partner know what she is doing. You ask her how she has been and she spends all her time talking about her partner and mentions she is no longer participating in her usual hobbies. You have noticed since she met her partner, Fedrick. She rarely goes anywhere without him. She says he has the same interests as her and enjoys spending time with her. After an hour, Fedrick turns up at the cafe to join the conversation. His stories are often focused on himself and his shared trauma with Nikki. You are starting to suspect that Fedrick has been manipulating Nikki and your friend seems unhappy despite telling you otherwise. {{RoundBoxBottom}} * Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage * Understanding why and how people use dark empathy is important to preventing and addressing the the concern * Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark triad, theory of mind and the schemas {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} could assist with understanding the motivation behind dark empathy {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} ;Focus questions *How to we develop and use empathy? *What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people? * How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Dark empathy == * [[Empathy]] is a shared experience of feelings and thoughts while dark empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing against others * Development of dark empathy '''i'''s when an individual has high levels of dark traits {{ic|What are dark traits?}} and alongside retained or high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022) === Types of empathy === Empathy is a large element of emotional intelligence in an understanding and sharing feeling with others There are two types of empathy: * Cognitive empathy - the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain * Affective empathy - physical and emotional sharing of feelings [[File:The Dark Triad Traits.svg|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark triad and subsets of the three elements ]] === The dark triad === * There are three elements to the dark triad: ** Narcissism ** Machiavellianism ** Psychopathy === Making of a dark empath === * Dark empath isn't a psychological diagnosis, yet a term how an individual differences from other diagnosis from the dark triad * Dark empathy is found in individuals with high dark triad traits and cognitive empathy. Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understanding emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others * It is '''affective dissonance'''—having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022) that is a potential indicator of dark empathy *Research demonstrates experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotion to keep safe may lead to the develop of dark empathy == Consequences of dark empathy == *The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing *While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community === Effects on victims of dark empathy === *it will impact their mental health causing chronic anxiety, lower self-esteem and emotional dependency === Outcome for dark empaths === *the control and manipulation is exhausting. It will impact their mental health potentially leading to depression, mood instability, difficulty maintaining long-term relationships and identity confusion == Address dark empathy == *Dark empathy is not easily recognised in others *A narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of schemas to influence others while a dark empath uses their empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions === Regaining themselves: recovering from a dark empathy === *Recognise the patterns used by the dark empath *Prioritise your self and trust your instincts *Set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship *Seek therapy particularly CBT *Seperation from the dark empath === Unravelling from dark empathy === *Recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing *Attending therapy is the best way to address and understand the behaviours. Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are: **Trauma-informed therapy **[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT) **[[w:Schema_therapy|Schema therapy]] **Emotional regulation and accountability training == Conclusion == * Emotional intelligence does not come with morality * The dark triad is an indicator of dark empathy if individual have high dark traits and affective cognitive empathy * Cognitive empathy and trauma patterns can develop the drive for using dark empathy * Effective identification and therapy will assist with managing an individual using empathy against others ==Figures== [[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]] * For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples * For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure * Figures can show any kind of media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, and so on * Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section * Provide descriptive figure captions (use '''Figure #''' and explain the relevance of the image to the text) * Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] * Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed * Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2) ==Learning features== Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options: {{anchor|Scenarios}} ;Scenarios * Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action * Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages) * Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s) {{anchor|Feature box}} ;Feature boxes * Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect * Consider using feature boxes for: ** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples ** Focus questions ** Tips ** Quiz questions ** Take-home messages ;Embedded links * When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to: ** Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]") or ** Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]") {{anchor|Tables}} ;Tables * Use tables to organise and summarise information * Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1) * Tables should be captioned * [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted '''Table 1''' A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" |- ! !! Known to self !! Not known to self |- | '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot |- | '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown |} ;Quizzes * One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end * Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages * Ask easy rather than hard questions * Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]] Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit": <quiz display=simple> {The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature: |type="()"} + True - False {Long and complex quiz questions are recommended: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> ==Conclusion== * Arguably the most important section * Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking * For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research * Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem * Recommended length: 150 to 330 words {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? * What are the answers to the focus questions? * What are the practical, take-home messages? }} ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) *[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia) *[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia) *[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., & Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., & Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., & Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., & Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., & Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 Mikkelsen, E. N., Geraldi, J., & Clegg, S. (2026). The Dark Side of Empathy and Organization Studies. Organization studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406261459079 }} {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Important aspects of APA referencing style ** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces ** Year of publication in parentheses ** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop ** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop ** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable) ** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]: *** Use "Edit source" *** <nowiki>{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}</nowiki> * The most common mistakes include: ** Incorrect capitalisation ** Incorrect italicisation ** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks ** Citing sources that haven't been consulted }} ==External links== * [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus) * [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/dark-triad Dark Triad] (Psychology Today) * [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy]] 95tij5zobncwnb5mhtsatmfh8u21dtr 2834099 2834092 2026-09-21T02:17:40Z U3228742 3005570 /* Dark empathy */ updated focus questions 2834099 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Dark empathy:<br>What is dark empathy, what are its consequences, and what can be done to address it?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}{{ic|Make it more clear how this connects to dark empathy}} Imagine your extroverted friend, Nikki, has lost their confidence and is isolating herself. After months of attempting to catch up for coffee, she shows up late and spend most of the time glued to her phone. She apologizes as she sends messages every 10 minutes to let her partner know what she is doing. You ask her how she has been and she spends all her time talking about her partner and mentions she is no longer participating in her usual hobbies. You have noticed since she met her partner, Fedrick. She rarely goes anywhere without him. She says he has the same interests as her and enjoys spending time with her. After an hour, Fedrick turns up at the cafe to join the conversation. His stories are often focused on himself and his shared trauma with Nikki. You are starting to suspect that Fedrick has been manipulating Nikki and your friend seems unhappy despite telling you otherwise. {{RoundBoxBottom}} * Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage * Understanding why and how people use dark empathy is important to preventing and addressing the the concern * Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark triad, theory of mind and the schemas {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} could assist with understanding the motivation behind dark empathy {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} ;Focus questions *How to we develop and use empathy in our relationship? *What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life? * How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Dark empathy == * [[Empathy]] is a shared experience of feelings and thoughts while dark empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing against others * Development of dark empathy '''i'''s when an individual has high levels of dark traits {{ic|What are dark traits?}} and alongside retained or high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022) === Types of empathy === Empathy is a large element of emotional intelligence in an understanding and sharing feeling with others There are two types of empathy: * Cognitive empathy - the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain * Affective empathy - physical and emotional sharing of feelings [[File:The Dark Triad Traits.svg|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark triad and subsets of the three elements ]] === The dark triad === * There are three elements to the dark triad: ** Narcissism ** Machiavellianism ** Psychopathy === Making of a dark empath === * Dark empath isn't a psychological diagnosis, yet a term how an individual differences from other diagnosis from the dark triad * Dark empathy is found in individuals with high dark triad traits and cognitive empathy. Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understanding emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others * It is '''affective dissonance'''—having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022) that is a potential indicator of dark empathy *Research demonstrates experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotion to keep safe may lead to the develop of dark empathy == Consequences of dark empathy == *The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing *While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community === Effects on victims of dark empathy === *it will impact their mental health causing chronic anxiety, lower self-esteem and emotional dependency === Outcome for dark empaths === *the control and manipulation is exhausting. It will impact their mental health potentially leading to depression, mood instability, difficulty maintaining long-term relationships and identity confusion == Address dark empathy == *Dark empathy is not easily recognised in others *A narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of schemas to influence others while a dark empath uses their empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions === Regaining themselves: recovering from a dark empathy === *Recognise the patterns used by the dark empath *Prioritise your self and trust your instincts *Set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship *Seek therapy particularly CBT *Seperation from the dark empath === Unravelling from dark empathy === *Recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing *Attending therapy is the best way to address and understand the behaviours. Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are: **Trauma-informed therapy **[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT) **[[w:Schema_therapy|Schema therapy]] **Emotional regulation and accountability training == Conclusion == * Emotional intelligence does not come with morality * The dark triad is an indicator of dark empathy if individual have high dark traits and affective cognitive empathy * Cognitive empathy and trauma patterns can develop the drive for using dark empathy * Effective identification and therapy will assist with managing an individual using empathy against others ==Figures== [[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]] * For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples * For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure * Figures can show any kind of media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, and so on * Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section * Provide descriptive figure captions (use '''Figure #''' and explain the relevance of the image to the text) * Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] * Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed * Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2) ==Learning features== Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options: {{anchor|Scenarios}} ;Scenarios * Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action * Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages) * Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s) {{anchor|Feature box}} ;Feature boxes * Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect * Consider using feature boxes for: ** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples ** Focus questions ** Tips ** Quiz questions ** Take-home messages ;Embedded links * When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to: ** Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]") or ** Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]") {{anchor|Tables}} ;Tables * Use tables to organise and summarise information * Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1) * Tables should be captioned * [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted '''Table 1''' A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;" |- ! !! Known to self !! Not known to self |- | '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot |- | '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown |} ;Quizzes * One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end * Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages * Ask easy rather than hard questions * Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]] Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit": <quiz display=simple> {The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature: |type="()"} + True - False {Long and complex quiz questions are recommended: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> ==Conclusion== * Arguably the most important section * Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking * For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research * Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem * Recommended length: 150 to 330 words {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? * What are the answers to the focus questions? * What are the practical, take-home messages? }} ==See also== *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019) *[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021) *[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) *[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia) *[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia) *[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia) ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., & Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., & Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., & Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., & Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., & Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 Mikkelsen, E. N., Geraldi, J., & Clegg, S. (2026). The Dark Side of Empathy and Organization Studies. Organization studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406261459079 }} {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Important aspects of APA referencing style ** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces ** Year of publication in parentheses ** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop ** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop ** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable) ** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]: *** Use "Edit source" *** <nowiki>{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}</nowiki> * The most common mistakes include: ** Incorrect capitalisation ** Incorrect italicisation ** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks ** Citing sources that haven't been consulted }} ==External links== * [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus) * [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/dark-triad Dark Triad] (Psychology Today) * [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy]] ps86rcap6z2xhfcaozhx8lo579n9og9 1 331542 2834068 2833212 2026-09-21T00:14:33Z Jtneill 10242 Tidy topic development for Overview 2834068 wikitext text/x-wiki == Reference == Hi, This should be a pretty interesting chapter. I was going to add this link (not a journal article) directly to your external link section, but thought I'd leave it here just in case. Good luck with the page. https://www.wikihow.com/Dark-Empath [[User:StretchBeyond|StretchBeyond]] ([[User talk:StretchBeyond|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/StretchBeyond|contribs]]) 08:31, 26 August 2026 (UTC) <!-- Official topic development feedback --> {{METF/2026 |1= <!-- Title --> # Title and subtitle are correctly worded and use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] |2= <!-- Heading structure --> <!-- 2-level --> # Promising [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Major project/Structure|2-level heading structure]] – could benefit from further development and/or refinement # Remove "Case study" heading (fixed) <!-- Conceptual --> # Revise "Dark empathy" heading to be more descriptive # Revise "Addresss dark empathy" heading to be more descriptive <!-- Alignment with focus questions --> # Insufficient alignment between sub-title, focus questions, and top-level headings |3= <!-- Overview--> # Partially developed <!-- Scenario --> # A basic scenario is planned, but it is unclear how it relates to DE <!-- Description --> # A basic description of the problem/topic is planned or presented <!-- Focus questions --> <!-- Alignment and quality --> # Present focus questions in a feature box at the end of this section |4= <!-- Key points--> <!-- Overall --> # Basic development # The key points lack a clear definition of DE; there may be some conceptual confusion with the dark triad <!-- Scope --> # ''Avoid providing too much background information''. Aim to briefly summarise general concepts and provide internal links to relevant book chapters and/or Wikipedia pages for further information. Focus most of the chapter on ''directly answering the core question(s)'' posed by the chapter sub-title. <!-- Theory and research --> # Strive for an integrated balance of the best psychological theory and research about this topic, with practical examples. <!-- Citations --> # Insufficient use of citations # [https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/punctuation/serial-comma APA style uses serial commas][[w:Serial comma|1]][https://www.buzzfeed.com/adamdavis/the-oxford-comma-is-extremely-important-and-everyone-should 2][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBx8ooDupXY 3] (1 min) # Consider using Studiosity Writing Feedback+ or a similar writing-support service (e.g., Grammarly) to improve the quality of written expression and check for grammatical and spelling errors in the book chapter draft. <!-- Conclusion --> # Conclusion is underway # What are the practical, take-home messages? (address the focus questions) |5= <!-- Figure --> # Relevant figure(s) are presented and captioned <!-- Caption --> # Figure caption(s) provide(s) a reasonably clear description that is connected with the main text <!-- Cite --> # Cite each figure at least once in the main text using APA style (e.g., see Figure 1) <!-- Size --> # Consider increasing image size(s) (especially if they have text) to make them easier to view |6= <!-- Learning feature --> <!-- Interwiki links ---> # Excellent in-text [[m:Help:Interwiki linking|interwiki links]] for first mention of key terms to [[w:|Wikipedia]]. Also embed links to [[Motivation and emotion/Book|book chapters]]. <!-- Scenarios/examples/case studies --> # Consider incorporating additional scenarios, examples, or case studies to illustrate key concepts. These could build on the Overview scenario or introduce new real-world situations in the main body of the chapter to demonstrate how the concepts apply in practice. <!-- Quiz --> # Consider including quiz question(s) about the take-home messages <!-- Tables --> # Also consider using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|table(s)]] to summarise key information |7= <!-- References --> <!-- Overall --> # Basic <!-- Systematic reviews --> # What are the most relevant systematic reviews/meta-analyses about this topic? <!-- Citations --> # All references need in-text citation <!-- APA style --> # Check and correct [https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf APA referencing style]: ## capitalisation ## [[Help:Wikitext quick reference|italicisation]] ## [https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf doi formatting] ## page numbers should be separated by an en-dash (–) rather than a hyphen (-) # Only include references that you have consulted and cited |8= <!-- Resources --> <!-- See also --> # See also ## Excellent ## Also consider empathy-related chapters and Wikipedia articles <!-- External links --> # External links ## Excellent ## Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] |9= <!-- User page --> # Basic but effective <!-- Description about self --> # Very brief description about self – consider expanding <!-- Links to profile(s) --> # Consider linking to your [https://portfolio.canberra.edu.au/ eportfolio] page and/or any other professional online profile or resume such as [https://www.linkedin.com/ LinkedIn]. This is not required, but it can be useful to interlink your professional networks. <!-- Link to book chapter --> # A link to the book chapter is provided |10= <!-- Social contribution --> # Good – two out of three types of contributions made with direct link(s) to evidence. The other type of contribution is making: # One out of three types of contributions made with direct link(s) to evidence. The other types of contribution are making: #* comments on the [[Help:Talk page|talk page]]s of other [[Motivation and emotion/Book|chapters (past or current)]] # To add direct links to evidence of Wikiversity edits or comments: view the page history, select the version of the page before and after your contributions, click "compare selected revisions", and paste the comparison URL on your user page. For more info, see [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter#Making and summarising social contributions|Making and summarising social contributions]]. This was demonstrated in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing#Social contributions|Tutorial 2]]. }} -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 21:28, 14 September 2026 (UTC) e10aphik04k1mgowlh5nbghlq91pfee 1 331566 2834096 2827041 2026-09-21T01:51:17Z Jtneill 10242 Topic development feedback 2834096 wikitext text/x-wiki == Heading casing == {| style="float: center; background:transparent;color:inherit;" |- | [[File:Crystal Clear app ktip.svg|48px|left]] | {{#if:Chloebateup|Hi [[User:Chloebateup|Chloebateup]].|}} FYI, the recommended [[Wikiversity]] heading style uses [[w:Letter case#Sentence_case|sentence casing]]. For example:<br> <big><big>Self-determination theory</big></big> rather than <big><big>Self-Determination Theory</big></big> Here's an example chapter with correct heading casing: [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Growth mindset development|Growth mindset development]] -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 01:51, 21 September 2026 (UTC) |} <!-- Official topic development feedback --> {{METF/2026 |1= <!-- Title --> # Title and/or subtitle not correctly worded and/or didn't use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] (fixed) # We could negotiate the sub-title if you think it can be improved |2= <!-- Headings --> # See earlier comment about [[#heading casing|heading casing]] <!-- Heading structure --> <!-- 1-level --> # Basic, [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Major project/Structure|1-level heading structure]] – could benefit from further development, perhaps using a 2-level structure (i.e., use subheadings) # Research is not needed as a separate section; instead, integrate and synthesise relevant research throughout the chapter alongside the theoretical perspectives and real-life applications <!-- Alignment with focus questions --> # Develop closer alignment between sub-title, focus questions, and top-level headings <!-- Overview--> # Excellent – Scenario, image, evocative description of the problem/topic, and focus questions # Very good # Good # Reasonably good # Basic # Insufficient # Hasn't been developed – Needs scenario, image, evocative description of the problem/topic, and focus questions <!-- GenAI ---> # Does this section include [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Using generative AI|genAI content]]? If so, it needs to be acknowledged as such in the edit summaries, otherwise it violates academic integrity. <!-- Scenario --> # A scenario or case study is presented in a feature box at the start of this section # I moved an image into the feature box to help attract reader interest <!-- Description --> # A promising description of the problem/topic is planned or presented # What are the most relevant psychological theories? # The plan is overly long; keep the description brief; shift detail into subsequent sections <!-- Style --> # Use 3rd person point of view for main body text (except 1st/2nd person point of view can work within feature boxes for scenarios) <!-- Focus questions --> <!-- Alignment and quality --> # Develop closer alignment between the sub-title, focus questions, and top-level headings # Use bullet points as shown in Tutorial 2 |4= <!-- Key points--> <!-- Overall --> # Promising development # Focus on providing an integrative review of the most relevant theories and research on the topic # Note that surrender motivation occurs in a variety of domains e.g., sport, combat/war, health, goal pursuit <!-- Scope --> # The scope is about right, but it may be that all planned aspects cannot be reasonably covered within the book chapter word count; in that case, be selective and concentrate on key aspects that address the question in the sub-title <!-- Citations --> # Insufficient use of citations <!-- Other --> # For sections with sub-sections, provide key points for an overview paragraph prior to branching into the sub-headings # Use correct capitalisation ([https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/capitalization APA style is a "down" style]) – [https://polishedpaper.com/blog/capitalization-apa-style more info] <!-- Conclusion --> # Conclusion hasn't been developed # What are the practical, take-home messages? (address the focus questions) |5= <!-- Figure --> # Relevant figure(s) are presented and captioned <!-- Caption --> # Figure caption(s) could better explain how the image connects to key points being made in the main text # Figure caption(s) should include '''Figure X'''. [bold] ... (fixed) <!-- Cite --> # Figure(s) are cited at least once in the main text # Cite each figure at least once in the main text near to where it is presented # A more relevant Figure 1 could be chosen for the scenario # Expand Figure 1 caption description to connect it more clearly to the text |6= <!-- Learning feature --> <!-- Interwiki links ---> # Basic in-text [[m:Help:Interwiki linking|interwiki links]] for first mention of key terms to [[w:|Wikipedia]]. Also embed links to [[Motivation and emotion/Book|book chapters]]. <!-- Scenarios/examples/case studies --> # Consider incorporating additional scenarios, examples, or case studies to illustrate key concepts. These could build on the Overview scenario or introduce new real-world situations in the main body of the chapter to demonstrate how the concepts apply in practice. <!-- Quiz --> # Consider including quiz question(s) about the take-home messages <!-- Tables --> # Also consider using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|table(s)]] to summarise key information |7= <!-- References --> <!-- Overall --> # Promising (5 out of minimum 6 required) <!-- Systematic reviews --> # At least one relevant systematic review and/or meta-analysis has been identified <!-- APA style --> # Check and correct [https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf APA referencing style]: ## remove bullet points ## capitalisation ## make doi hyperlinks active (i.e., clickable) |8= <!-- Resources --> <!-- See also --> # See also ## To be developed (see [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]) ## Link to the most relevant Wikiversity book chapters and Wikipedia resources about this topic <!-- External links --> # External links ## To be developed (see [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]) ## Link to the most relevant external resources about this topic |9= <!-- User page --> # Basic but effective <!-- Description about self --> # Description about self provided <!-- Links to profile(s) --> # Consider linking to your [https://portfolio.canberra.edu.au/ eportfolio] page and/or any other professional online profile or resume such as [https://www.linkedin.com/ LinkedIn]. This is not required, but it can be useful to interlink your professional networks. <!-- Link to book chapter --> # A link to the book chapter is provided # Rename the link to the book chapter to make it more user-friendly (see [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]) |10= <!-- Social contribution --> # One out of three types of contributions made with direct link(s) to evidence. The other types of contribution are making: #* direct improvements to other [[Motivation and emotion/Book|chapters (past or current)]] #* comments on the [[Help:Talk page|talk page]]s of other [[Motivation and emotion/Book|chapters (past or current)]] # To add direct links to evidence of Wikiversity edits or comments: view the page history, select the version of the page before and after your contributions, click "compare selected revisions", and paste the comparison URL on your user page. For more info, see [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter#Making and summarising social contributions|Making and summarising social contributions]]. This was demonstrated in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing#Social contributions|Tutorial 2]]. }} 0r94v8mbayo7z0ttj43nai30bn4bo64 0 331645 2834097 2831262 2026-09-21T01:51:24Z Jtneill 10242 Copyediting 2834097 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Surrender motivation:<br>What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}} == Overview == {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]] '''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal''' Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option? {{RoundBoxBottom}} This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender. * A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender. * They believe that continuing to resist is their best option. * As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain. * They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal. * The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering. * Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears. * The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger. * This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender. * The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure. * Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences {{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}} ;Focus questions {{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}} {{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}} What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender? How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation? How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting? Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}} {{RoundBoxBottom}} == Conceptualising Surrender Motivation == Figure 2. A negotiator attempting to persuade an individual to peacefully surrender during a high-stakes confrontation. * [[Anxiety]] * Defining Surrender Motivation * Surrender, Resistance, Compliance, and Submission * Motivational change and Behavioural decision making (Sahu, 2020) == Cognitive and Motivational Processes == * Expectancy, Value and Goal-directed behaviour * Risk perception and [[Decision Making|decision-making]] [https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/full/10.1002/bdm.70072 (Jiao et al, 2026)] * Perceived Control and learned helplessness * Cost-Benefit Evaluation and Expected outcomes == Emotional and Psychological Determinants == * Fear, [[Anxiety]] and Threat Perception * Stress, Cognitive load and Psychological Strain * Emotional Regulation and Strain * Emotional regulation and coping * Motional depletion and Fatigue (Malik et al, 2026) == Social and Situational Influences == * Social Influence, Compliancy and Authority * Trust and Communication * Perceived Legitimacy and Procedural Justice (Liang & Li, 2019) * Environmental and Situational constraints == Empirical Evidence, Applications and Future Directions == * Psychological Research on the application of Surrender Motivation to other spheres * Applications to Crisis situations * Ethical considerations and limitations == Conclusion == == References == {{Hanging indent|1= * Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., & Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001</nowiki> * Chai, J., Weng, Z., & Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490</nowiki> * Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., & Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072</nowiki> * Malik, A., Goel, S., & Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809</nowiki> * Liang, J., & Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394</nowiki> }} == External links == [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]] ditdcw26ytknm3qaz0lvrv5t40kwwxd 0 331663 2834093 2833064 2026-09-21T01:46:03Z U3253363 3106362 /* Overview */ I have made a few minor edits in the scenario to support flow and readability. 2834093 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Relatedness motivation in self-determination theory:<br>How does the need for relatedness function within self-determination theory to shape motivation and behaviour?}} __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:Raise hand gesture occupy.svg|Raise_hand_gesture_occupy|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. A raised hand: Lauren's tutor encouraged students to ask for help and connect with each other. {{expand}}]] ; Imagine this Lauren is a first-year university student studying psychology who recently started a demanding course. During the first few weeks, she finds the workload difficult and is unsure whether she is capable of succeeding. She chose to study psychology because she is interested in the subject, however, she feels isolated because her classmates seem to already know one another. One of Lauren’s tutors makes an effort to learn about students, encourages them to contribute to discussions, and provides feedback. The tutor also organises small-group activities where students can get to know one another and emphasises that asking for help is a normal part of learning. Lauren engages with these opportunities. Over time, Lauren begins to feel that she belongs in the course and that both her tutor and classmates value her participation. As Lauren feels increasingly connected to the people around her, she becomes more willing to attend tutorials, participate in discussions, ask questions, and seek feedback when she does not understand something. She also starts studying with classmates outside class. Lauren is no longer completing the course requirements only because she feels she has to. Her growing sense of belonging helps her internalise the value of the course, so she begins to think, “Psychology is important to me, and I want to do well because I see myself as part of this community.” This shift leads to more persistent, engaged behaviour. {{RoundBoxBottom}} * In self-determination theory, relatedness refers to feeling connected, social accepted, cared for by and important to other people. * Relatedness can facilitate the internalisation of socially motivated goals, which transforms extrinsic motivation to and strengthens motivation. * Investigating how either relatedness satisfaction or frustration shapes motivation can lead to the facilitation of relatedness in learning environments to improve motivation and outcomes. (Bureau et al., 2022; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Slemp et al., 2024) # '''Explanation of the problem, issue, or topic''': Brief explanation of the problem, why it is important, and an outline of how psychological science can help {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' * What is the need for relatedness within Self-Determination Theory, and why is it important in shaping motivation? * How does relatedness satisfaction influence the development of autonomous versus controlled motivation? * How does relatedness satisfaction or frustration affect individuals’ behaviour, such as engagement, persistence, and disengagement? * How do social environments and relationships affect relatedness, and what are the implications on motivation and behaviour? {{RoundBoxBottom}} ==Self-Determination Theory== * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination%20theory Self-determination theory] {{ic|Use an internal link as shown in Tutorial 2}} * The relationship between extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, and human needs. * Autonomy, competence, and relatedness are innate psychological needs thought to foster high-quality motivation. * SDT posits that social and cultural factors either support or damage individuals' motivation, well-being, and the quality of their involvement. (Ryan & Deci, 2000) ==Relatedness satisfaction and autonomous motivation== * Relatedness satisfaction versus relatedness frustration. * When an individual is satisfied with their relatedness, they are more likely to perceive a task as meaningful opposed to an obligation. This futher motivates that individual to engage in the task. * Relatedness frustration, characterised by rejection, loneliness and feeling excluded, was found to mediate amotivation. (Van Tuin et. al, 2020) ==Relatedness, engagement and behaviour== [[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Parallel mediation model with both satisfaction and frustration of basic needs (Van Tuin et al., 2020)]] * Relatedness satisfaction of students predicted identified regulation and was found to increase behavioural engagement in mathematics (Hofverberg et. al., 2022). * When relatedness is satisfied, participation has been found to feel more meaningful socially and emotionally, therefore motivating participation behaviours (Kaefer & Chiviacowsky, 2021). * Students' perception of relatedness with teachers was associated with better homework engagement and practices (Collie, 2024). ==Relatedness and well-being== * Interpersonal support of autonomy, competence, and relatedness were associated with satisfaction of those psychological needs. * Environmental support for needs were associated with greater wellbeing and improved performance. * Relatedness supports wellbeing which supports motivation. (Slemp et. al, 2024) {{anchor|Scenarios}} ;Scenarios * Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action * Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages) * Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s) {{anchor|Feature box}} ;Feature boxes * Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect * Consider using feature boxes for: ** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples ** Focus questions ** Tips ** Quiz questions ** Take-home messages ;Embedded links * When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to: ** Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]") or ** Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]") {{anchor|Tables}} ;Tables * Use tables to organise and summarise information * Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1) * Tables should be captioned * [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted '''Table 1''' A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto; |- ! !! Known to self !! Not known to self |- | '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot |- | '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || |} * '''Interactive learning Quiz - Choose your answers and click "Submit":''' <quiz display="simple"> {Relatedness satisfaction has been shown to influence welbeing: |type="(true)"} + True - False {Relatedness is an element of self-determination theory: |type="(true)"} + True - False </quiz> ==Conclusion== * Relatedness is a key psychological need within self-determination theory. When this need is satisfied, psychological well-being is more likely to increase and individuals are more likely to develop greater self-determined motivation * Both relatedness satisfaction and relatedness frustration can influence the quality of motivation, not just its strength * Relatedness satisfaction can shape behaviour by facilitating greater engagement, participation, and persistence and sustain their behaviour for longer. {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? * What are the answers to the focus questions? * What are the practical, take-home messages? }} ==See also== {{ic|Use alphabetical order}} * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination%20theory Self-determination theory] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use an internal link as shown in Tutorial 2}} * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_relation Relatedness] (Wikipedia) {{ic|Use an internal link as shown in Tutorial 2}} *[https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Motivation_and_emotion/Lectures/Extrinsic_motivation_and_psychological_needs Extrinsic motivation and psychological needs] (Wikiversity) {{ic|Use an internal link as shown in Tutorial 2}} ==References== {{Hanging indent|1= Bureau, J. S., Howard, J. L., Chong, J. X. Y., & Guay, F. (2022). Pathways to Student Motivation: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents of Autonomous and Controlled Motivations. Review of Educational Research, 92(1), 46-72. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543211042426 Collie, R. J. (2024). Social-emotional need satisfaction and students’ academic engagement and social-emotional skills. Educational Psychology, 44(2), 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2324751 Hofverberg, A., Winberg, M., Palmberg, B., Andersson, C., & Palm, T. (2022). Relationships between basic psychological need satisfaction, regulations, and behavioral engagement in mathematics. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.829958 Kaefer, A., & Chiviacowsky, S. (2021). Relatedness support enhances motivation, positive affect, and motor learning in adolescents. Human Movement Science, 79, 102864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2021.102864 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68 Slemp, G. R., Field, J. G., Ryan, R. M., Forner, V. W., Van den Broeck, A., & Lewis, K. J. (2024). Interpersonal supports for basic psychological needs and their relations with motivation, well-being, and performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of personality and social psychology, 127(5), 1012–1037. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000459 Van Tuin, L., Schaufeli, W. B., & van Rhenen, W. (2020). The satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs in engaging leadership. Journal of Leadership Studies, 14(2), 6–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21695 Weinstein, N. (Ed.). (2014). Human Motivation and Interpersonal Relationships : Theory, Research, and Applications (1st ed. 2014.). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8542-6 }} {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Important aspects of APA referencing style ** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces ** Year of publication in parentheses ** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop ** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop ** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable) ** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]: *** Use "Edit source" *** <nowiki>{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}</nowiki> * The most common mistakes include: ** Incorrect capitalisation ** Incorrect italicisation ** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks ** Citing sources that haven't been consulted }} ==External links== {{ic|Use sentence casing}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGrcets0E6I Promoting Motivation, Health, and Excellence: Ed Deci TEDX] (Youtube) * [https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/ Self-determination Theory] (Center for Self-determination Theory) [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Needs/Relatedness]] qqwdfihb4fecizk0huahcuuwe17i2gb 4 331910 2834125 2833767 2026-09-21T07:07:43Z Jtneill 10242 /* Codename Noreste (talk • email • contribs • stats • logs • global account) */ reply ([[mw:c:Special:MyLanguage/User:JWBTH/CD|CD]]) 2834125 wikitext text/x-wiki === {{user|Codename Noreste}} === <!-- State your reasoning below on why you are requesting any permission. Do not add your signature, as it will be automatically added for you. --> Hello, everyone. Although it is not mentioned by the interface administrator policy, I would like to run for permanent interface administrator permissions (since my temporary IA rights are about to expire). My original stated reasoning was because of the ability to adjust interface pages for dark mode support and to adjust the CSS. However, I am familiar with CSS and I would like to be the first permanent interface administrator on English Wikiversity (to perform technical maintenance). See also [[Wikiversity:Colloquium#Wikiversity talk:Interface administrators#My thoughts about this user group|this discussion]] for context. I already have 2FA enabled as I hold IA rights on several other projects. Thank you for your consideration. [[User:Codename Noreste|<span style="color: blue">Codename Noreste</span>]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 16:53, 7 September 2026 (UTC) : I think we would first need a change to policy which currently only allows for 14 to 120 day IA periods. : Could you summarise recent changes you've made to the en.wv interface? : And what future changes are you planning on making to the en.wv interface? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 23:54, 7 September 2026 (UTC) :: When I became an interface administrator (prior to being a custodian), I edited several interface messages to adjust for dark mode support. I initially planned to edit the CSS page by removing outdated code and moving the CSS import code (<code>@import url</code>) to common.css itself, but I didn't have time to do that due to commitments in real life and in other projects. Now that I have that time here, I am willing to perform maintenance on CSS. [[User:Codename Noreste|<span style="color: blue">Codename Noreste</span>]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 13:43, 8 September 2026 (UTC) ::: I forgot to mention this, but since I proposed an amendment to the IA policy, another maximum extension would be fine. [[User:Codename Noreste|<span style="color: blue">Codename Noreste</span>]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 13:44, 8 September 2026 (UTC) : Could you link to the previous IA nomination/approval and its date range? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 07:07, 21 September 2026 (UTC) ==== Comments/questions ==== : It has been roughly more than a week, can this request be closed? Thank you. [[User:Codename Noreste|<span style="color: blue">Codename Noreste</span>]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 07:30, 18 September 2026 (UTC) ==== Votes ==== :{{support}} [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 00:20, 14 September 2026 (UTC) :{{oppose}} for now. No need for the rush, wait until the discussion is over. Best! [[User:Mbataw|Mbataw]] ([[User talk:Mbataw|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Mbataw|contribs]]) 13:10, 18 September 2026 (UTC) 7ppmzxgml2xyqr46poizg903hggw892 0 331991 2834017 2833643 2026-09-20T13:48:58Z The Citer 3110681 Had to update the number. 2834017 wikitext text/x-wiki [[Image:Tree of Angiosperm Phylogeny 2024.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Many species of Angiospermae phylogenetic picture.]] Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (/ˌændʒiəˈspɜːrmiː/). The term ''angiosperm'' is derived from the Greek words ἀγγεῖον (angeion; 'container, vessel') and σπέρμα (sperma; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. The group was formerly called Magnoliophyta. Angiosperms are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species! The diversity of flowering plants is not evenly distributed. Nearly all species belong to the eudicot (75%), monocot (23%), and magnoliid (2%) clades. The remaining five clades contain a little over 250 species in total; i.e. less than 0.1% of flowering plant diversity, divided among nine families. The 25 most speciated families are: {| class="wikitable sortable" |+ The 25 largest angiosperm families |- ! <!--Rank, by size--> !! Group !! Family !! English name !! No. of spp. |- | 1 || Eudicot || Asteraceae or Compositae || daisy || 22,750 |- | 2 || Monocot || Orchidaceae || orchid || 21,950 |- | 3 || Eudicot || Fabaceae or Leguminosae || pea, legume || 19,400 |- | 4 || Eudicot || Rubiaceae || Rubia|madder || 13,150<ref>{{cite web|title=Kew Scientist 30|date=October 2006|url=https://www.kew.org/kewscientist/ks_30.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005410/https://www.kew.org/kewscientist/ks_30.pdf|archive-date=27 September 2007}}</ref> |- | 5 || Monocot || Poaceae or Gramineae || grass || ~12,000 |- | 6 || Eudicot || Lamiaceae or Labiatae || mint || 7,175 |- | 7 || Eudicot || Euphorbiaceae || spurge || 5,735 |- | 8 || Eudicot || Melastomataceae || melastome || 5,005 |- | 9 || Eudicot || Myrtaceae || myrtle || 4,625 |- | 10 || Eudicot || Apocynaceae || dogbane || 4,555 |- | 11 || Monocot || Cyperaceae || sedge || 4,350 |- | 12 || Eudicot || Malvaceae || mallow || 4,225 |- | 13 || Monocot || Araceae || arum || 4,025 |- | 14 || Eudicot || Ericaceae || heath || 3,995 |- | 15 || Eudicot || Gesneriaceae || gesneriad || 3,870 |- | 16 || Eudicot || Apiaceae or Umbelliferae || parsley || 3,780 |- | 17 || Eudicot || Brassicaceae or Cruciferae || cabbage || 3,710 |- | 18 || Magnoliid dicot || Piperaceae || pepper || 3,600 |- | 19 || Monocot || Bromeliaceae || bromeliad || 3,540 |- | 20 || Eudicot || Acanthaceae || acanthus || 3,500 |- | 21 || Eudicot || Rosaceae || rose || 2,830 |- | 22 || Eudicot || Boraginaceae || borage || 2,740 |- | 23 || Eudicot || Urticaceae || nettle || 2,625 |- | 24 || Eudicot || Ranunculaceae || buttercup || 2,525 |- | 25 || Magnoliid dicot || Lauraceae || laurel || 2,500 |} ==More facts== ===Name Meaning=== Magnolia-like plant ===Major distinguishing characteristics=== Flowers and fruit, vascular system with vessels ==Evolutionary history== Fossilised spores suggest that embryophytes have existed for at least 475 million years<ref>{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=D. |title=The role of mid-palaeozoic mesofossils in the detection of early bryophytes |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences |volume=355 |issue=1398 |pages=733–54; discussion 754–5 |date=June 2000 |pmid=10905607 |pmc=1692787 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2000.0613 }}</ref> However, angiosperms appeared suddenly and rapidly diversified during the Valanginian (beginning ~130 mya), much later than other major plant groups.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Herendeen |first1=Patrick S. |last2=Friis |first2=Else Marie |last3=Pedersen |first3=Kaj Raunsgaard |last4=Crane |first4=Peter R. |date=2017-03-03 |title=Palaeobotanical redux: revisiting the age of the angiosperms |url=https://rdcu.be/c0Zhm |journal=Nature Plants |volume=3 |issue=3 |page=17015 |doi=10.1038/nplants.2017.15 |pmid=28260783 |bibcode=2017NatPl...317015H |s2cid=205458714 |issn=2055-0278}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Friedman |first=William E. |date=January 2009 |title=The meaning of Darwin's "abominable mystery" |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3732/ajb.0800150 |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=96 |issue=1 |pages=5–21 |doi=10.3732/ajb.0800150 |pmid=21628174|bibcode=2009AmJB...96....5F |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The evolutionary success and rapid diversification of angiosperms are largely attributed to their coevolutionary relationships with animal pollinators, particularly insects, birds, and bats. Unlike [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosperm gymnosperms], which today rely on wind for pollen dispersal, angiosperms developed specialized traits—such as nectar production, vivid pigmentations, and complex volatile scents—to attract specific floral visitors. ==Classes== No one really knows how to divide Angiospermae in to classes. (See [[Talk:Plant Divisions (Phyla)/Magnoliophyta|talk]]) However, we can still list the defined orders. ===Orders=== Acorales – Alismatales – Amborellales – Apiales – Aquifoliales – Arecales – Asparagales – Asterales – Austrobaileyales – Berberidopsidales – Boraginales – Brassicales – Bruniales – Buxales – Canellales – Caryophyllales – Celastrales – Ceratophyllales – Chloranthales – Commelinales – Cornales – Crossosomatales – Cucurbitales – Dilleniales – Dioscoreales – Dipsacales – Ericales – Escalloniales – Fabales – Fagales – Garryales – Gentianales – Geraniales – Gunnerales – Huerteales – Icacinales – Lamiales – Laurales – Liliales – Magnoliales – Malpighiales – Malvales – Metteniusales – Myrtales – Nymphaeales – Oxalidales – Pandanales – Paracryphiales – Petrosaviales – Picramniales – Piperales – Poales – Proteales – Ranunculales – Rosales – Santalales – Sapindales – Saxifragales – Solanales – Trochodendrales – Vahliales – Vitales – Zingiberales – Zygophyllales{{sfnp|ps=none|APG IV|2016|p=5}} ==Quiz== [[Plant Divisions (Phyla)/Magnoliophyta/Quiz]] ==References== [[Wikipedia:Flowering plant]]<br> [[Wikispecies:Magnoliopsida]] [[Category:Plants]] [[Category:Taxonomy]] [[Category:Botany]] [[Category:Biology]] [[Category:Flowers]] n2hbps3orvblueo1r8pfgmdsoesjvjs 2834020 2834017 2026-09-20T13:56:02Z The Citer 3110681 /* Classes */ 2834020 wikitext text/x-wiki [[Image:Tree of Angiosperm Phylogeny 2024.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Many species of Angiospermae phylogenetic picture.]] Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (/ˌændʒiəˈspɜːrmiː/). The term ''angiosperm'' is derived from the Greek words ἀγγεῖον (angeion; 'container, vessel') and σπέρμα (sperma; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. The group was formerly called Magnoliophyta. Angiosperms are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species! The diversity of flowering plants is not evenly distributed. Nearly all species belong to the eudicot (75%), monocot (23%), and magnoliid (2%) clades. The remaining five clades contain a little over 250 species in total; i.e. less than 0.1% of flowering plant diversity, divided among nine families. The 25 most speciated families are: {| class="wikitable sortable" |+ The 25 largest angiosperm families |- ! <!--Rank, by size--> !! Group !! Family !! English name !! No. of spp. |- | 1 || Eudicot || Asteraceae or Compositae || daisy || 22,750 |- | 2 || Monocot || Orchidaceae || orchid || 21,950 |- | 3 || Eudicot || Fabaceae or Leguminosae || pea, legume || 19,400 |- | 4 || Eudicot || Rubiaceae || Rubia|madder || 13,150<ref>{{cite web|title=Kew Scientist 30|date=October 2006|url=https://www.kew.org/kewscientist/ks_30.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005410/https://www.kew.org/kewscientist/ks_30.pdf|archive-date=27 September 2007}}</ref> |- | 5 || Monocot || Poaceae or Gramineae || grass || ~12,000 |- | 6 || Eudicot || Lamiaceae or Labiatae || mint || 7,175 |- | 7 || Eudicot || Euphorbiaceae || spurge || 5,735 |- | 8 || Eudicot || Melastomataceae || melastome || 5,005 |- | 9 || Eudicot || Myrtaceae || myrtle || 4,625 |- | 10 || Eudicot || Apocynaceae || dogbane || 4,555 |- | 11 || Monocot || Cyperaceae || sedge || 4,350 |- | 12 || Eudicot || Malvaceae || mallow || 4,225 |- | 13 || Monocot || Araceae || arum || 4,025 |- | 14 || Eudicot || Ericaceae || heath || 3,995 |- | 15 || Eudicot || Gesneriaceae || gesneriad || 3,870 |- | 16 || Eudicot || Apiaceae or Umbelliferae || parsley || 3,780 |- | 17 || Eudicot || Brassicaceae or Cruciferae || cabbage || 3,710 |- | 18 || Magnoliid dicot || Piperaceae || pepper || 3,600 |- | 19 || Monocot || Bromeliaceae || bromeliad || 3,540 |- | 20 || Eudicot || Acanthaceae || acanthus || 3,500 |- | 21 || Eudicot || Rosaceae || rose || 2,830 |- | 22 || Eudicot || Boraginaceae || borage || 2,740 |- | 23 || Eudicot || Urticaceae || nettle || 2,625 |- | 24 || Eudicot || Ranunculaceae || buttercup || 2,525 |- | 25 || Magnoliid dicot || Lauraceae || laurel || 2,500 |} ==More facts== ===Name Meaning=== Magnolia-like plant ===Major distinguishing characteristics=== Flowers and fruit, vascular system with vessels ==Evolutionary history== Fossilised spores suggest that embryophytes have existed for at least 475 million years<ref>{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=D. |title=The role of mid-palaeozoic mesofossils in the detection of early bryophytes |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences |volume=355 |issue=1398 |pages=733–54; discussion 754–5 |date=June 2000 |pmid=10905607 |pmc=1692787 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2000.0613 }}</ref> However, angiosperms appeared suddenly and rapidly diversified during the Valanginian (beginning ~130 mya), much later than other major plant groups.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Herendeen |first1=Patrick S. |last2=Friis |first2=Else Marie |last3=Pedersen |first3=Kaj Raunsgaard |last4=Crane |first4=Peter R. |date=2017-03-03 |title=Palaeobotanical redux: revisiting the age of the angiosperms |url=https://rdcu.be/c0Zhm |journal=Nature Plants |volume=3 |issue=3 |page=17015 |doi=10.1038/nplants.2017.15 |pmid=28260783 |bibcode=2017NatPl...317015H |s2cid=205458714 |issn=2055-0278}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Friedman |first=William E. |date=January 2009 |title=The meaning of Darwin's "abominable mystery" |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3732/ajb.0800150 |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=96 |issue=1 |pages=5–21 |doi=10.3732/ajb.0800150 |pmid=21628174|bibcode=2009AmJB...96....5F |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The evolutionary success and rapid diversification of angiosperms are largely attributed to their coevolutionary relationships with animal pollinators, particularly insects, birds, and bats. Unlike [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosperm gymnosperms], which today rely on wind for pollen dispersal, angiosperms developed specialized traits—such as nectar production, vivid pigmentations, and complex volatile scents—to attract specific floral visitors. ==Classes== No one really knows how to divide Angiospermae into classes, unless you only count one class (Magnoliopsida). (See [[Talk:Plant Divisions (Phyla)/Magnoliophyta|talk]]) However, we can still list the defined orders. ===Orders=== Acorales – Alismatales – Amborellales – Apiales – Aquifoliales – Arecales – Asparagales – Asterales – Austrobaileyales – Berberidopsidales – Boraginales – Brassicales – Bruniales – Buxales – Canellales – Caryophyllales – Celastrales – Ceratophyllales – Chloranthales – Commelinales – Cornales – Crossosomatales – Cucurbitales – Dilleniales – Dioscoreales – Dipsacales – Ericales – Escalloniales – Fabales – Fagales – Garryales – Gentianales – Geraniales – Gunnerales – Huerteales – Icacinales – Lamiales – Laurales – Liliales – Magnoliales – Malpighiales – Malvales – Metteniusales – Myrtales – Nymphaeales – Oxalidales – Pandanales – Paracryphiales – Petrosaviales – Picramniales – Piperales – Poales – Proteales – Ranunculales – Rosales – Santalales – Sapindales – Saxifragales – Solanales – Trochodendrales – Vahliales – Vitales – Zingiberales – Zygophyllales{{sfnp|ps=none|APG IV|2016|p=5}} ==Quiz== [[Plant Divisions (Phyla)/Magnoliophyta/Quiz]] ==References== [[Wikipedia:Flowering plant]]<br> [[Wikispecies:Magnoliopsida]] [[Category:Plants]] [[Category:Taxonomy]] [[Category:Botany]] [[Category:Biology]] [[Category:Flowers]] rfhbl2gc8ihmp6dktsgiyqxwl0weon9 2 332079 2834033 2833345 2026-09-20T18:14:35Z BajookThug 2920913 2834033 wikitext text/x-wiki Hi, test [[User:BajookThug/Notes|Notes]] ny9hwj68ogv4g1m2d85kjqi496panmu 2 332152 2834054 2833905 2026-09-20T23:48:56Z BajookThug 2920913 2834054 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. 0n6ioalex1v6btk69szax99rqohvvkt 2834056 2834054 2026-09-20T23:55:06Z BajookThug 2920913 /* Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics */ 2834056 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" ! style="background:#f8f9fa; color:#202122; text-align:left; padding:8px;" | Source and Transcript |- | style="padding:12px; background:#ffffff; line-height:1.6;" | '''''Spontex''''': Marxism and Leninism is not a theory of communism, it is a theory of capitalist nation-state building. '''''Mocha''''': I don't agree with the premise, but I'll grant that most of what he said in this video is largely correct. But this take is devoid of historical materialism and the fact that we have to contend with a capitalist imperialist superpower. That every socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into communism or immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production either ceased to exist, collapse, or reform their economy. If you immediately socialize the resources and industry, you are going to be socializing scarcity and poverty if you have not built your productive forces. On the question of if private property could be abolished all at once, Mark- said in the principles of communism, no. No more than the existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society, meaning no more than you can build your productive forces to instantly do communism. Then saying in all probability the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity. This happened in every single country that attempted this premature collectivization process. This happened in Tanzania under socialist leader Julius Nere, who implemented Ujama, which was a collectivization of crops and agriculture, which resulted in mass scarcity and revolt, which caused Julius Nere to step down, calling his policy a failure. This happened in Vietnam after reunification, which resulted in, guess what, a future leader opening free market. This happened in Cuba. Yes, current Cuba, before the blockade, had a small free market system that allowed for the building of their productive forces. And the most famous and hated example being Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in China being the world economic superpower. This process is commonly known and demonized under the term of state capitalism, which I'll refer to as lesser socialism. And in two chapters later, in chapter 19 of Principles of Communism, Marx describes every single thing that China, countries doing this process, are doing. Like Lenin said, state monopoly capitalism, which is a complete material preparation for socialism. As I'm sure all critics know, Marxism described economic systems as being able to jump from one to another he describes them as phases gradually transitioning from feudalism to capitalism to socialism through communism. And the purpose of any capitalist mode of production in a socialist transitioning society is to expedite the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism, which extraordinarily advances mankind towards socialism. That's correct. Yes, I am much more well-read now, and in the context of all the quotes I listed here, they still apply to exactly what I'm talking about. And I'll let Lenin finish off this video as I think he said it best. Those who fail to understand this, and think this putting the peasantry in the forefront is renunciation of the dictatorship of the proletariat or something like that, simply do not stop to think and allow themselves to be swayed by the power of words. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the direction of policy by the proletariat. Get f****ing dunked on. |} In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. hx92v3wcdhyi326y087825hydwbxqur 2834058 2834056 2026-09-20T23:57:05Z BajookThug 2920913 /* Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics */ 2834058 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" ! style="background:#f8f9fa; color:#202122; text-align:left; padding:8px;" | Source and Transcript |- | style="padding:12px; background:#ffffff; line-height:1.6;" | '''''Spontex''''': Marxism and Leninism is not a theory of communism, it is a theory of capitalist nation-state building. '''''Mocha''''':<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tiktok.com/@mochayappuccino/video/7687746625690782990|title=TikTok - Make Your Day|website=www.tiktok.com|access-date=2026-09-20}}</ref> I don't agree with the premise, but I'll grant that most of what he said in this video is largely correct. But this take is devoid of historical materialism and the fact that we have to contend with a capitalist imperialist superpower. That every socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into communism or immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production either ceased to exist, collapse, or reform their economy. If you immediately socialize the resources and industry, you are going to be socializing scarcity and poverty if you have not built your productive forces. On the question of if private property could be abolished all at once, Mark- said in the principles of communism, no. No more than the existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society, meaning no more than you can build your productive forces to instantly do communism. Then saying in all probability the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity. This happened in every single country that attempted this premature collectivization process. This happened in Tanzania under socialist leader Julius Nere, who implemented Ujama, which was a collectivization of crops and agriculture, which resulted in mass scarcity and revolt, which caused Julius Nere to step down, calling his policy a failure. This happened in Vietnam after reunification, which resulted in, guess what, a future leader opening free market. This happened in Cuba. Yes, current Cuba, before the blockade, had a small free market system that allowed for the building of their productive forces. And the most famous and hated example being Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in China being the world economic superpower. This process is commonly known and demonized under the term of state capitalism, which I'll refer to as lesser socialism. And in two chapters later, in chapter 19 of Principles of Communism, Marx describes every single thing that China, countries doing this process, are doing. Like Lenin said, state monopoly capitalism, which is a complete material preparation for socialism. As I'm sure all critics know, Marxism described economic systems as being able to jump from one to another he describes them as phases gradually transitioning from feudalism to capitalism to socialism through communism. And the purpose of any capitalist mode of production in a socialist transitioning society is to expedite the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism, which extraordinarily advances mankind towards socialism. That's correct. Yes, I am much more well-read now, and in the context of all the quotes I listed here, they still apply to exactly what I'm talking about. And I'll let Lenin finish off this video as I think he said it best. Those who fail to understand this, and think this putting the peasantry in the forefront is renunciation of the dictatorship of the proletariat or something like that, simply do not stop to think and allow themselves to be swayed by the power of words. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the direction of policy by the proletariat. Get f****ing dunked on. |} In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. 2fe6h1qdqck9bbvq7xb5np94z6f1v6c 2834059 2834058 2026-09-20T23:57:29Z BajookThug 2920913 Undid revision [[Special:Diff/2834058|2834058]] by [[Special:Contributions/BajookThug|BajookThug]] ([[User talk:BajookThug|talk]]) 2834059 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" ! style="background:#f8f9fa; color:#202122; text-align:left; padding:8px;" | Source and Transcript |- | style="padding:12px; background:#ffffff; line-height:1.6;" | '''''Spontex''''': Marxism and Leninism is not a theory of communism, it is a theory of capitalist nation-state building. '''''Mocha''''': I don't agree with the premise, but I'll grant that most of what he said in this video is largely correct. But this take is devoid of historical materialism and the fact that we have to contend with a capitalist imperialist superpower. That every socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into communism or immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production either ceased to exist, collapse, or reform their economy. If you immediately socialize the resources and industry, you are going to be socializing scarcity and poverty if you have not built your productive forces. On the question of if private property could be abolished all at once, Mark- said in the principles of communism, no. No more than the existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society, meaning no more than you can build your productive forces to instantly do communism. Then saying in all probability the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity. This happened in every single country that attempted this premature collectivization process. This happened in Tanzania under socialist leader Julius Nere, who implemented Ujama, which was a collectivization of crops and agriculture, which resulted in mass scarcity and revolt, which caused Julius Nere to step down, calling his policy a failure. This happened in Vietnam after reunification, which resulted in, guess what, a future leader opening free market. This happened in Cuba. Yes, current Cuba, before the blockade, had a small free market system that allowed for the building of their productive forces. And the most famous and hated example being Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in China being the world economic superpower. This process is commonly known and demonized under the term of state capitalism, which I'll refer to as lesser socialism. And in two chapters later, in chapter 19 of Principles of Communism, Marx describes every single thing that China, countries doing this process, are doing. Like Lenin said, state monopoly capitalism, which is a complete material preparation for socialism. As I'm sure all critics know, Marxism described economic systems as being able to jump from one to another he describes them as phases gradually transitioning from feudalism to capitalism to socialism through communism. And the purpose of any capitalist mode of production in a socialist transitioning society is to expedite the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism, which extraordinarily advances mankind towards socialism. That's correct. Yes, I am much more well-read now, and in the context of all the quotes I listed here, they still apply to exactly what I'm talking about. And I'll let Lenin finish off this video as I think he said it best. Those who fail to understand this, and think this putting the peasantry in the forefront is renunciation of the dictatorship of the proletariat or something like that, simply do not stop to think and allow themselves to be swayed by the power of words. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the direction of policy by the proletariat. Get f****ing dunked on. |} In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. hx92v3wcdhyi326y087825hydwbxqur 2834060 2834059 2026-09-20T23:57:41Z BajookThug 2920913 Undid revision [[Special:Diff/2834059|2834059]] by [[Special:Contributions/BajookThug|BajookThug]] ([[User talk:BajookThug|talk]]) 2834060 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" ! style="background:#f8f9fa; color:#202122; text-align:left; padding:8px;" | Source and Transcript |- | style="padding:12px; background:#ffffff; line-height:1.6;" | '''''Spontex''''': Marxism and Leninism is not a theory of communism, it is a theory of capitalist nation-state building. '''''Mocha''''':<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tiktok.com/@mochayappuccino/video/7687746625690782990|title=TikTok - Make Your Day|website=www.tiktok.com|access-date=2026-09-20}}</ref> I don't agree with the premise, but I'll grant that most of what he said in this video is largely correct. But this take is devoid of historical materialism and the fact that we have to contend with a capitalist imperialist superpower. That every socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into communism or immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production either ceased to exist, collapse, or reform their economy. If you immediately socialize the resources and industry, you are going to be socializing scarcity and poverty if you have not built your productive forces. On the question of if private property could be abolished all at once, Mark- said in the principles of communism, no. No more than the existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society, meaning no more than you can build your productive forces to instantly do communism. Then saying in all probability the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity. This happened in every single country that attempted this premature collectivization process. This happened in Tanzania under socialist leader Julius Nere, who implemented Ujama, which was a collectivization of crops and agriculture, which resulted in mass scarcity and revolt, which caused Julius Nere to step down, calling his policy a failure. This happened in Vietnam after reunification, which resulted in, guess what, a future leader opening free market. This happened in Cuba. Yes, current Cuba, before the blockade, had a small free market system that allowed for the building of their productive forces. And the most famous and hated example being Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in China being the world economic superpower. This process is commonly known and demonized under the term of state capitalism, which I'll refer to as lesser socialism. And in two chapters later, in chapter 19 of Principles of Communism, Marx describes every single thing that China, countries doing this process, are doing. Like Lenin said, state monopoly capitalism, which is a complete material preparation for socialism. As I'm sure all critics know, Marxism described economic systems as being able to jump from one to another he describes them as phases gradually transitioning from feudalism to capitalism to socialism through communism. And the purpose of any capitalist mode of production in a socialist transitioning society is to expedite the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism, which extraordinarily advances mankind towards socialism. That's correct. Yes, I am much more well-read now, and in the context of all the quotes I listed here, they still apply to exactly what I'm talking about. And I'll let Lenin finish off this video as I think he said it best. Those who fail to understand this, and think this putting the peasantry in the forefront is renunciation of the dictatorship of the proletariat or something like that, simply do not stop to think and allow themselves to be swayed by the power of words. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the direction of policy by the proletariat. Get f****ing dunked on. |} In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. 2fe6h1qdqck9bbvq7xb5np94z6f1v6c 2834061 2834060 2026-09-21T00:02:15Z BajookThug 2920913 /* Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics */ 2834061 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" ! style="background:#f8f9fa; color:#202122; text-align:left; padding:8px;" | Source and Transcript |- | style="padding:12px; background:#ffffff; line-height:1.6;" | '''''Spontex''''': Marxism and Leninism is not a theory of communism, it is a theory of capitalist nation-state building. '''''Mocha''''':<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tiktok.com/@mochayappuccino/video/7687746625690782990|title=TikTok - Make Your Day|website=www.tiktok.com|access-date=2026-09-20|author=@mochayappuccino}}</ref> I don't agree with the premise, but I'll grant that most of what he said in this video is largely correct. But this take is devoid of historical materialism and the fact that we have to contend with a capitalist imperialist superpower. That every socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into communism or immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production either ceased to exist, collapse, or reform their economy. If you immediately socialize the resources and industry, you are going to be socializing scarcity and poverty if you have not built your productive forces. On the question of if private property could be abolished all at once, Mark- said in the principles of communism, no. No more than the existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society, meaning no more than you can build your productive forces to instantly do communism. Then saying in all probability the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity. This happened in every single country that attempted this premature collectivization process. This happened in Tanzania under socialist leader Julius Nere, who implemented Ujama, which was a collectivization of crops and agriculture, which resulted in mass scarcity and revolt, which caused Julius Nere to step down, calling his policy a failure. This happened in Vietnam after reunification, which resulted in, guess what, a future leader opening free market. This happened in Cuba. Yes, current Cuba, before the blockade, had a small free market system that allowed for the building of their productive forces. And the most famous and hated example being Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in China being the world economic superpower. This process is commonly known and demonized under the term of state capitalism, which I'll refer to as lesser socialism. And in two chapters later, in chapter 19 of Principles of Communism, Marx describes every single thing that China, countries doing this process, are doing. Like Lenin said, state monopoly capitalism, which is a complete material preparation for socialism. As I'm sure all critics know, Marxism described economic systems as being able to jump from one to another he describes them as phases gradually transitioning from feudalism to capitalism to socialism through communism. And the purpose of any capitalist mode of production in a socialist transitioning society is to expedite the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism, which extraordinarily advances mankind towards socialism. That's correct. Yes, I am much more well-read now, and in the context of all the quotes I listed here, they still apply to exactly what I'm talking about. And I'll let Lenin finish off this video as I think he said it best. Those who fail to understand this, and think this putting the peasantry in the forefront is renunciation of the dictatorship of the proletariat or something like that, simply do not stop to think and allow themselves to be swayed by the power of words. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the direction of policy by the proletariat. Get f****ing dunked on. |} In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. 335k28kg8spv2afyu72ldf0tq8us8ry 2834065 2834061 2026-09-21T00:06:43Z BajookThug 2920913 /* Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics */ 2834065 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" ! style="background:#f8f9fa; color:#202122; text-align:left; padding:8px;" | Source and Transcript |- | style="padding:12px; background:#ffffff; line-height:1.6;" | '''''Spontex''''': Marxism and Leninism is not a theory of communism, it is a theory of capitalist nation-state building. '''''Mocha''''':<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tiktok.com/@mochayappuccino/video/7687746625690782990|title=TikTok - Make Your Day|website=www.tiktok.com|access-date=2026-09-20|author=@mochayappuccino}}</ref> I don't agree with the premise, but I'll grant that most of what he said in this video is largely correct. But this take is devoid of historical materialism and the fact that we have to contend with a capitalist imperialist superpower. That every socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into communism or immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production either ceased to exist, collapse, or reform their economy. If you immediately socialize the resources and industry, you are going to be socializing scarcity and poverty if you have not built your productive forces. On the question of if private property could be abolished all at once, Mark- said in the principles of communism, no. No more than the existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society, meaning no more than you can build your productive forces to instantly do communism. Then saying in all probability the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity. This happened in every single country that attempted this premature collectivization process. This happened in Tanzania under socialist leader Julius Nere, who implemented Ujama, which was a collectivization of crops and agriculture, which resulted in mass scarcity and revolt, which caused Julius Nere to step down, calling his policy a failure. This happened in Vietnam after reunification, which resulted in, guess what, a future leader opening free market. This happened in Cuba. Yes, current Cuba, before the blockade, had a small free market system that allowed for the building of their productive forces. And the most famous and hated example being Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in China being the world economic superpower. This process is commonly known and demonized under the term of state capitalism, which I'll refer to as lesser socialism. And in two chapters later, in chapter 19 of Principles of Communism, Marx describes every single thing that China, countries doing this process, are doing. Like Lenin said, state monopoly capitalism, which is a complete material preparation for socialism. As I'm sure all critics know, Marxism described economic systems as being able to jump from one to another he describes them as phases gradually transitioning from feudalism to capitalism to socialism through communism. And the purpose of any capitalist mode of production in a socialist transitioning society is to expedite the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism, which extraordinarily advances mankind towards socialism. That's correct. Yes, I am much more well-read now, and in the context of all the quotes I listed here, they still apply to exactly what I'm talking about. And I'll let Lenin finish off this video as I think he said it best. Those who fail to understand this, and think this putting the peasantry in the forefront is renunciation of the dictatorship of the proletariat or something like that, simply do not stop to think and allow themselves to be swayed by the power of words. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the direction of policy by the proletariat. Get f****ing dunked on.<ref group="note">transcription auto-generated, may contain errors</ref> |} In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. dypxc1mcx5hpxf4zud2odp2uzsaniaj 2834066 2834065 2026-09-21T00:08:04Z BajookThug 2920913 /* Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics */ 2834066 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Mocha== ===Defense of Marxist-Leninist Transitional Economics=== {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;" ! style="background:#f8f9fa; color:#202122; text-align:left; padding:8px;" | Source and Transcript |- | style="padding:12px; background:#ffffff; line-height:1.6;" | '''''Spontex''''': Marxism and Leninism is not a theory of communism, it is a theory of capitalist nation-state building. '''''Mocha''''':<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tiktok.com/@mochayappuccino/video/7687746625690782990|title=TikTok - Make Your Day|website=www.tiktok.com|access-date=2026-09-20|author=@mochayappuccino}}</ref> I don't agree with the premise, but I'll grant that most of what he said in this video is largely correct. But this take is devoid of historical materialism and the fact that we have to contend with a capitalist imperialist superpower. That every socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into communism or immediately abolish the capitalist mode of production either ceased to exist, collapse, or reform their economy. If you immediately socialize the resources and industry, you are going to be socializing scarcity and poverty if you have not built your productive forces. On the question of if private property could be abolished all at once, Mark- said in the principles of communism, no. No more than the existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society, meaning no more than you can build your productive forces to instantly do communism. Then saying in all probability the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity. This happened in every single country that attempted this premature collectivization process. This happened in Tanzania under socialist leader Julius Nere, who implemented Ujama, which was a collectivization of crops and agriculture, which resulted in mass scarcity and revolt, which caused Julius Nere to step down, calling his policy a failure. This happened in Vietnam after reunification, which resulted in, guess what, a future leader opening free market. This happened in Cuba. Yes, current Cuba, before the blockade, had a small free market system that allowed for the building of their productive forces. And the most famous and hated example being Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in China being the world economic superpower. This process is commonly known and demonized under the term of state capitalism, which I'll refer to as lesser socialism. And in two chapters later, in chapter 19 of Principles of Communism, Marx describes every single thing that China, countries doing this process, are doing. Like Lenin said, state monopoly capitalism, which is a complete material preparation for socialism. As I'm sure all critics know, Marxism described economic systems as being able to jump from one to another he describes them as phases gradually transitioning from feudalism to capitalism to socialism through communism. And the purpose of any capitalist mode of production in a socialist transitioning society is to expedite the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism, which extraordinarily advances mankind towards socialism. That's correct. Yes, I am much more well-read now, and in the context of all the quotes I listed here, they still apply to exactly what I'm talking about. And I'll let Lenin finish off this video as I think he said it best. Those who fail to understand this, and think this putting the peasantry in the forefront is renunciation of the dictatorship of the proletariat or something like that, simply do not stop to think and allow themselves to be swayed by the power of words. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the direction of policy by the proletariat. Get f****ing dunked on.<ref group="note">transcription auto-generated, may contain errors</ref> |} {{reflist|group=note}} In analyzing the left-communist critique presented by Spontex, his overarching conclusion must be rejected. The fundamental issue with the LeftCom perspective is that it is completely devoid of historical materialism. It operates in an idealist vacuum that ignores the brutal, real-world conditions under which actual revolutions take place; specifically, the necessity of contending with a hostile, global capitalist-imperialist superpower. When we look at the historical record, a clear law of development emerges: every single socialist state that attempted to immediately transition into full communism, or tried to instantly abolish the capitalist mode of production at one stroke, either ceased to exist, collapsed entirely, or was forced by material reality to reform its economy. The reason for this is structural. If a revolutionary government attempts to immediately socialize all resources and industries before it has actually built up its underlying productive forces, it is not socializing wealth. In reality, it is merely socializing scarcity and poverty. ====Classical Marxist Grounding==== This realization is not a revision of Marxism; it is classical Marxism. Critics who demand the instant abolition of all capitalist mechanisms ignore what Karl Marx himself wrote in ''Principles of Communism''. When explicitly answering the question of whether private property could be abolished all at once, Marx responded with an unequivocal no. He explained that private property can no more be abolished at one stroke than the existing forces of production can be instantly multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. You simply cannot build your productive forces to instantly do communism overnight. Instead, Marx argued that in all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually. The state will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity to sustain that change. In ''Principles of Communism'', Karl Marx explicitly rejects the notion that private property can be abolished all at once: <blockquote> "Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? '''No''', no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society... In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society '''gradually''' and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity." (Marx, Chapter 17) </blockquote> * '''Historical Verification:''' Every socialist state that attempted premature, immediate collectivization suffered systemic economic crisis: :# '''Tanzania (Julius Nyerere):''' The implementation of ''Ujamaa'' (forced agricultural collectivization) resulted in severe material scarcity and social revolt, forcing Nyerere to step down and declare the policy a failure. :# '''Vietnam:''' Immediate postwar collectivization following reunification triggered acute scarcity, eventually forcing the state to introduce market-oriented reforms (''Đổi Mới''). :# '''Cuba:''' Even prior to the enforcement of the modern blockade, Cuba maintained localized free-market mechanisms to build up baseline productive capacity. :# '''China (Deng Xiaoping):''' The strategic retreat to market mechanisms and state capitalism transformed China from a vulnerable agrarian state into a global economic superpower. ====The Three Distinct Concepts the Left-Communists Collapse==== The phrase "state capitalism" refers, in Marxist-Leninist theory, to three different things depending on the class character of the state and the historical moment. =====State-monopoly capitalism===== This is Lenin's term, developed in ''Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'' (1916) and T''he Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'' (1917), for the fusion of the monopolies and the bourgeois state. Under state-monopoly capitalism, the state apparatus is subordinated to the financial oligarchy. It organises production, controls prices, allocates resources, and manages crises, but always '''in the interests of monopoly capital'''. This is the highest and final stage of capitalism. It is not socialism. It is not even a transition to socialism. It is the most concentrated, most socialised, and most parasitic form of capitalism, in which the productive forces have been socialised to the point where the entire economy functions as a single mechanism, but that mechanism is controlled by a tiny minority of finance capitalists. Lenin's crucial insight is that this form is the complete material preparation for socialism: the machinery of socialised production has been built, and the only remaining task is to transfer political power from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat. =====State capitalism under the DotP===== This is Lenin's term, developed during the New Economic Policy (1921–1928), for the use of capitalist forms; market exchange, concessions to foreign capital, cooperative enterprises, wage labour, commodity production, all under the political control of the workers' state. In ''The Tax in Kind'' (1921), Lenin argued that state capitalism, in this sense, was a step forward for a backward country. The proletariat held state power. The commanding heights; heavy industry, banking, foreign trade, transport, all were nationalised. The state used market forms not because it had surrendered to capital, but because the material conditions for a fully planned economy did not yet exist. The NEP was a tactical retreat, a conscious decision to use capitalist mechanisms to develop the productive forces while retaining proletarian political power. =====''"State capitalism"'' as a left-communist pejorative===== This is not a concept at all. It is an [[w:epithet|epithet]]. It is applied indiscriminately to the USSR, Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, and every other socialist state, regardless of whether they retained market forms or not. The left-communists say: any state that employs wage labour, retains commodity production, or uses money is state capitalist, and therefore not socialist. This collapses the distinction between the first two concepts entirely. It treats the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers as identical to the state capitalism of the NEP, and treats both as identical to the actually existing socialist states. It is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. The Marxist-Leninist response is that the class character of the state is decisive. State ownership, wage labour, commodity production, and money can exist under a bourgeois state ''(state-monopoly capitalism)'' or under a (besieged) proletarian state ''(state capitalism under the DOTP)''. The form is similar. The content is opposite. The question is not whether these forms exist, but which class controls the state that administers them, and in whose interests the surplus is extracted and distributed. ====Defining "Lesser Socialism"==== Left-communist critics weaponize the term "state capitalism" as a pejorative, whereas Marxism-Leninism recognizes it as an indispensable transitional phase: =====The Marxist Blueprint===== Marx and Engels did not invent the transitional economy out of thin air. They analysed the concrete measures that a proletarian state would have to adopt to transform a capitalist economy into a socialist one. The most systematic list appears in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Chapter 2, where Marx and Engels enumerate ten measures. Engels, in Principles of Communism (Questions 18–20), provides a similar list. These measures include: * Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. * A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. * Abolition of all right of inheritance. * Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. * Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. * Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. * Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan. * Equal liability of all to labour; establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. * Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country. * Free education for all children in public schools; abolition of children's factory labour; combination of education with industrial production. These measures are not communism. They are the transitional program of a workers' state that has seized power but does not yet possess the material conditions for a fully communist society. Marx and Engels describe them explicitly as "despotic inroads on the rights of property" and "means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production." They are measures that go beyond the limits of bourgeois society, that violate the sacred principles of private property, and that are necessary precisely because the working class cannot build socialism on the ruins of capitalism without first expropriating the bourgeoisie and reorganising production. The left-communists who reject state capitalism in principle are rejecting this program. They are rejecting the nationalisation of banks, the centralisation of credit, the confiscation of rebel property, the abolition of inheritance, and the state ownership of factories and transport. They are rejecting, in other words, the very measures that Marx and Engels identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. They want to leap directly from capitalism to communism, without the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not Marxism. It is utopianism. =====Lenin's Two Formulations===== Lenin developed the Marxist theory of transition in two distinct formulations, corresponding to two different historical moments. '''The 1917 formulation: state-monopoly capitalism as the threshold of socialism.''' In ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It'', written on the eve of the October Revolution, Lenin argued that the war had accelerated the development of state-monopoly capitalism to the point where it had become the complete material preparation for socialism. He wrote: "State-monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism, the threshold of socialism, a rung on the historical ladder between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs." And again: "Socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly." State-monopoly capitalism has already socialised production. It has already concentrated the means of production in a few hands. It has already organised the economy as a single mechanism. The only question is who controls that mechanism. If the bourgeoisie controls it, it is state-monopoly capitalism. If the proletariat controls it, it is socialism. The material base is the same. The class content is different. '''The 1921 formulation: state capitalism under the workers' state.''' After the Civil War, Lenin confronted the reality that the Soviet economy was too backward to sustain a fully planned, fully socialised system. The peasantry was dispersed, the industrial base was destroyed, and the productive forces were insufficient. In The Tax in Kind and related writings, Lenin argued that the workers' state must use capitalist forms; free trade, concessions, cooperatives, wage labour, all to develop the productive forces. He called this "state capitalism" and insisted that it was a step forward, not a betrayal. "State capitalism," he wrote, "is a step forward compared with the present state of affairs in our country." He listed the five elements of the Soviet economy; patriarchal peasant economy, small commodity production, private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism, and argued that the task was to move from the first four to the fifth. Lenin's point was that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not a single leap. It is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. The left-communist demand to abolish wage labour and commodity production immediately was, in Lenin's view, an infantile disorder, a refusal to confront the material realities of a backward economy. =====Why Stages Cannot Be Skipped===== Marxism-Leninism is a theory of historical materialism. It holds that the mode of production develops through determinate stages: primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. These stages cannot be arbitrarily skipped. A society cannot leap from feudalism to communism. It must pass through capitalism, develop the productive forces that capitalism creates, and then transition to socialism. This is not a moral judgment. It is a materialist analysis of the conditions of production. Marx makes this clear in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875): "What we are dealing with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The lower phase of communism; what we now call socialism, is not a fully developed society. It is a society in transition, still bearing the marks of the capitalist system from which it emerged. It retains wage labour, money, commodity production, and the state. These are not betrayals of socialism. They are the necessary forms of a society that has not yet developed the material conditions for the higher phase. The left-communists who demand the immediate abolition of these forms are demanding the impossible. They are demanding that a society skip from capitalism to communism without passing through the intervening period of state-directed transformation. This is not socialism. It is voluntarism. It is the belief that the will of the revolutionary party can substitute for the development of the productive forces. It is a form of idealism that Marx and Engels spent their lives fighting. =====The Strategic Purpose of Bounded Capitalist Production===== The utility of bounded capitalist production within a socialist state is not to "accelerate the transformation of raw capitalism into state monopoly capitalism." That formulation is muddled. State-monopoly capitalism is a form of capitalism. The transition under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a transition from "raw capitalism" to "state-monopoly capitalism." It is a transition from capitalism to socialism, using state-capitalist forms as instruments of development along the way. The correct formulation is this: the utility of bounded capitalist production under the workers' state is to develop the productive forces, to create the material base for socialism, and to progressively subordinate the market to the plan. The workers' state uses market mechanisms because it must. It uses them under political control. It uses them to feed the population, to rebuild industry, to train the workforce, and to accumulate the surplus that will be reinvested in socialist construction. The goal is not to make capitalism work better. The goal is to build the material conditions that will make capitalism unnecessary. This is what Lenin meant when he called the NEP a "retreat." The workers' state had advanced too far, too fast, in the conditions of the Civil War. It had attempted to abolish commodity production and wage labour before the material conditions were ripe. The retreat was not a surrender. It was a recognition that the transition to socialism requires stages, and that the stages must be respected. The goal remained the same: the abolition of classes, the withering away of the state, and the construction of a communist society. The means had to correspond to the material conditions. =====The Decisive Question Is Class Power===== The left-communist critique of state capitalism is a formalist error. It judges economic forms by their appearance, not by their class content. It treats the state ownership, wage labour, and commodity production of a workers' state as identical to the state-monopoly capitalism of the imperialist powers. It collapses the distinction between the two. It rejects the transitional measures that Marx, Engels, and Lenin identified as the necessary first steps of the transition. It demands the impossible; the immediate abolition of all capitalist forms, and condemns every actually existing socialist state for not achieving the impossible. The Marxist-Leninist position is different. It recognises that the transition from capitalism to communism is a long historical process, unfolding over decades, in which the workers' state uses whatever economic forms are necessary to develop the productive forces, while retaining political power and progressively subordinating the market to the plan. State capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a betrayal of the revolution. It is the material preparation for socialism. It is the bridge between the old society and the new. The decisive question is not whether wage labour or commodity production exists, but '''which class holds state power'''. If the proletariat holds power, the state capitalism of the transition is a tool of liberation. If the bourgeoisie holds power, it is a tool of exploitation. The left-communists cannot see this distinction. That is why their critique is not a contribution to the revolutionary movement. It is an obstacle to it. The class character of a state is not determined by the temporary absence of all market mechanisms, but by which class holds state power and directs political and economic policy. ==M. Pendleton== ===On Authority=== ====The Historical Situation That Produced the Text==== Friedrich Engels wrote On Authority in October 1872, in the immediate aftermath of the split in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, had brought together trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists from across Europe under a single organizational roof. Marx and Engels had been its leading intellectual force from the beginning. But from the start, there was a fundamental antagonism between the Marxist current and the anarchist current led by Mikhail Bakunin and his allies in the Jura Federation. The conflict was not personal, though it often became personal. It was a conflict over the most fundamental questions of revolutionary strategy: the role of the state, the nature of organization, the relationship between the party and the class, and the meaning of revolution itself. The Paris Commune of 1871 sharpened this conflict to a breaking point. The Commune was the first successful seizure of power by the working class in modern history. It lasted seventy-two days before being drowned in blood by the French state. Marx analyzed it in The Civil War in France as the "finally discovered political form" under which the working class could rule; a form that was not the bourgeois parliamentary state but a new type of state, based on elected and recallable delegates from the workplaces and neighborhoods, combining legislative and executive power, and armed for its own defense. The anarchists, however, claimed the Commune as their own. They argued that it had failed because it had not gone far enough in abolishing authority. It should have been more decentralized, more spontaneous, more thoroughly anti-statist. If it had abolished all authority instead of retaining a centralized armed force, it would have survived. Engels saw this argument as not merely wrong but dangerous. It was a recipe for the disarmament of the working class in the face of its class enemy. It was a romantic fantasy that would lead to defeat after defeat. And so, shortly after the Hague Congress of September 1872, where Bakunin and Guillaume were expelled from the International, Engels wrote this short text as a polemical intervention. It is not a systematic treatise. It is a fighting pamphlet. But in its few pages, it lays out the Marxist-Leninist position on authority, organization, and the state. The occasion for writing it was the anarchist claim that the Commune should have abolished authority. The argument Engels makes is that this demand, if taken seriously, would have destroyed the Commune in a single day. And beyond that, it would destroy any revolution, any organization, any collective action whatsoever. The text is a demolition of the anarchist position from the standpoint of material reality. ====The Anarchist Position and Its Rhetorical Weapon==== Engels opens the text with a precise observation about how the anarchists argue. He writes: "A number of socialists have latterly launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority. It suffices for them to tell them that this or that act is authoritarian for it to be condemned." This is the first move in the argument, and it is a crucial one. Engels is not engaging with a substantive critique. He is engaging with a rhetorical weapon. The word "authoritarian" has become a magic word. You do not have to prove that something is wrong. You do not have to demonstrate that it leads to bad consequences. You do not have to argue. You simply have to utter the word. The accusation is the argument. The label is the condemnation. This is what makes the anarchist position so slippery. It cannot be refuted by evidence because it does not rest on evidence. It rests on a word. And that word, once it is deployed, shuts down debate. To be accused of authoritarianism is to be placed outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. You do not get to defend yourself. You do not get to explain the concrete conditions that might justify a particular decision or organization. You are simply condemned. Engels recognizes this move for what it is, and he refuses to accept it. He insists on returning to the material content behind the word. The anarchists, he writes, have "launched a new crusade against what they call the principle of authority." The key phrase is "what they call." Engels is saying: you have not defined your terms. You have not told us what authority actually is. You have not told us what it means to abolish it. You have not told us whether it is possible. You have simply declared it to be bad and demanded its abolition. This is not analysis. It is moralism. And moralism is useless in the class struggle. What matters is material reality. So Engels does what the anarchists refuse to do. He defines authority. He examines its material basis. He asks whether it can be abolished. And he demonstrates that the anarchist position, if taken seriously, is not merely wrong but impossible and that the attempt to implement it would lead to the defeat of the working class. ====The Definition of Authority==== Engels writes: ''"Authority, in the sense in which the word is used here, means the imposition of the will of another upon ours. On the other hand, authority presupposes subordination."'' This is a precise, materialist definition. Authority is not an abstract moral quality. It is a relationship between wills. One will imposes itself on another. One will submits to another. That is what authority is. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective or external will. Engels immediately moves from definition to the concrete question. He writes: ''"Now, since these two words sound bad and the relationship which they represent, the question is to ascertain whether there is any way of dispensing with it. Whether, given the conditions of present-day society, we could not create another social system in which this authority would be given no scope any longer and would consequently have to disappear."'' This is the dialectical move. Do not argue about whether authority is good or bad in the abstract. Examine the material conditions. Can a complex society function without authority? If not, then the demand to abolish it is utopian. It cannot be realized. And if it cannot be realized, then the people who demand it are either deceiving themselves or deceiving others. They are diverting the working class from the real tasks of revolution into a fantasy of perfect freedom that has no basis in material reality. ====The Material Argument==== Engels then examines the economic, industrial, and agricultural conditions of bourgeois society. He finds a common tendency across all of them: ''"They tend more and more to replace isolated action by combined action of individuals."'' This is the fundamental fact of modern production. The isolated artisan working alone in his workshop has been replaced by hundreds of workers in a factory, each performing a specialized task, each dependent on the others, each coordinated by a common plan or purpose. The isolated farmer working his own plot has been replaced by large-scale agriculture employing hired workers, cultivating vast stretches of land, using machines, producing for the market. The small merchant has been replaced by the railway and the steamship, which move goods across continents and oceans on a fixed schedule, coordinating the labor of thousands of workers. This is what Engels means by "combined action." It is not a choice. It is a material fact. Modern production is collective production. It requires coordination. It requires organization. And organization, Engels writes, "speaks of authority." You cannot have organization without authority. You cannot coordinate the labor of hundreds of workers without some mechanism for ensuring that each performs their task at the right time, in the right way, in coordination with the others. That mechanism is authority. It may be the authority of a single person; the factory manager, the ship captain, the railway signalman. It may be the authority of a collective decision, the majority vote of a committee, the plan agreed upon by a cooperative. But it is authority nonetheless. It is the subordination of individual will to a collective purpose. Engels gives three concrete examples, each of which makes the same point in a different way. * The cotton mill: ''"Here the workers must work at definite hours; and if any breach of the discipline established by the master is to be tolerated, the whole establishment must stop."'' The mill requires time discipline. Workers must start at a fixed time. They must stop at a fixed time. They must not leave their stations in the middle of a shift. They must not slow down or speed up in ways that disrupt the flow of production. The entire establishment; hundreds of workers, expensive machinery, raw materials, all depends on this coordination. If one worker disobeys, the whole process is disrupted. If many workers disobey, the mill stops. The authority of the master, the manager, the overseer, is not a political preference. It is a technical necessity. Without it, the mill cannot function. * The railway: Engels writes: ''"The railway, with its complicated system of signal boxes, is a case in point. The engine-driver must obey the signalman, or the whole traffic is in danger."'' The railway is a system of interdependent movements. Trains run on fixed schedules. They pass through stations, junctions, and signal boxes. The signalman controls the movement of trains. The engine driver must obey the signal. If the signalman makes a mistake, or if the engine driver disobeys the signal, the result is a collision. People die. The authority of the signalman over the engine driver is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of life and death. It is a technical requirement of the system. * The ship at sea: ''"The ship, on the open sea, requires the strictest authority. The captain's command must be obeyed without question, or the ship is lost."'' The ship is a collective enterprise. Dozens of sailors work together. They operate in a dangerous environment. Storms, rocks, enemies, disease; any of these can destroy the ship. The captain is the coordinating authority. In an emergency, there is no time for debate. The captain gives an order. The sailors obey. If they do not, the ship is lost. This is not authoritarianism in the political sense. It is the functional authority required by the nature of the work. Engels draws the conclusion: ''"Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel."'' The demand to abolish authority is not a demand for freedom. It is a demand to return to a pre-industrial past. It is a demand to destroy the productive forces that the working class needs in order to build socialism. It is, in the final analysis, a reactionary demand. It would impoverish the working class. It would weaken the revolution. It would make socialism impossible. ====The Political Argument==== Engels then turns from the economic to the political. He asks: have the anarchists ever seen a revolution? ''"A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon; authoritarian means, if such there be at all."'' This is a devastating point. Revolution is not a debate. It is not a vote. It is not a peaceful transition. It is an armed insurrection. It is the forcible overthrow of one class by another. It involves violence. It involves bloodshed. It involves the imposition of will by force. If you are opposed to authority, then you must be opposed to revolution. You cannot have one without the other. And after the revolution, the question becomes even sharper. "If the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries." The defeated class does not simply disappear. It does not accept its defeat. It attempts to restore its power. It organizes counter-revolution. It seeks foreign intervention. It uses every means at its disposal to overthrow the new order. The working class must defend itself. It must suppress the reactionaries. It must maintain its authority. It must use the terror of its arms to deter counter-revolution. This is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is not a moral choice. It is a material necessity. If the working class refuses to exercise this authority, it will be crushed. The revolution will be defeated. And the working class will be returned to servitude. ''"Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie?"'' The Commune was the greatest experiment in working-class power up to that time. And it was, by any measure, authoritarian. It used armed force against the bourgeoisie. It suppressed reactionaries. It executed spies and traitors. It did not ask politely for the ruling class to hand over power. It took power by force and held it by force. If it had refused to use this authority, it would have collapsed immediately. The anarchist position is refuted by the Commune itself. ====Functional vs. Political Authority==== This distinction is not always made explicit in the text, but it is implicit throughout, and it is essential for understanding why the anarchist position fails. The first type is '''functional authority'''. This is the authority that arises from the technical requirements of collective labor. It is the authority of the ship captain over the sailors, the signalman over the engine-driver, the factory manager over the workers. It is not based on class domination. It is based on the nature of the work. It exists in any complex society, regardless of its mode of production. It will exist under socialism. It will exist under communism. It exists because collective action requires coordination, and coordination requires the subordination of individual will to a collective plan. This type of authority is class-neutral. It is a technical necessity. The second type is '''political authority'''. This is the authority of one class over another. It is the authority of the capitalist over the worker, the landlord over the peasant, the imperialist state over the colonized nation. It is based on class domination. It is backed by the violence of the state. It is the mechanism through which surplus value is extracted, through which exploitation is maintained, through which the ruling class reproduces its power. This type of authority is class specific. It is the authority of the bourgeoisie. It must be smashed by the revolution and replaced by the authority of the working class. The anarchist error is to confuse these two types of authority. The anarchists see all authority as political domination. They do not distinguish between the ship captain and the capitalist, between the signalman and the landlord, between the factory manager and the state. They demand the abolition of all authority indiscriminately. But this means they demand the abolition of the functional coordination required by modern industry, which is impossible without destroying industry itself. And it means they refuse to establish the authority of the working class; the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the only authority capable of defending the revolution and building socialism. The Marxist-Leninist position is to distinguish between the two types of authority. Functional authority is retained under socialism. The ship captain still commands the ship. The signalman still controls the trains. The factory manager still coordinates production. But political authority is transformed. The state is no longer the instrument of the bourgeoisie. It becomes the instrument of the working class. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the political authority of the working class over the bourgeoisie. It is the most democratic authority in history, because it is the authority of the vast majority over the tiny minority of exploiters. And it is the only authority that can lead to the abolition of all class authority; the withering away of the state under communism. ====Democratic Centralism as Authority==== Pendleton takes Engels' argument and applies it to democratic centralism, the organizational principle of Marxism-Leninism. She explains that all collective decision making involves authority. Even democracy is authoritative. The majority imposes its will on the minority. The minority is forced to exist in a system they did not vote for. This is authority. It is the imposition of one will upon another. Democratic centralism is the organizational form that this takes in a revolutionary party. It has two phases. Before a decision is made, there is full and open debate. All members are free to express their views. All positions are heard. This is the phase of freedom. After a decision is made, all members are bound by it. The minority submits to the majority. The decision is binding. This is the phase of unity. The individual who disagrees holds their protestations until the next opportunity for debate, which is the next meeting, the next congress, the next opportunity to revisit the decision. Pendleton explains this clearly. ''"You vote and then whatever is decided upon, even if it outvoted you, even if it's not what you wanted, you back it and support it. Cause that's how democracy works. You were outvoted, so you just do what the majority wanted, what the masses wanted. You go along with it even if it's not what you wanted, and you hold your protestations until the next opportunity you have to debate and converse leading up to another vote."'' This is the authority of democracy. It is not authoritarianism in the bourgeois sense. It is not the rule of one person over everyone else. It is the rule of the majority over the minority. It is the collective will of the group imposed on each individual member. And it is necessary. Without it, the group cannot act. Without it, every member is free to disobey every decision they disagree with, and the group dissolves into a debating society that can never accomplish anything. The connection to Engels is direct. Engels argued that combined action requires authority. Democratic centralism is the form that this authority takes in a revolutionary party. The party is a collective actor. It must be able to make decisions and act on them. It cannot wait for unanimity on every question. It cannot allow every member to veto every decision. It must be able to act with unity and discipline. This requires authority. It requires the subordination of individual will to the collective decision. It requires democratic centralism. ====The Utility of the Term ''"Authoritarian"''==== Pendleton closes with a question that is really the point of this. They ask: ''"Is democracy inherently authoritarian? In the West, what are we led to believe? If you ask a capitalist, they will tell you that Western systems are simply democracies. But isn't all democracy actually authoritative? If a democracy forces people to exist under systems they voted against, then every democracy imposes authority. If that is the case, what is the actual utility of the term 'authoritarian' at all?"'' The term "authoritarian" has been emptied of meaning. It is used as a rhetorical weapon against socialist states. The DPRK is authoritarian. The USSR was authoritarian. China is authoritarian. Cuba is authoritarian. Vietnam is authoritarian. Laos is authoritarian. But so is every state, every organization, every collective decision. If everything is authoritarian, then nothing is. The term has no analytical content. It is a label of condemnation, not a category of analysis. The correct approach is to distinguish between forms of authority based on their class content. The authority of the capitalist over the worker is exploitation. The authority of the workers' state over the former exploiters is liberation. The authority of the majority in a democratic vote is collective self-determination. The authority of a fascist dictator is terror. These are not the same. To call them all "authoritarian" is to erase the class distinction that is the entire point of Marxist analysis. The term "authoritarian" is a Cold War weapon. It was deployed to delegitimize the socialist states. It was paired with "totalitarian" to equate fascism and communism. It was used to justify the arms race, the proxy wars, the economic blockade, the propaganda offensive. It is still used today to justify the blockade of Cuba, the sanctions on the DPRK, the encirclement of Russia and China, the suppression of socialist movements everywhere. The average human must refuse this weapon. We must replace it with class analysis. We must ask not "is this authoritarian?" but "which class does this authority serve?" That is the only question that matters. ===The Three Phenomena=== Pendleton identifies three ideological formations that are commonly presented as neutral common sense but which function, objectively, as weapons of the right. The analysis is Marxist-Leninist in method, it does not ask whether the people who promote these ideas are personally malicious, nor does it treat them as innocent errors. It asks whose class interests they serve, what material effects they produce, and how they shape the consciousness of the working class. The three phenomena; horseshoe theory, the "real socialism has never been tried" argument, and the stranger danger myth,are not random. ====Horseshoe Theory==== * <big>''What the Theory Claims:''</big> Horseshoe theory is the proposition that the far left and the far right, rather than being opposites on a linear political spectrum, curve around to resemble each other. The image is a horseshoe: the two ends, which appear distant on a straight line, are actually close together. The theory is attributed to the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in his 1972 book Théorie du récit, where he used it to describe the political position of the German parties in 1932, from the Communist Party of Germany to the Nazi Party. It was later promoted by the American sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Daniel Bell, who became part of the neoconservative movement, and by the anti-communist psychologist Hans Eysenck, who deliberately developed the idea to conflate communism and Nazism. The theory has a specific political genealogy. It was not discovered through neutral observation. It was constructed by Cold War liberals and anti-communists to serve a specific function. * <big>''What the Evidence Shows:''</big> The claim that the far left and the far right are converging is not supported by the empirical record. Peer-reviewed research on the subject has found mixed or contradictory support for the theory, and several studies have directly contradicted its premises. The mainstream academic consensus is that the far left and far right do not share a common political essence. They differ on the most fundamental questions: the ownership of the means of production, the role of the state, the nature of class struggle, the question of imperialism, and the position of oppressed nationalities and minorities. A communist and a fascist may both be "emotional" about politics, as the video concedes, but emotional intensity is not a political position. It is a psychological trait. The theory takes a psychological observation; that people at the extremes tend to be more passionate. And illegitimately converts it into a political claim that they are essentially the same. This is a category error. * <big>''The Function of the Theory:''</big> The function of horseshoe theory is not to describe reality. It is to '''police the boundaries of acceptable political discourse'''. The goal of the right is not necessarily to convert the left into right-wingers. The goal is to make the left '''not a problem'''. The greatest obstacle to the far right is the far left, the socialist, the communist, the person who actually believes that capitalism must be abolished. If the right can convince a left-leaning person that going too far left means becoming the moral equivalent of the fascist they despise, that person will retreat to the centre. They will become a liberal: someone who does not love capitalism but believes it is the only viable option, because the alternative is worse. This is the '''containment strategy''' of horseshoe theory. It does not need to defeat the left. It only needs to keep the left trapped in a centrist position that does not materially threaten the ruling class. The theory is a form of ''ideological disarmament''. It tells the left that its most committed members are secret fascists. It tells the centre that it is the only sane position. It makes the revolutionary left appear not as the vanguard of the working class but as a pathological fringe, indistinguishable from the enemy. This is not an analysis of politics. It is a weapon in the class struggle, wielded by the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. ====''"Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried"''==== * <big>''The Claim and Its History:''</big> The second propaganda mechanism is the argument that "real socialism" or "real communism" has never been tried. Pendleton traces this argument to a specific historical operation: the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-funded organization founded in West Berlin in 1950. The CCF was the largest and longest of the covert operations run by the CIA, lasting from 1950 until 1967. Its purpose was to promote an international anti-communist consciousness among intellectual liberals and non-communist leftists, and it subsidized dozens of prominent magazines, global congresses, annual seminars, and artistic festivals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766|title=The Culture of Funding Culture: The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom|last=Pullin|first=Eric|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-7756-6|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Christopher J.|pages=47–64|editor-last2=Moran|editor-first2=Christopher R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/The-CIA-and-the-Congress-for-Cultural-Freedom-in-the-Early-Cold-War-The-Limits-of-Making-Common-Cause/MillerHarris/p/book/9781138602861|title=The CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the Early Cold War: The Limits of Making Common Cause|website=Routledge & CRC Press|language=en|access-date=2026-09-19}}</ref> It was exposed in 1966–67 by The New York Times and Ramparts magazine, igniting one of the most damaging scandals in CIA history.<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/intelligence-studies-in-britain-and-the-us/culture-of-funding-culture-the-cia-and-the-congress-for-cultural-freedom/6C52FBAFE2C92D03B970C3CFDE68C766#1</ref> The CCF did not simply produce crude anti-communist propaganda. It did something more sophisticated. It created an academic standard for Marxism that was so exclusive and difficult to achieve that no actually existing socialist state could meet it. The CCF promoted a worldview dominated by positivistic empiricism, rationalism, technocratic modernism, and a general opposition to "totalizing" philosophies, including Marxism, but also laissez-faire liberalism. It drew on former communists who had renounced the movement, and it used them to articulate a version of Marxist theory that was pure, abstract, and entirely divorced from practice.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004915/geppert_challenge_gesamt.pdf|title=The Postwar Challenge: Cultural, Social, and Political Change in Western Europe, 1945–1958|last=Geppert|first=Dominik|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199266654|pages=319}}</ref> The result was a definition of socialism that existed only in seminar rooms and academic journals, never in factories or farms or besieged nations. * <big>''The Material Effect:''</big> The material effect of this operation was to '''sever the link between theory and practice'''. If no country on earth is actually socialist, then the socialist states that exist; Cuba, the DPRK, Vietnam, the USSR, and others, are not socialist. They are something else: state capitalist, bureaucratic collectivist, totalitarian. This has two consequences. First, the left-leaning person who accepts this standard will not care particularly much about what the United States does to those countries. If Cuba is not really socialist, why oppose the blockade? If the DPRK is not really communist, why care about the starvation caused by sanctions? The suffering of those peoples becomes a matter of indifference. Second, the left-leaning person will conclude that socialism is a completely unrealistic goal. It is not something worth attempting at home, because the moment you attempt it, someone will be there to say: "That's not real socialism." Marxism becomes an intellectual pursuit, a set of ideas you can study, but not something you can ever actually materially attempt. The right effectively neutered the American left by turning socialism into a thought experiment. This is the mechanism of '''manufactured purity'''. It is a form of ideological gatekeeping that uses impossibly high standards to disqualify every actually existing attempt at socialism. It does not argue that socialism is undesirable. It argues that socialism has never existed, and therefore cannot be judged, and therefore cannot be attempted. It is a form of '''political nihilism''' dressed as theoretical rigour. ====Stranger Danger==== * ''<big>The Myth and Its Function:</big>'' The third propaganda mechanism is the myth of stranger danger, specifically as it has been directed at women and children. The myth holds that the primary threat to women's safety comes from strangers; the masked man in the dark alley, the predator hiding behind a bush, the unknown attacker on the street. This myth is false. The overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by people they know: intimate partners, family members, acquaintances. Empirical data from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey collectively demonstrate that between 70 and 90 percent of victims know their perpetrator. Rape by a stranger is a small minority of cases. The dominant form of violence against women is domestic violence. * ''<big>The Mechanism of Diversion:</big>'' The myth of stranger danger diverts attention from this reality in several ways. First, it sensationalizes a rare form of violence while rendering the common form invisible. It creates a public obsession with the stranger in the alley while the abuser in the home remains unexamined. Second, it provides a justification for increased police presence in working-class and racialized neighbourhoods. If the threat is the stranger, then the solution is more police on the streets. The video notes that 40 percent of police officers in a 1990s study reported that they had become physically violent with their wives or children in the last six months alone.<ref>https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/understanding-police-officer-perpetrated-domestic-violence/</ref> The institution that is supposed to protect women from violence is itself a site of domestic violence at rates far higher than the general population. How can you use domestic violence as a justification for increased police presence when the police themselves are domestic abusers? Third, the myth of stranger danger criminalizes Black and brown men disproportionately.<ref>https://www.palegis.us/house/committees/committee-archives/archive-file?file=2022_0119_0001_TSTMNY.pdf#13#9</ref><ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/benign-bigotry/they-must-be-guilty-of-something-the-myth-of-criminality/742D9C2F18CD773F9BFF5F86AE05CE72#1</ref><ref>https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/RSF_journal_11_3.pdf#87#10</ref><ref>https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Use%20of%20force%20by%20the%20TPS%20report%20%28updated%20January%202023%29.pdf#26#21</ref> The image of the stranger as a threat has always been racialized. The increased police presence justified by this myth has meant more Black and brown men locked up, sentenced to prison, and forced to labour for corporations. The video notes that this was also a way for the American government to lock up political opponents. Meanwhile, the actual violence that most women endure; domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse by family members, goes largely unchecked. The criminal justice system is notoriously ineffective at prosecuting these crimes. Lawyers report having problems prosecuting domestic violence when the victim and perpetrator are known to each other. Jurors often see these instances as "not real rape." Real rape, they say, happens when a stranger attacks you on the street. Everything else is a misunderstanding. * ''<big>The Class and Gendered Function:</big>'' The function of the stranger danger myth is to fragment the working class along gendered and racialized lines while simultaneously legitimizing the repressive apparatus of the state. It tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the employer who pays them starvation wages, not the landlord who evicts them, not the state that cuts funding for domestic violence shelters. It tells them that their safety depends on more policing, not on the transformation of the social relations that produce violence in the first place. And it tells them that their suffering is a matter for the police, not for the collective self-organization of the working class. The myth of stranger danger is, in its essence, a '''counter-insurgency operation directed at women'''. It is designed to prevent the formation of a mass movement against the actual conditions that produce violence against women. ====The Dialectical Unity of the Three Mechanisms==== These three mechanisms are not separate. They are three faces of a single ideological offensive. * '''Horseshoe theory''' tells the left that its most committed members are fascists. It '''neutralizes political identity'''. * '''The ''"real socialism has never been tried"'' argument''' tells the left that socialism is impossible. It '''neutralizes historical memory and practical confidence'''. * '''The stranger danger myth''' tells women that their enemy is the stranger, not the system. It '''neutralizes the mass movement around the most immediate form of violence'''. The three together produce a left that is '''politically contained, historically disarmed''', and '''socially fragmented.''' It is a left that cannot name its enemy, cannot remember its victories, and cannot organize its base. It is a left that is perfectly safe for the ruling class because it has been convinced of its own impossibility. The response is not to argue within these frames. '''It is to smash the frames'''. We do not debate whether the far left and far right are converging. We insist on the class content of politics. We do not accept the impossible standards of purity that disqualify every actually existing socialist state. We defend those states as the living expression of the workers' movement against imperialism. We do not accept the myth of stranger danger. We insist that violence against women is a structural product of class society and that the solution is not more police but the revolutionary transformation of the social relations that produce it. ===What Is Communism?=== ====The Central Argument==== Marx and Engels never said that communism is "stateless, classless, and moneyless." This formula, which is widely repeated in liberal, anarchist, and even some left circles, is a distortion of the Marxist theory of the state and the transition to communism. Pendleton argues that this formula functions as a "thought-terminating cliché" designed to delegitimize actually existing socialist states and to disarm the working class in its struggle against the international bourgeoisie. The correct position, developed by Marx and Engels in the nineteenth century and elaborated by Lenin in the twentieth, is that the state is a tool of class oppression, that the working class needs its own state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defeat the bourgeoisie and build socialism, and that the state will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale. The abolition of the state is not the goal. The abolition of class is the goal. The state will wither away when it has no more class enemies to suppress. ====What Marx and Engels Actually Said==== The formula "classless, stateless, moneyless" is widely attributed to Marx, but Marx never wrote it. It is an invention of later popularizers, and it has become a dogma that obscures the actual theory. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels write: ''"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."'' This is not a stateless vision. It is a program for the working class to seize the state and use it to expropriate the bourgeoisie. The state is the instrument of this expropriation. It is not abolished. It is captured and repurposed. Engels, in ''The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)'', defines the state precisely. It is ''"a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel."'' The state arises because society is divided into classes. It exists to manage the antagonisms that would otherwise tear society apart. It is the instrument through which one class maintains its rule over the others. In capitalism, the state is the instrument of the capitalist class. It exists to protect private property, to suppress the working class, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation. The working class cannot use this state for its own liberation. It must smash it and build a new one. This is the central argument of Lenin's ''The State and Revolution (1917)'', which is the definitive Marxist text on the subject. Lenin writes: ''"The state is a special organisation of force; it is the organisation of violence for the suppression of some class."'' The bourgeois state is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the working class. The proletarian state; the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the organisation of violence for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. The state does not disappear after the revolution. It changes hands. It becomes the instrument of the formerly oppressed class. It is used to suppress the formerly oppressing class. Pendleton quotes Engels: ''"The state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force. So long as the proletariat makes use of the state, it makes use of it not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies. And as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist."'' This is the exact formulation. The state is a weapon. The working class needs it to defeat the bourgeoisie. As long as there are classes, there will be a state. When there are no more classes, there will be no more state. The state will wither away. It will not be abolished. It will become unnecessary. ====The Withering Away of the State==== The distinction between the abolition and the withering away of the state is crucial. The anarchists demand the immediate abolition of the state. They see the state as the source of all evil. They believe that if you destroy the state, you destroy inequality. Marx and Engels argued that this is a profound error. The state is not the source of inequality. The state is the product of inequality. The source of inequality is the division of society into classes, specifically the division between the capitalist class that owns the means of production and the working class that owns nothing but its labour power. The state exists to maintain this division. It is a superstructural phenomenon. It arises from the base. To abolish the state without abolishing the class division that produces it is impossible. You can smash the state apparatus, but if the class division remains, a new state will arise to replace it. This is why Engels, in Anti-Dühring (1878), writes: ''"The proletariat seizes from the state power and turns the means of production into state property. But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, and abolishes also the state as state. Society, which has hitherto been split into classes, had need of the state, that is, of an organisation of the exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production, and therefore, especially, for the forcible holding down of the exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, serfdom, wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state was the official representative of society as a whole, its concentration in a visible corporation, but it was this only in so far as it was the state of that class which itself represented, in its time, society as a whole: in ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens; in the Middle Ages, of the feudal nobility; in our own time, of the bourgeoisie. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection, as soon as class rule and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no longer necessary. The first act by virtue of which the state really constitutes itself as the representative of the whole of society, the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society, is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished. It withers away."'' The state is '''not abolished'''. It '''''withers away'''''. It becomes unnecessary. When there are no classes, there is no need for an instrument of class oppression. The state, as a special repressive force, loses its function. It ceases to exist. But this does not happen overnight. It happens ''over a long historical period''. It happens after the working class has used the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to socialize the means of production, to abolish class distinctions, and to create a classless society. The withering away is the final stage of a long process. It is ''not the first act of the revolution''. It is the last. ====The Anarchist Error and the First International==== M. Pendleton traces the conflict between Marxism and anarchism to the First International. The anarchists, led by [[w:Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Bakunin]], argued that: ''the state is the primary evil and that the goal of the revolution is its immediate abolition.'' Marx and Engels argued that: ''this is a petty-bourgeois deviation that would lead to the defeat of the working class.'' The conflict was not personal. It was a disagreement about the nature of class society and the strategy of revolution. Engels, in his letter to Theodor Cuno (1872), writes: ''"Bakunin has a peculiar theory of his own, a medley of Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, in the first place, that he does not regard capital, and therefore the class contradiction between capitalist and wage-earners which has arisen through social development, as the main evil to be abolished. Instead, he regards the state as the main evil."'' This is the core of the anarchist error. Bakunin believed that the state creates capital, that the capitalist has his capital only by favor of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/capsys.htm#1|title=The Capitalist System|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm#1|title=Letters to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1870|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Translated by Sam Dolgoff|access-date=19 September 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bakunin: The Creative Passion|last=Leier|first=Mark|publisher=Seven Stories Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1583228944|pages=440|quote='The sole objective' of the modern state, he warned, was to 'organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.' In order to develop fully, 'modern capitalist production and bank speculation require enormous centralized states, which alone are capable of subjecting the many millions of laborers to their exploitation.'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/state-im.htm|title=The Immorality of the State|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|date=1953|website=Marxists Internet Archive|others=Transcribed by Dana Ward|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=The State is nothing else but the negation of humanity; it is a limited collectivity which aims to take the place of humanity and which wants to impose itself upon the latter as a supreme goal, while everything else is to submit and minister to it.}}</ref> Marx and Engels argued the opposite: the state is the product of class society. Capital exists before the state. The state arises to protect capital. To abolish the state without abolishing capital is to leave the capitalist class intact. The capitalists will simply create a new state to protect their property. The revolution will have accomplished nothing. This is why Marx and Engels insisted on the necessity of the [[w:dictatorship of the proletariat|dictatorship of the proletariat]]. The working class must ''seize the state'', ''not abolish it''. It must use the state to expropriate the bourgeoisie, to suppress counter-revolution, and to build socialism. The state is a weapon. The working class must take it from the bourgeoisie and use it. Only when the class enemy has been defeated, when classes have been abolished, can the state be allowed to wither away. ====The Two Phases of Communism==== Marx, in the ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (1875), distinguishes between two phases of communist society. '''The first phase'''; which Lenin and later Marxists called socialism, is the period immediately following the revolution. It is a society that has ''"just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society."'' It is ''"in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the '''birthmarks of the old society''' from whose womb it emerges."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm|title=Critique of the Gotha Programme|last=Marks|first=Karl|date=1875|website=Marxists Internet Archive|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.}}</ref> In this phase, the state exists. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is the instrument through which the working class suppresses the bourgeoisie, expropriates the means of production, and builds the material base for a classless society. '''The second phase'''; the higher phase of communism, is the society in which the state has withered away. Marx writes: ''"In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labour, has vanished; after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly, only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"'' This is the stateless, classless, moneyless society. But it is the ''end product of a long historical process''. It is ''not'' the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the ''final stage of communism''. Pendleton argues that the confusion arises because many people conflate these two phases. They treat the final goal; the higher phase of communism, as the immediate program of the revolution. They demand the abolition of the state, the abolition of money, the abolition of class, immediately. This is utopian. It is not scientific socialism. It is anarchism. The Marxist-Leninist position is that the state will exist during the entire period of the transition from capitalism to communism. It will exist during the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will exist during the lower phase of communism. It will only wither away in the higher phase, when classes have been abolished and the state has become unnecessary. ====The International Bourgeoisie and the Need for a State==== Pendleton makes a crucial point about the international character of the bourgeoisie. Even if one country were to abolish class distinctions within its own borders, the bourgeoisie is international. Capitalists have passports from multiple countries, homes in multiple nations, and multinational corporations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires|last=Surak|first=Kristin|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-0674248649}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset|last=Harpaz|first=Yossi|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0691194066|quote=The legal acceptance of multiple nationality has made Western citizenship into a valuable practical resource for elites in other parts of the world, allowing them to convert local advantages into a new kind of capital that elevates their position within the global system of stratification.}}</ref> The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the Cuban revolution resides in the United States. The bourgeoisie that seeks to destroy the DPRK resides in the United States, South Korea, and the broader imperialist world. As long as the bourgeoisie exists anywhere on the planet, the workers' state is necessary to defend the revolution. This is the lesson of the Soviet Union, which was invaded by fourteen imperialist armies during the Civil War, and by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It is the lesson of Cuba, which has been subjected to an economic blockade for over sixty years. It is the lesson of the DPRK, which has been under sanctions and military threat since its founding. The state is not a relic of the past. It is a necessity of the present. It is the shield of the revolution. This is why Pendleton argues that the "stateless, classless, moneyless" formula is a "thought-terminating cliché." It is used to dismiss actually existing socialist states as "not really socialist". The DPRK has a state. Cuba has a state. Vietnam has a state. China has a state. Therefore, according to this formula, they are not really communist. But this is a profound error. The state exists in these countries because it is '''necessary to defend the revolution against ''imperialism'''''. It exists because '''the class struggle is not over.''' It exists because '''the bourgeoisie is still a threat''', both internally and internationally. To demand the immediate abolition of the state in these countries is to demand their disarmament in the face of the enemy. It is to demand their defeat. It is to side with imperialism against the working class. ====The Marxist-Leninist Position==== The state is not the source of inequality. It is the product of class society. It exists to maintain the rule of one class over another. In capitalism, it is the instrument of the bourgeoisie. The working class must not abolish it. It must seize it, smash the old state apparatus, and build a new one; the dictatorship of the proletariat. This new state is the instrument of the working class for the suppression of the bourgeoisie. It is used to expropriate the means of production, to build socialism, and to defend the revolution against counter-revolution and imperialist intervention. The state will exist during the entire transition period from capitalism to communism. It will only wither away when classes have been abolished on a global scale, when the productive forces have been developed to the point of abundance, when the division of labour has been overcome, and when the state has become unnecessary. The withering away of the state is not the immediate goal of the revolution. It is the final outcome of a long historical process. To demand its immediate abolition is to fall into the anarchist error. It is to leave the working class disarmed in the face of its class enemy. It is to betray the revolution. Marx himself, as Pendleton notes, did not give prescriptions for what socialism or communism would look like. He wrote: ''"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things."'' Communism is not a blueprint. It is a movement. It is the movement of the working class to abolish capitalism and to build a classless society. The state is an instrument of that movement. It is not the enemy. It is the weapon. The working class must wield it. This is the Marxist-Leninist position. It is the position of Marx and Engels. It is the position of Lenin. bldgln21vt0cq4qo3yryydguakogjpz 2 332158 2834063 2833827 2026-09-21T00:04:52Z The Citer 3110681 2834063 wikitext text/x-wiki My template storage! ==Templates== [[File:|thumb|300x300px|[Insert_text_here]]] ==Purpose== It's a storage space so I don't have to copy text in source editor; I just can copy it in reading mode. tccfh9gxci0o6mnu4r6osjai2lejnqv 2 332170 2834025 2833984 2026-09-20T17:27:23Z BajookThug 2920913 /* How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland */ 2834025 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with. * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat. This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone. Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race." The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. pejncoxuxh38f1feolge64zd1ybto8l 2834026 2834025 2026-09-20T17:37:56Z BajookThug 2920913 /* How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland */ 2834026 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with. * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat. This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race." The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. 3wrfkzm3yfuq81mwp6svdaavmbb3pbe 2834027 2834026 2026-09-20T17:46:40Z BajookThug 2920913 /* How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland */ 2834027 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with. * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat. This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race." The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. gwcxgg6dhw6yakgjvtcx6uayafp0s2l 2834029 2834027 2026-09-20T18:00:52Z BajookThug 2920913 /* How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland */ 2834029 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with. * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat. This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/368429/8/08_chapter%202.pdf#6#6|title=Anti colonial resistance and modern politics in colonial Punjab circa 1850s to 1920s|last=Kumar|first=Sunny|date=2021|website=Shodhganga|publisher=University of Delhi|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=... the British officials genuinely believed that the Jats were the best peasant community of Punjab and only they had the ability to turn the dry wasteland of the proposed canal colonies into a profitable venture. Hence, they were allotted almost three-quarters of total land opened up in canal settlements.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/621464|title=Canal colonisation in the Punjab|last=Newspaper|first=From the|date=2011-04-16|website=Dawn|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Grantees were pre-dominantly from within Lahore district, among them Jats and Sikhs were the best represented. In the area colonised in 1896-98, they comprised around 35 per cent of the grantees.}}</ref> The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. 682sljt99bjo3lkgp240ws9c4gajb3j 2834031 2834029 2026-09-20T18:05:22Z BajookThug 2920913 /* The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange */ 2834031 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with. * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat. This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/368429/8/08_chapter%202.pdf#6#6|title=Anti colonial resistance and modern politics in colonial Punjab circa 1850s to 1920s|last=Kumar|first=Sunny|date=2021|website=Shodhganga|publisher=University of Delhi|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=... the British officials genuinely believed that the Jats were the best peasant community of Punjab and only they had the ability to turn the dry wasteland of the proposed canal colonies into a profitable venture. Hence, they were allotted almost three-quarters of total land opened up in canal settlements.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/621464|title=Canal colonisation in the Punjab|last=Newspaper|first=From the|date=2011-04-16|website=Dawn|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Grantees were pre-dominantly from within Lahore district, among them Jats and Sikhs were the best represented. In the area colonised in 1896-98, they comprised around 35 per cent of the grantees.}}</ref> The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore ''(~$11.76 billion USD, Sept. 2026)''; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. j0peuqzw085fsknq889n4z4qmd1yk7u 2834044 2834031 2026-09-20T22:04:50Z BajookThug 2920913 /* MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism */ 2834044 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/the-politics-behind-the-farm-protests/story-52oB5K9KHcoKk09OYcq3YO.html|title=The politics behind the farm protests|last=Anonymous|date=2020-12-06|website=Hindustan Times|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Those spearheading the protests belong to the class of capitalist farmers that rose during the Green Revolution in north-western India. Government support in the form of subsidies, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), free water, electricity, credit, among other measures, was critical to the formation of this class — apart from the expansion of landholding either through forced purchase or outright land-grab from the Dalit castes and small farmers.}}</ref> The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/parity-pricing-in-agriculture-rework-the-msp-regime-11717741311945.html|title=Parity pricing in agriculture: Rework the MSP regime|date=2024-06-07|website=mint|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=A September 2021 Centre for Policy Research article reveals that households with over 2 hectares rely on farming for 70% or more of their income, contrasting with under 44% for those with 1 hectare or less. Small and marginal farmers, comprising 89.4% of all agricultural households, primarily earn from livestock and wages, are largely excluded from the MSP system due to low marketable surplus.}}</ref> * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://epaper.nationalheraldindia.com/epaperimages/26022024/NH_epaper.pdf#12#2|title=Too many misconceptions about the MSP|date=2024-02-26|work=National Herald|access-date=2026-09-20|publisher=The Associated Journals Ltd.|page=10|quote=This was no different from the ‘Bombay Club’, a group of industrialists, who came together in 1930 to ensure that food prices were kept low, so that workers’ wages could be kept low too. What mattered was high profits fuelled by the flow of cheap labour from rural areas to urban conglomerations and industrial centres. Pulling people away from agriculture was, they knew, the only way to exploit the value of land.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ispe.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JISPE-3-4-2017-1.pdf|title=Demonetisation and Indian Economy: Some Macroeconomic Challenges|last=Das|first=Santosh Kumar|last2=Rawat|first2=Pradyuman Singh|date=July-December 2017|website=Indian School Of Political Economy|publisher=Journal of Indian School of Political Economy|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=(2.1 EXISTING OBJECTIVES OF PRICE POLICY) The main objectives of the Government’sprice Support policy foragricultural commodities is to ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce... While formulating the price policy, the following are kept in view:... iii. The likely effect of the price on the rest of the economy particularly on the cost of living, level of wages, industrial cost structure, etc.}}</ref> This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/368429/8/08_chapter%202.pdf#6#6|title=Anti colonial resistance and modern politics in colonial Punjab circa 1850s to 1920s|last=Kumar|first=Sunny|date=2021|website=Shodhganga|publisher=University of Delhi|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=... the British officials genuinely believed that the Jats were the best peasant community of Punjab and only they had the ability to turn the dry wasteland of the proposed canal colonies into a profitable venture. Hence, they were allotted almost three-quarters of total land opened up in canal settlements.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/621464|title=Canal colonisation in the Punjab|last=Newspaper|first=From the|date=2011-04-16|website=Dawn|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Grantees were pre-dominantly from within Lahore district, among them Jats and Sikhs were the best represented. In the area colonised in 1896-98, they comprised around 35 per cent of the grantees.}}</ref> The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore ''(~$11.76 billion USD, Sept. 2026)''; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. ht4eca04qcz4ppbut42ov5e5chtq79r 2834045 2834044 2026-09-20T22:06:58Z BajookThug 2920913 2834045 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/the-politics-behind-the-farm-protests/story-52oB5K9KHcoKk09OYcq3YO.html|title=The politics behind the farm protests|last=Anonymous|date=2020-12-06|website=Hindustan Times|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Those spearheading the protests belong to the class of capitalist farmers that rose during the Green Revolution in north-western India. Government support in the form of subsidies, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), free water, electricity, credit, among other measures, was critical to the formation of this class — apart from the expansion of landholding either through forced purchase or outright land-grab from the Dalit castes and small farmers.}}</ref> The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/parity-pricing-in-agriculture-rework-the-msp-regime-11717741311945.html|title=Parity pricing in agriculture: Rework the MSP regime|date=2024-06-07|website=mint|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=A September 2021 Centre for Policy Research article reveals that households with over 2 hectares rely on farming for 70% or more of their income, contrasting with under 44% for those with 1 hectare or less. Small and marginal farmers, comprising 89.4% of all agricultural households, primarily earn from livestock and wages, are largely excluded from the MSP system due to low marketable surplus.}}</ref> * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://epaper.nationalheraldindia.com/epaperimages/26022024/NH_epaper.pdf#12#2|title=Too many misconceptions about the MSP|date=2024-02-26|work=National Herald|access-date=2026-09-20|publisher=The Associated Journals Ltd.|page=10|quote=This was no different from the ‘Bombay Club’, a group of industrialists, who came together in 1930 to ensure that food prices were kept low, so that workers’ wages could be kept low too. What mattered was high profits fuelled by the flow of cheap labour from rural areas to urban conglomerations and industrial centres. Pulling people away from agriculture was, they knew, the only way to exploit the value of land.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ispe.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JISPE-3-4-2017-1.pdf|title=Demonetisation and Indian Economy: Some Macroeconomic Challenges|last=Das|first=Santosh Kumar|last2=Rawat|first2=Pradyuman Singh|date=July-December 2017|website=Indian School Of Political Economy|publisher=Journal of Indian School of Political Economy|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=2.1 EXISTING OBJECTIVES OF PRICE POLICY The main objectives of the Government’sprice Support policy for agricultural commodities is to ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce... While formulating the price policy, the following are kept in view:... iii. The likely effect of the price on the rest of the economy particularly on the cost of living, level of wages, industrial cost structure, etc.}}</ref> This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/368429/8/08_chapter%202.pdf#6#6|title=Anti colonial resistance and modern politics in colonial Punjab circa 1850s to 1920s|last=Kumar|first=Sunny|date=2021|website=Shodhganga|publisher=University of Delhi|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=... the British officials genuinely believed that the Jats were the best peasant community of Punjab and only they had the ability to turn the dry wasteland of the proposed canal colonies into a profitable venture. Hence, they were allotted almost three-quarters of total land opened up in canal settlements.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/621464|title=Canal colonisation in the Punjab|last=Newspaper|first=From the|date=2011-04-16|website=Dawn|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Grantees were pre-dominantly from within Lahore district, among them Jats and Sikhs were the best represented. In the area colonised in 1896-98, they comprised around 35 per cent of the grantees.}}</ref> The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore ''(~$11.76 billion USD, Sept. 2026)''; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. 9f2qci616y6rowh8377xrh4fxg8o765 2834047 2834045 2026-09-20T22:11:08Z BajookThug 2920913 /* MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism */ 2834047 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/the-politics-behind-the-farm-protests/story-52oB5K9KHcoKk09OYcq3YO.html|title=The politics behind the farm protests|last=Anonymous|date=2020-12-06|website=Hindustan Times|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Those spearheading the protests belong to the class of capitalist farmers that rose during the Green Revolution in north-western India. Government support in the form of subsidies, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), free water, electricity, credit, among other measures, was critical to the formation of this class — apart from the expansion of landholding either through forced purchase or outright land-grab from the Dalit castes and small farmers.}}</ref> The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/parity-pricing-in-agriculture-rework-the-msp-regime-11717741311945.html|title=Parity pricing in agriculture: Rework the MSP regime|date=2024-06-07|website=mint|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=A September 2021 Centre for Policy Research article reveals that households with over 2 hectares rely on farming for 70% or more of their income, contrasting with under 44% for those with 1 hectare or less. Small and marginal farmers, comprising 89.4% of all agricultural households, primarily earn from livestock and wages, are largely excluded from the MSP system due to low marketable surplus.}}</ref> * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://prsindia.org/theprsblog/msp-and-public-procurement?page=295&per-page=1|title=MSP and Public Procurement|website=PRS Legislative Research|language=en-US|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Minimum Support Price (MSP) is the assured price at which foodgrains are procured from farmers by the central and state governments and their agencies, for the central pool of foodgrains. The central pool is used for providing foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes, and also kept as reserve in the form of buffer stock.}}</ref> at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://epaper.nationalheraldindia.com/epaperimages/26022024/NH_epaper.pdf#12#2|title=Too many misconceptions about the MSP|date=2024-02-26|work=National Herald|access-date=2026-09-20|publisher=The Associated Journals Ltd.|page=10|quote=This was no different from the ‘Bombay Club’, a group of industrialists, who came together in 1930 to ensure that food prices were kept low, so that workers’ wages could be kept low too. What mattered was high profits fuelled by the flow of cheap labour from rural areas to urban conglomerations and industrial centres. Pulling people away from agriculture was, they knew, the only way to exploit the value of land.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ispe.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JISPE-3-4-2017-1.pdf|title=Demonetisation and Indian Economy: Some Macroeconomic Challenges|last=Das|first=Santosh Kumar|last2=Rawat|first2=Pradyuman Singh|date=July-December 2017|website=Indian School Of Political Economy|publisher=Journal of Indian School of Political Economy|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=2.1 EXISTING OBJECTIVES OF PRICE POLICY The main objectives of the Government’sprice Support policy for agricultural commodities is to ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce... While formulating the price policy, the following are kept in view:... iii. The likely effect of the price on the rest of the economy particularly on the cost of living, level of wages, industrial cost structure, etc.}}</ref> This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.''' The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/368429/8/08_chapter%202.pdf#6#6|title=Anti colonial resistance and modern politics in colonial Punjab circa 1850s to 1920s|last=Kumar|first=Sunny|date=2021|website=Shodhganga|publisher=University of Delhi|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=... the British officials genuinely believed that the Jats were the best peasant community of Punjab and only they had the ability to turn the dry wasteland of the proposed canal colonies into a profitable venture. Hence, they were allotted almost three-quarters of total land opened up in canal settlements.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/621464|title=Canal colonisation in the Punjab|last=Newspaper|first=From the|date=2011-04-16|website=Dawn|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Grantees were pre-dominantly from within Lahore district, among them Jats and Sikhs were the best represented. In the area colonised in 1896-98, they comprised around 35 per cent of the grantees.}}</ref> The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore ''(~$11.76 billion USD, Sept. 2026)''; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. 2u60ya3jtwfhazpigzs94emn86ijhz5 2834048 2834047 2026-09-20T22:15:51Z BajookThug 2920913 /* MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism */ 2834048 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/the-politics-behind-the-farm-protests/story-52oB5K9KHcoKk09OYcq3YO.html|title=The politics behind the farm protests|last=Anonymous|date=2020-12-06|website=Hindustan Times|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Those spearheading the protests belong to the class of capitalist farmers that rose during the Green Revolution in north-western India. Government support in the form of subsidies, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), free water, electricity, credit, among other measures, was critical to the formation of this class — apart from the expansion of landholding either through forced purchase or outright land-grab from the Dalit castes and small farmers.}}</ref> The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/parity-pricing-in-agriculture-rework-the-msp-regime-11717741311945.html|title=Parity pricing in agriculture: Rework the MSP regime|date=2024-06-07|website=mint|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=A September 2021 Centre for Policy Research article reveals that households with over 2 hectares rely on farming for 70% or more of their income, contrasting with under 44% for those with 1 hectare or less. Small and marginal farmers, comprising 89.4% of all agricultural households, primarily earn from livestock and wages, are largely excluded from the MSP system due to low marketable surplus.}}</ref> * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://prsindia.org/theprsblog/msp-and-public-procurement?page=295&per-page=1|title=MSP and Public Procurement|website=PRS Legislative Research|language=en-US|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Minimum Support Price (MSP) is the assured price at which foodgrains are procured from farmers by the central and state governments and their agencies, for the central pool of foodgrains. The central pool is used for providing foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes, and also kept as reserve in the form of buffer stock.}}</ref> at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://epaper.nationalheraldindia.com/epaperimages/26022024/NH_epaper.pdf#12#2|title=Too many misconceptions about the MSP|date=2024-02-26|work=National Herald|access-date=2026-09-20|publisher=The Associated Journals Ltd.|page=10|quote=This was no different from the ‘Bombay Club’, a group of industrialists, who came together in 1930 to ensure that food prices were kept low, so that workers’ wages could be kept low too. What mattered was high profits fuelled by the flow of cheap labour from rural areas to urban conglomerations and industrial centres. Pulling people away from agriculture was, they knew, the only way to exploit the value of land.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ispe.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JISPE-3-4-2017-1.pdf|title=Demonetisation and Indian Economy: Some Macroeconomic Challenges|last=Das|first=Santosh Kumar|last2=Rawat|first2=Pradyuman Singh|date=July-December 2017|website=Indian School Of Political Economy|publisher=Journal of Indian School of Political Economy|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=2.1 EXISTING OBJECTIVES OF PRICE POLICY The main objectives of the Government’sprice Support policy for agricultural commodities is to ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce... While formulating the price policy, the following are kept in view:... iii. The likely effect of the price on the rest of the economy particularly on the cost of living, level of wages, industrial cost structure, etc.}}</ref> This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.'''<ref>{{Citation|title=Is Akali Dal exit from NDA a politically prudent move? {{!}} Two Sides With Afrida|url=https://www.timesnownews.com/videos/mirror-now/specials/is-akali-dal-exit-from-nda-a-politically-prudent-move-two-sides-with-afrida/76101|accessdate=2026-09-20|language=en}} "The farm bills have angered the peasantry in Punjab which is the core vote base of the Akali dal so it’s quite evident that as a matter of political survival, the party chose to dump the alliance in order to retain the voter base."</ref> The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/368429/8/08_chapter%202.pdf#6#6|title=Anti colonial resistance and modern politics in colonial Punjab circa 1850s to 1920s|last=Kumar|first=Sunny|date=2021|website=Shodhganga|publisher=University of Delhi|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=... the British officials genuinely believed that the Jats were the best peasant community of Punjab and only they had the ability to turn the dry wasteland of the proposed canal colonies into a profitable venture. Hence, they were allotted almost three-quarters of total land opened up in canal settlements.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/621464|title=Canal colonisation in the Punjab|last=Newspaper|first=From the|date=2011-04-16|website=Dawn|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Grantees were pre-dominantly from within Lahore district, among them Jats and Sikhs were the best represented. In the area colonised in 1896-98, they comprised around 35 per cent of the grantees.}}</ref> The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore ''(~$11.76 billion USD, Sept. 2026)''; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. 6v12k7cf9w08p5t588o04exwxl3wojo 2834049 2834048 2026-09-20T22:22:08Z BajookThug 2920913 /* MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism */ 2834049 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Introduction== ===Navigating Between Two Bourgeois Traps=== Any scientific analysis of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the agrarian crisis in Punjab must navigate between two ideological traps that dominate the discourse. The first is the neoliberal/Indian state line, which claims that MSP is an unsustainable, market-distorting subsidy. This line advocates for total market deregulation and corporate agribusiness encroachment to "efficiently" phase out small farmers. The second is the petty-bourgeois romantic line, which paints all "farmers" with a single, harmonious brush. It treats the rich kulak, the indebted smallholder, and the landless Dalit labourer as if they share identical class interests, reducing the solution to a simple populist demand: "Make MSP a permanent legal right and all problems disappear." A scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis applies historical and dialectical materialism to examine the actual class structure of Punjab's countryside, exposing how the MSP system serves as a superstructural mechanism to regulate a capitalist economic base with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. The analysis must be grounded in the material conditions of production, the class differentiation of the peasantry, and the role of the state in reproducing the conditions for capital accumulation. ==Capitalist Agriculture with Semi-Feudal Credit and Caste Superstructures== Punjab agriculture is fully capitalist in its production relations. What persists is not feudalism but semi-feudal forms of surplus extraction mediated through the Arhtiya credit system and caste-based labour relations. The correct formulation is capitalist agriculture with semi-feudal credit and caste superstructures. This means that the fundamental mode of production in Punjab agriculture is capitalist: production is for the market, wage labour is widespread, and the means of production (land, machinery, inputs) are privately owned and concentrated. What persists are pre-capitalist forms of surplus extraction; usury capital, debt bondage, patron-client relations, and caste hierarchy, that have been integrated into the capitalist mode of production and serve to intensify exploitation and maintain class and caste domination. The landless labourers are not merely "poor." They are the rural proletariat in the strictest Marxist sense: they own no means of production, they sell their labour power to the kulak, and they are exploited through the wage form. Their caste oppression is not separate from their class position; it is the superstructural mechanism that maintains their super-exploitation. Caste ensures that the rural proletariat remains divided, that Dalit labour is stigmatized and cheapened, and that the kulak class can rely on social coercion in addition to economic compulsion. The Arhtiya is not merely a moneylender. The Arhtiya is the merchant-usurer capital that mediates between the smallholder and the state, and between the smallholder and the market. The Arhtiya's dual role; commission agent and moneylender, allows them to extract surplus value from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on the sale of the crop. The Arhtiya is, in effect, a parasitic class fraction that lives off the crisis of the smallholder, and whose interests are structurally aligned with the kulak, not the small peasant. ==The Green Revolution as Primitive Accumulation== The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was not a technological breakthrough. It was a state-orchestrated transformation of the relations of production in agriculture, designed to convert a subsistence peasantry into a commodity-producing class that could be taxed, disciplined, and made dependent on industrial inputs. The state restructured Punjab's agriculture under pressure from Western capital and facing food shortages. It forcibly replaced diverse, indigenous subsistence farming with a hyper-commercialized, capital-intensive wheat-paddy monoculture. The Green Revolution package; high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and assured irrigation, was not scale-neutral. It required capital. The peasant who could afford a tube well, who could buy fertilizer on credit, who had enough land to make mechanization economical, prospered. The peasant who could not was progressively squeezed out. The ecological crisis that followed is not a side effect. It is the material basis of the debt trap. Punjab's wheat-paddy monoculture, locked in by procurement policy and subsidized electricity, has caused at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. The water-energy-food nexus created by subsidized irrigation and assured procurement has accelerated soil degradation and environmental stress. The smallholder must dig deeper tube-wells, buy more chemical inputs, and borrow more money simply to maintain the same yield. The net profit margin is ground to zero by the rising organic composition of capital in agriculture. The Green Revolution represents primitive accumulation in agriculture in its late-imperialist form. Land was not seized by force (as in the enclosures), but the conditions of production were transformed so that the small peasant could not survive without entering the credit market. The peasant was not dispossessed of land immediately, but was dispossessed of self-sufficiency. This is the specific form of primitive accumulation under neocolonial conditions: not enclosure, but indebtedness. The mechanism of this primitive accumulation operates through several stages. * First, the state restructured agriculture through the Green Revolution package, making the peasant dependent on purchased inputs. * Second, the HYV seeds cannot be saved from the previous harvest, creating a permanent dependency on the seed market. * Third, the ecological crisis forces the peasant to invest more and more capital just to maintain the same yield. * Fourth, the credit market; the Arhtiya, provides the loans at usurious rates. * Fifth, the harvest is sold, the Arhtiya deducts principal and interest, and the peasant is left with nothing. The peasant must borrow again to survive. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The peasant becomes a landless labourer. This is depeasantisation in its concrete form. ==The Differentiation of the Punjabi Peasantry== Marxism-Leninism rejects the unscientific term "farmer" and breaks the rural population into its distinct, conflicting class fractions. ===The Rich Peasants=== These are large landholders, predominantly from dominant castes like the Jat Sikhs. They own the machinery, have the surplus capital, and hold the largest land plots. They are the primary beneficiaries of the MSP system. Because they sell in massive volumes, they accumulate significant profits, which they reinvest into buying more land, moneylending, or local politics. The Jat Sikh kulak is the capitalist farmer who benefits from the MSP system, who employs Dalit labour, and who dominates the political institutions of the state (the Akali Dal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). ===The Small and Marginal Peasants=== These are families holding less than 2 hectares of land. They are structurally property-poor and under constant threat of depeasantization, that is, losing their land and being forced into wage labor. They are caught in a vicious cycle of simple reproduction. The value of their output is insufficient to cover the cost of inputs plus the cost of reproducing their family. The surplus is zero or negative. To survive, they must borrow. The loan is used to purchase inputs and to feed the family. The next harvest is sold to the Arhtiya, who deducts the principal and interest before the farmer receives anything. The farmer is left with nothing, and must borrow again. ===The Agricultural Proletariat ''(Landless labourers)''=== These are predominantly from oppressed castes (Dalits), who own no land. They survive purely by selling their labor-power to the Kulaks. They do not own crops, meaning they receive absolutely zero direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP, while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. The data is unambiguous. Jat Sikhs, about 25% of Punjab's population, own the large majority of farmland. Dalits, about 32% of the population, own only 3% of the land. 94.2% of Dalit households in Punjab have no land for cultivation. 92% of farm labourers in Punjab are Dalits. The Punjab Land Alienation Act 1901 created a special category of "Agricultural Tribes" that included Jats, Rajputs, and other castes, and prohibited non-agricultural castes (including Dalits) from purchasing land. Until 1952, Dalits and other non-agricultural castes were deprived of landownership by this act. The caste system is not a relic of feudalism. It is the ideological and institutional form through which class relations are reproduced in the Punjabi countryside. Caste assigns land ownership to certain castes (Jats) and denies it to others (Dalits). It assigns labour roles to certain castes. It sanctifies the hierarchy through religious ideology. Sikhism formally rejects caste, but in practice, Sikh institutions and social relations in Punjab are deeply caste-inflected. More than 25 castes were recorded within the Sikh community in the Punjab censuses from 1881 and 1921. ==MSP as a Superstructural Mechanism== MSP is not a price. It is a political instrument that performs three functions simultaneously: * '''First, it guarantees the reproduction of the kulak class by ensuring a minimum return on their large-scale production.''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/the-politics-behind-the-farm-protests/story-52oB5K9KHcoKk09OYcq3YO.html|title=The politics behind the farm protests|last=Anonymous|date=2020-12-06|website=Hindustan Times|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Those spearheading the protests belong to the class of capitalist farmers that rose during the Green Revolution in north-western India. Government support in the form of subsidies, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), free water, electricity, credit, among other measures, was critical to the formation of this class — apart from the expansion of landholding either through forced purchase or outright land-grab from the Dalit castes and small farmers.}}</ref> The kulak can absorb the ecological crisis and the rising input costs because the MSP floor protects their margin. The smallholder cannot, because their margin was never positive to begin with.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/parity-pricing-in-agriculture-rework-the-msp-regime-11717741311945.html|title=Parity pricing in agriculture: Rework the MSP regime|date=2024-06-07|website=mint|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=A September 2021 Centre for Policy Research article reveals that households with over 2 hectares rely on farming for 70% or more of their income, contrasting with under 44% for those with 1 hectare or less. Small and marginal farmers, comprising 89.4% of all agricultural households, primarily earn from livestock and wages, are largely excluded from the MSP system due to low marketable surplus.}}</ref> * '''Second, it suppresses the value of labour power by delivering cheap food to the urban working class.''' The state procures grain at MSP, distributes it through the Public Distribution System (PDS)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://prsindia.org/theprsblog/msp-and-public-procurement?page=295&per-page=1|title=MSP and Public Procurement|website=PRS Legislative Research|language=en-US|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Minimum Support Price (MSP) is the assured price at which foodgrains are procured from farmers by the central and state governments and their agencies, for the central pool of foodgrains. The central pool is used for providing foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes, and also kept as reserve in the form of buffer stock.}}</ref> at subsidized rates, and thereby reduces the cost of reproducing the industrial proletariat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://epaper.nationalheraldindia.com/epaperimages/26022024/NH_epaper.pdf#12#2|title=Too many misconceptions about the MSP|date=2024-02-26|work=National Herald|access-date=2026-09-20|publisher=The Associated Journals Ltd.|page=10|quote=This was no different from the ‘Bombay Club’, a group of industrialists, who came together in 1930 to ensure that food prices were kept low, so that workers’ wages could be kept low too. What mattered was high profits fuelled by the flow of cheap labour from rural areas to urban conglomerations and industrial centres. Pulling people away from agriculture was, they knew, the only way to exploit the value of land.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ispe.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JISPE-3-4-2017-1.pdf|title=Demonetisation and Indian Economy: Some Macroeconomic Challenges|last=Das|first=Santosh Kumar|last2=Rawat|first2=Pradyuman Singh|date=July-December 2017|website=Indian School Of Political Economy|publisher=Journal of Indian School of Political Economy|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=2.1 EXISTING OBJECTIVES OF PRICE POLICY The main objectives of the Government’sprice Support policy for agricultural commodities is to ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce... While formulating the price policy, the following are kept in view:... iii. The likely effect of the price on the rest of the economy particularly on the cost of living, level of wages, industrial cost structure, etc.}}</ref> This is the transmission belt; the mechanism through which surplus is transferred from the countryside to the cities, from agriculture to industry. * '''Third, it manages the political stability of the countryside by providing a minimum income to the kulak class, which is the social base of the Akali Dal.'''<ref>{{Citation|title=Is Akali Dal exit from NDA a politically prudent move? {{!}} Two Sides With Afrida|url=https://www.timesnownews.com/videos/mirror-now/specials/is-akali-dal-exit-from-nda-a-politically-prudent-move-two-sides-with-afrida/76101|accessdate=2026-09-20|language=en}} "The farm bills have angered the peasantry in Punjab which is the core vote base of the Akali dal so it’s quite evident that as a matter of political survival, the party chose to dump the alliance in order to retain the voter base."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sekhon|first=Jagrup Singh|last2=Sandhu|first2=D. S.|date=April-June 1993|title=Akali Dal: A Study in Its Leadership, Organisation and Ideology|url=https://ia601506.us.archive.org/20/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.119472/2015.119472.State-Politics-In-India_text.pdf#121#62|journal=The Indian Journal of Political Science|volume=54|pages=294|jstor=41855653|quote=The Akali Dal is the second major political party in Punjab—and is likely to remain so for a long time. [...] the Akalis uphold the interests of the rural land-owning classes which are largely drawn from the Sikhs, and either neglect or positively oppose the interests of the landless labour (largely Hindi Harijan) and the urban classes (largely high-caste Hindus).}}</ref> The MSP is, in part, a political subsidy to a class whose loyalty is essential to the comprador state's control over Punjab. The MSP is therefore not a "farmers' support." It is a class-specific instrument that stabilizes the kulak class, suppresses wages, and manages political dissent. The smallholder and the landless labourer are incidental to its logic, it does not care about small farmers or workers without land. Its core design, goals, and operations are built for someone else. The MSP was never an act of state charity. It was created as an economic transmission belt. The state guaranteed a minimum price for wheat and rice to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive inputs. The state then procured these grains to feed the urban industrial proletariat at a low cost, keeping industrial wages depressed and protecting the urban bourgeoisie's profit margins. ==The Arhtiya as Merchant-Usurer Capital== The Arhtiya occupies a predatory, multi-faceted class role. They sell the seeds and fertilizers on credit, they provide high-interest cash loans (often charging 18% to 24% interest), and they are the middleman through whom the government buys the crops via the MSP system. The formal banking system routinely denies sufficient credit to small and marginal farmers due to a lack of collateral. This forces small farmers into the arms of the Arhtiya. When the harvest is brought to the government procurement yard (mandi), the state often routes the MSP payment directly through or under the supervision of the Arhtiya. The Arhtiya uses their leverage (often holding signed blank checks from the farmer) to immediately deduct their exorbitant interest and loan principal from the MSP payout before the farmer ever sees a dime. The small farmer is left with little to no cash to feed their family or fund the next planting cycle. They are forced to instantly take out a new loan from the same Arhtiya to survive, locking them into a permanent, hereditary cycle of debt bondage that frequently leads to economic ruin and distress. This is not a "debt crisis." It is debt as a mode of production. The Arhtiya is not an anomaly; they are the financial mechanism through which the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The land is mortgaged, then sold. The farmer becomes a tenant, then a labourer. The data confirms the scale. There were 16,600 farmer suicides in Punjab between 2000 and 2015. The 2014 figure of 5,650 suicide victims in Punjab represents a rate far above the national average. These are not individual tragedies. They are class casualties of a system that has no place for the smallholder. ==The 2020–21 Farmer Protests== The protest movement of 2020–21 was led by BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and other unions representing the landed peasantry, particularly the Jat Sikh kulaks. The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU), representing landless labourers, could not afford to participate in the protests at Tikri. The landless had no independent representation in the decision-making process. The movement brought together landowners and landless labourers in a "united front," but the leadership remained with the kulaks and the Arhtiyas. This is a classic ''united front from above''. The kulak class mobilized the landless as foot soldiers, but the program; MSP as a legal guarantee, loan waivers, pensions, was designed to protect the kulak's margin, not to redistribute land or cancel usurious debt. The landless were mobilized for a struggle that would not liberate them. The correct position is not to oppose the protest. It is to participate in it while maintaining class independence, to raise the demands of the landless within the movement, and to expose the limits of a kulak-led agitation. The correct slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." ==Arhtiya-Kulak Conflict of Interest== The Arhtiya is a commission agent and a moneylender. They hold a license to operate in the regulated market (mandi) and perform two distinct economic functions. As a '''commission agent''', they handle the sale of crops on behalf of farmers, deducting a commission from the MSP payout. As a '''moneylender''', they advance credit to farmers who cannot access formal institutional banking, charging usurious rates of interest, typically 18% to 24%, often higher. Their income comes from both sources: interest on debt and commission on sales. The relationship between '''the kulak and the Arhtiya''' is fundamentally different from the relationship between '''the smallholder and the Arhtiya'''. The kulak is a large landowner who produces for the market, employs wage labour, and accumulates capital. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks and cooperative societies because they possess land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak uses the Arhtiya primarily for marketing, for selling the crop through the licensed commission agent in the mandi, not for survival credit. The kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya is therefore that of a client to a service provider, not that of a debtor to a creditor. The smallholder, by contrast, is a marginal or small peasant who owns less than 2 hectares. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. The smallholder is therefore dependent on the Arhtiya for credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The smallholder is also dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, because the Arhtiya holds the license and the smallholder has no alternative. The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya deducts principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap, not a crisis, but a mode of production. The landless labourer, predominantly Dalit, owns no land and sells their labour power to the kulak. They receive no direct benefit from MSP. They are structurally excluded from the surplus extracted through MSP while remaining dependent on the very kulak class that captures it. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. The kulak and the Arhtiya are structurally aligned, and in many cases they are the same person or from the same class. The Arhtiya is frequently a large landowner who has obtained a commission agent's license. The kulak may also be an Arhtiya themselves, or have family members who are Arhtiyas. Their interests are identical: both benefit from the MSP system, both benefit from the suppression of the landless, and both benefit from the ecological crisis that forces smallholders into debt. The exploitation of the smallholder is a joint operation. The smallholder is squeezed by both the kulak and the Arhtiya. But there is a secondary contradiction between them (kulak and Arhtiya). The Arhtiya charges high interest and high commission. The kulak, as a large-volume seller, would prefer cheaper credit and lower commission. This contradiction is not antagonistic in the Marxist sense; it is a conflict within the exploiting class. It does not lead to a revolutionary rupture. It leads to negotiations, accommodations, and a shared front against the smallholder and the landless. The kulak and the Arhtiya may quarrel over the division of the loot, but they are united in their opposition to any challenge to the system that produces the loot. The ML position is to exploit this secondary contradiction where possible; to demand state credit at low interest, to demand the abolition of the Arhtiya system, while never confusing it with the principal contradiction, which is between the entire rural exploiting class (kulak + Arhtiya) and the rural exploited classes (smallholders and landless labourers). The principal contradiction is antagonistic. It cannot be resolved through negotiation or reform. It can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of the rural exploiting class and the establishment of a workers' and peasants' state. The smallholder must be won to the side of the landless, not left to oscillate between the kulak-led farmer unions and the revolutionary movement. The slogan is not "MSP for all" but "land to the tiller, debt cancellation, and the organization of the rural proletariat." The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ===What the Mandi System Is=== A mandi is a regulated wholesale market for agricultural produce. In Punjab, the government has established a network of these markets, there are over 150 principal and sub-yard mandis across the state, where farmers bring their harvest to be sold. The system was created to protect farmers from exploitation by private traders, but in practice it has become a mechanism through which the Arhtiya class extracts surplus from the producing classes. The mandi is not a simple marketplace where farmers and buyers meet as equals. It is a highly structured institution governed by the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which licenses commission agents (Arhtiyas) to operate within it. A farmer cannot simply walk into a mandi and sell their grain directly to a government procurement agency or a private buyer. They must go through a licensed Arhtiya. The Arhtiya is the intermediary between the farmer and the state procurement agencies (like the Food Corporation of India) or private traders. ===What the Arhtiya Does as a Commission Agent=== When a farmer brings their crop to the mandi, the Arhtiya performs several functions: * First, the Arhtiya provides the physical infrastructure for the transaction. They have a shop or a designated space in the mandi. They have storage facilities, weighing equipment, and the labor needed to handle the grain. * Second, the Arhtiya arranges the sale. They present the farmer's grain to the government procurement agency or to private buyers. They negotiate the price, though for wheat and paddy, the price is largely fixed by the MSP. The Arhtiya's role is to ensure that the grain is accepted at the procurement center and that the payment is processed. * Third, the Arhtiya handles the paperwork. They maintain the records of the transaction, issue the receipts, and facilitate the transfer of payment from the government to the farmer. This is a critical function. The state does not pay the farmer directly in most cases. The payment is routed through the Arhtiya's account. The Arhtiya deducts their commission and any outstanding debts before passing the remainder to the farmer. * Fourth, the Arhtiya provides "services" that are technically optional but in practice mandatory. They arrange for the cleaning and grading of the grain. They provide bags and transport. They advance cash to the farmer while the payment is being processed, a service for which they charge interest. For these functions, the Arhtiya charges a commission. The official commission rate is set by the government; typically around 2.5% of the sale value. But the actual extraction is often higher. The Arhtiya may charge additional fees for weighing, cleaning, bagging, and "market fees" that are not officially sanctioned. They may also delay payment, forcing the farmer to accept a discount for immediate cash. ====Why This Is Called "Marketing"==== In agricultural economics, "marketing" refers to ''the entire chain of activities that moves a product from the producer to the consumer.'' It includes assembly, transportation, storage, grading, processing, wholesaling, and retailing. For a farmer, "marketing" means the process of selling their crop. For the kulak, the Arhtiya provides this marketing function. The kulak produces a large volume of grain, hundreds of quintals or more. They need to sell it efficiently. The Arhtiya handles the logistics: transporting the grain to the mandi, arranging for its sale, managing the paperwork, and ensuring payment. The kulak could theoretically do these things themselves, but it would be time-consuming and would require capital and labor that could be used elsewhere. So ''the kulak uses the Arhtiya as a '''service provider'''''. The kulak is not dependent on the Arhtiya for '''''credit'''''. The kulak has access to institutional credit from banks. The kulak has land titles that serve as collateral. The kulak may even have surplus capital to lend to others. The Arhtiya's credit is not the kulak's lifeline. The Arhtiya is, for the kulak, primarily a marketing agent; a functionary who handles the sale of the crop. ===The Smallholder's Relationship to the Arhtiya=== The smallholder also needs marketing services. They also need to sell their crop through the mandi. But their relationship to the Arhtiya is fundamentally different because they are also dependent on the Arhtiya for '''credit'''. The smallholder cannot access sufficient institutional credit because they lack collateral. Their landholding is too small to serve as security for a bank loan. They have no other assets. So they must borrow from the Arhtiya to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel. The Arhtiya advances this credit at usurious rates of interest; 18% to 24% or more. When the harvest comes, the smallholder must sell through the same Arhtiya to whom they are indebted. The Arhtiya deducts the principal and interest from the MSP payout before the smallholder sees anything. The smallholder is left with nothing and must borrow again. This is the debt trap. For the smallholder, the Arhtiya is not just a marketing agent. The Arhtiya is a creditor who controls both the means of production (through credit) and the means of realizing value (through marketing). The smallholder is caught in a double bind: they must borrow from the Arhtiya to produce, and they must sell through the Arhtiya to repay. The Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder twice: once as interest on debt, and once as commission on sales. ====The Distinction Matters==== The distinction between the kulak's relationship to the Arhtiya and the smallholder's relationship to the Arhtiya is essential for understanding the class dynamics of Punjab agriculture. The kulak uses the Arhtiya for marketing. The kulak pays a commission. The kulak may grumble about the rate, but the kulak is not ruined by it. The kulak can absorb the cost because they produce at scale. The kulak may even negotiate a lower rate because they sell in large volumes. The relationship is one of mutual benefit within the exploiting class. The smallholder uses the Arhtiya for marketing and credit. The smallholder pays a commission and interest. The smallholder is ruined by the relationship. The smallholder cannot absorb the cost because their margin is already zero or negative. The smallholder cannot negotiate because they have no alternative. The relationship is one of exploitation; the Arhtiya extracts surplus from the smallholder, and the smallholder is progressively dispossessed. The landless labourer does not sell a crop at all. They have no grain to market. They are excluded from the mandi system entirely. They are dependent on the kulak for wages. They are the most exploited class in the rural economy. This is why the correct position is not to defend the Arhtiya system as a whole. The Arhtiya system benefits the kulak and the Arhtiya. It exploits the smallholder. It excludes the landless. The correct position is to demand state credit at low interest to replace the Arhtiya's usurious credit, to demand direct procurement so that farmers are not dependent on the Arhtiya for marketing, and to organize the rural proletariat; the landless and the smallholders, against the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. The smallholder and the landless labourer share a common enemy: the kulak-Arhtiya nexus. Their unity is the precondition for the liberation of Punjab's countryside. ==How Punjab Became a Commodity Hinterland== The origins of Punjab's agrarian crisis lie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when British colonialism transformed the region into a specialized agricultural commodity zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mellonurbanism.harvard.edu/wheat-city-karachi-commodity-revolution-1880s-1920s|title=Wheat City: Karachi in the Commodity Revolution, 1880s-1920s|last=Ghosh|first=Swarnabh|date=2022|website=Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the interfluvial plains of Punjab were in the midst of being transformed into a vast wheat and cotton commodity frontier... In western Punjab, this took the form of a massive network of irrigation canals, “canal colonies,” and market towns that transformed parts of its sparsely settled, semi-arid plains into specialized subregions of commodity agriculture.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-south-asia/regional-patterns-of-economic-change/F046E78F78A61110CD08DBDAC9F3404D|title=Regional Patterns of Economic Change: North India|last=Dewey|first=Clive|date=2026|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-83303-5|editor-last=Swamy|editor-first=Anand V.|location=Cambridge|pages=176–200|doi=10.1017/9781108966788.009|quote=Based on its pattern of exports and imports, Punjab was a colony of Britain until the First World War and then of the rest of India. As the province exported grain to food deficit zones in the rest of India and cotton to western India, major industrial centres such as Bombay partly deindustrialized the region.|editor-last2=Chaudhary|editor-first2=Latika|editor-last3=Roy|editor-first3=Tirthankar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zahoor|first=Bilal|date=2025-08|title=British Punjab and the Dialectics of Primitive Accumulation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/british-punjab-and-the-dialectics-of-primitive-accumulation/D6821CE45282629E3177FCB152881B83#2|journal=International Review of Social History|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=337–357|doi=10.1017/S0020859025100588|issn=0020-8590|quote=For instance, the element of commodity expansion in Punjab received the most extraordinary impetus only after the Canal Colonies project when, by 1910, western Punjab became the greatest wheat-exporting region (to Britain, Western Europe, and Japan) of all the colonies of the British Empire.}}</ref> Beginning in the 1880s, the British constructed a vast network of canals in western Punjab, turning semi-arid scrubland into irrigated farmland. The state allocated land to peasants selected for their perceived loyalty and agricultural skill<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=CNMtAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en-IN&redir_esc=y|title=Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947|last=Talbot|first=Ian|date=1988|publisher=Manohar Publications|isbn=978-81-85054-45-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akhter|first=Sajjad|last2=Nadeem|first2=Basit|date=July-December 2021|title=The Dynamics of Canal Colonies; Agricultural Development and Socio-Political Change in British Multan|url=https://pjh.wum.edu.pk/index.php/ojs/article/download/63/51|journal=Perennial Journal of History|publisher=The Women University Multan|volume=2|issue=2|pages=99|doi=10.52700/pjh.v2i2.63|quote=Rewards grants were mostly allotted to those nonofficial people of the area who has rendered their loyalty and cooperation to the British government. These types of grants for the same purpose had been used in the previous canal colonies.}}</ref>, disproportionately Jat Sikhs, who were classified as a "martial race."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/368429/8/08_chapter%202.pdf#6#6|title=Anti colonial resistance and modern politics in colonial Punjab circa 1850s to 1920s|last=Kumar|first=Sunny|date=2021|website=Shodhganga|publisher=University of Delhi|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=... the British officials genuinely believed that the Jats were the best peasant community of Punjab and only they had the ability to turn the dry wasteland of the proposed canal colonies into a profitable venture. Hence, they were allotted almost three-quarters of total land opened up in canal settlements.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/621464|title=Canal colonisation in the Punjab|last=Newspaper|first=From the|date=2011-04-16|website=Dawn|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=Grantees were pre-dominantly from within Lahore district, among them Jats and Sikhs were the best represented. In the area colonised in 1896-98, they comprised around 35 per cent of the grantees.}}</ref> The British did not industrialise Punjab. They needed Punjab as a granary and a source of raw cotton for Lancashire mills, not as a manufacturing centre. The colonial state's taxation, tariff policy, and legal restrictions had the effect of suppressing indigenous industry. The result was a classic colonial division of labour: Punjab produced raw materials, Britain manufactured them into finished goods, and Punjab bought back its own cotton as expensive cloth. This was not an accident of policy, but the deliberate design of British capital. The Lancashire textile industry was the most powerful section of the British bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. It had immense political influence in Parliament, in the Cabinet, and in the colonial administration. Its profits depended on two things: '''access to cheap raw cotton''' and a '''captive market for its finished cloth'''. India provided ''both''. The colonial state was structured to ensure that India remained a supplier of raw materials ''and'' a consumer of British manufactures. Any Indian industry that threatened this arrangement was to be suppressed. The mechanism was tariff policy. British goods entering India were subject to nominal duties; often as low as 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. Indian goods entering Britain faced tariffs of 70 to 80 per cent, effectively barring them from the British market. The playing field was not level. It was tilted so steeply that Indian producers could not compete. Indian cotton was shipped to Lancashire, spun and woven into cloth, and then shipped back to India, where it was sold at a price that undercut local handloom weavers. The Indian weaver, who had once clothed the world, was ruined. His thumbs were sometimes cut off by agents of the East India Company so that he could not weave. His livelihood was destroyed by the same system that enriched the mill owners of Manchester. It was a restructuring of the entire Indian economy to serve the needs of British capital. The railways the British built in India were not designed to integrate the Indian economy or to develop Indian industry, not just a transfer of wealth. They were designed to move raw materials from the interior to the ports and to move British manufactured goods from the ports to the interior. The railway network was a funnel for extraction, not a circulatory system for national development. The telegraph, the postal system, the legal codes, all were instruments for the efficient administration of a colonial economy oriented toward the metropole. India was not being developed. It was being integrated into the British capitalist system as a subordinate component, a source of cheap raw materials and a market for finished goods. The theoretical framework for understanding this is ''unequal exchange''. The colony exports raw materials, which embody a relatively small amount of labour time and are sold at low prices. The metropole exports finished goods, which embody a relatively large amount of labour time and are sold at high prices. The terms of trade are systematically skewed in favour of the metropole. Over time, this transfers surplus value from the colony to the metropole. The colony is drained of its wealth. The metropole accumulates. This is not a fair exchange between equals. It is a mechanism of exploitation, enforced by the power of the colonial state. Marx, in Capital, Volume I, describes this process as ''primitive accumulation''. The colonial plunder of India; the seizure of land, the destruction of industry, the extraction of revenue, the drain of wealth, was one of the foundations of British capitalism. The factories of Lancashire were built, in part, on the ruins of the Indian textile industry. The wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution was accumulated, in part, through the expropriation of the Indian people. This is the material truth that the colonial ideology of "civilising mission" was designed to conceal. The British did not bring civilisation to India. They brought exploitation. They did not develop India. They underdeveloped it. And what was the consequence for Punjab? The province was integrated into this system as a supplier of raw cotton and wheat. The canal colonies were built to increase the production of these commodities for export. The railways were built to move them to the ports. The legal system was designed to protect the property of the colonial state and its collaborators. The educational system was designed to produce clerks and administrators who could serve the colonial bureaucracy, not engineers or scientists who could develop Indian industry. The entire structure of Punjab's economy was oriented outward, toward the needs of British capital, not inward, toward the needs of its own people. This is the origin of the structural dependency that persists to this day. Punjab was not industrialised because British capital did not want it to be industrialised. It was wanted as a granary, not as a workshop. And that is what it became. The 1947 Partition shattered Punjab's economic geography. The canal colonies; the most productive agricultural land, went to Pakistan. The major market centres; Lahore, Lyallpur, Montgomery, became Pakistani cities. The Indian Punjab that emerged was a truncated, landlocked state with a massive refugee population and a limited industrial base. The skilled Muslim workforce that had dominated urban trades was gone. The refugee Sikh and Hindu peasants who arrived from Pakistan had lost their land and their capital. This was primitive accumulation by geopolitical violence. Millions of people were torn from their means of production. Peasant refugees were often resettled on evacuee land, while urban refugees; traders, artisans, professionals, were thrown onto the labour market or into petty commerce. The displacement caused by Partition created a pool of precarious labour and disrupted the region's economic geography. But the chronic surplus population that Punjab faces today; the educated unemployed, the landless labourers, the marginal farmers, all emerged from the later processes of the Green Revolution and the neoliberal counter-revolution. ==The 1991 Counter-Revolution== The 1991 neoliberal reforms, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, dismantled the protectionist framework that had allowed some industrialization in Punjab. The specific mechanisms were the abolition of the Freight Equalization Scheme and the destruction of small-scale industry. The Freight Equalization Scheme (FES), introduced in 1952, subsidised the transport of key industrial inputs; coal, iron, steel, cement, so that a factory located anywhere in India paid the same effective price. This was designed to facilitate industrialisation across India by equalising input costs, and it had the effect of compensating landlocked, resource-poor states like Punjab for their geographical disadvantages. With its abolition in 1993, there was no material incentive to set up a factory in Punjab rather than near a port in Gujarat or close to the coal-iron belt in the east. Punjab had developed a significant small-scale industrial sector; hosiery and bicycle manufacturing in Ludhiana, auto parts, sports goods, and food processing. These industries were labour-intensive and absorbed surplus rural labour. The removal of import restrictions exposed them to competition from cheaper foreign goods. The withdrawal of state credit and subsidies starved them of capital. Many units closed or relocated to states offering tax holidays. The industrial workforce in Punjab shrank. The share of manufacturing in Punjab's Net State Domestic Product fell from approximately 15% in the early 1990s to below 10% by the 2010s. The economy shifted from agriculture to low-productivity services without passing through a labour-absorbing industrial phase. This is the structural basis of jobless growth. The inability of the Indian state to absorb Punjab's educated youth has created a specific outlet: migration to the imperialist core. Young Punjabis, particularly from the Jat Sikh landed peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, have been migrating to Canada, the UK, Australia, and the United States for decades. This is not a natural phenomenon. It is a structural feature of imperialism. The imperialist countries, facing demographic pressures, shortages of skilled labour in key sectors, and a demand for cheap labour in low-wage sectors, selectively recruit workers from the semi-colonies. The Punjabi youth who studies nursing in Mukerian and then migrates to Canada is exercising a formal choice under conditions she did not choose. She is being extracted by the imperialist labour market, which benefits from her skills without paying for her education. The remittances that migrant workers send home provide a crucial flow of foreign exchange for the Indian state, masking the balance-of-payments crisis and providing a safety valve for social unrest. If the youth could not migrate, the unemployment crisis would explode into open revolt. Migration is a mechanism of imperialist management: it siphons off the most ambitious and educated sections of the colonial working class, preventing them from organizing at home, while simultaneously extracting their labour for the benefit of imperialist capital. ===The FES as a Mechanism of Unequal Exchange=== The FES was introduced in 1952 and remained in force until 1993. Its official rationale was "balanced regional development": by subsidizing the transport of coal, iron ore, steel, and cement, the central government sought to allow a factory to be set up anywhere in India at the same effective price for these inputs. On its surface, this appears to be a progressive measure; a redistribution from the centre to the periphery, from the coast to the interior, from the industrialised to the underdeveloped. A proper analysis cuts through this appearance. The FES was not a mechanism for the development of the mineral-rich states. It was a mechanism for the extraction of their resources and the transfer of surplus to the industrially advanced regions. The Shodhganga study on the subject states this explicitly: the equalised incidence of freight may be seen as a case of unequal exchange, a mechanism through which "administrative pricing of a service produced by the central government may cause invisible flow of resources". The freight equalisation scheme, the study notes, "apart from its adverse effects on industrial location has caused invisible transfer of resources". The FES did not merely fail to develop the mineral-rich states. It actively nullified their comparative advantage and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, which possessed the coal, iron ore, and other minerals, were prevented from developing their own resource-processing industries. The policy "nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources". The result, as the same study notes, was that "while this policy helped some states of the south and west to build industries with raw materials sourced from Bihar and UP at subsidized transport costs, it neutralized the benefits of proximity and comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in establishing locally available mineral resource-based industries". The estimate of the loss to Bihar from the freight equalization of steel alone is Rs 1,12,812 crore ''(~$11.76 billion USD, Sept. 2026)''; a staggering sum that represents the surplus extracted from the region over the decades. This is not a hypothetical. It is a quantified transfer of wealth. The FES was therefore a mechanism of internal unequal exchange and surplus transfer. It extracted surplus from the mineral-rich states and transferred it to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It reduced those states to the status of raw material exporters within the national economy, with no forward or backward linkages, no industrial agglomeration, and no employment generation. The Tata group, the study notes, initially decided to invest in Bihar because of its natural advantage in minerals, but changed its decision after the introduction of this policy. Capital was actively disincentivised from locating in the very regions that possessed the raw materials. Was this exploitative? Yes. It exploited the mineral-rich states for the benefit of the industrial bourgeoisie as a whole. The surplus extracted from Bihar and West Bengal did not go to the workers of Punjab or Gujarat. It went to the capitalist class; the industrialists who set up factories near ports and markets, and who benefited from the subsidized transport of raw materials. The FES was a policy of the bourgeois state, administered by a central government that represented the interests of the national bourgeoisie. It was not socialism. It was a redistribution of surplus among fractions of capital. ===The Abolition of the FES as a Neoliberal Counter-Revolution=== If the FES was exploitative, why should anyone be upset about its abolition? The answer is that the abolition was not a correction of injustice. It was a reorganisation of exploitation to serve a different fraction of capital, specifically, imperialist finance capital and its comprador allies in India. The FES was abolished in 1992–93 as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and World Bank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/187/AU617_qV2bWN.pdf?source=pqals#1#1|title=Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617: Freight Equalization Policy|last=Prasada|first=Jitin|date=2026-02-03|website=Sansad TV|access-date=2026-09-19|quote=In the case of Iron and Steel the Government as a part of the liberalisation package, abolished the price control on Iron and Steel w.e.f. 17.1.1992 while retaining partial distribution control in respect of some sensitive sectors alike small scale sector exporters of engineering goods for North Eastern Region and for Railways and Defence. Thus, the freight equalisation scheme was totally abolished. The Government had also decided not to extend the freight equalization scheme to any new item.}}</ref> The timing is not accidental. The liberalisation of the Indian economy was designed to integrate India more deeply into the global imperialist market. The FES, by subsidizing the internal transport of raw materials, was an obstacle to the free operation of market forces. The FES was presented as 'bad economics' by Manmohan Singh, the finance minister who implemented the reforms and abolished it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/as-batalas-industrial-glory-fades-revival-remains-distant-hope/|title=As Punjabs Batala loses 60 per cent industrial units, revival remains distant hope|website=The Tribune|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=The first signs of trouble appeared in 1992. Then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sent the Freight Equalisation Policy (FEP) to the gallows. Introduced by the Union government in 1952, the policy had been designed to ensure that companies paid the same price for key raw materials such as coal, iron ore and steel, irrespective of where they were located. The government subsidised the cost of transporting these minerals to achieve this. The objective was balanced regional growth. In practice, however, the policy benefited industrial regions while hurting mineral-rich eastern states. Dr Manmohan Singh regarded the FEP as a piece of bad economics and did away with it as part of the government’s industrial policy.}}</ref> But the "bad economics" was not the exploitation of Bihar. It was the deviation from the pure logic of capital (tendency of capital to seek the highest possible rate of profit, regardless of national boundaries, regional development, social consequences, or political considerations). What were the consequences for Punjab? The data is clear. After the abolition of the FES, manufacturers in Punjab were paying at least Rs 3 per kg more for bringing raw material and Rs 4 per kg more for sending finished goods to other states compared to manufacturers in other regions. The city of Batala, once a thriving industrial hub, lost 60 per cent of its industrial units over the following three decades. The foundries of Batala declined from around 2,000 in 1980 to barely 400, of which only about 100 were still functioning. The industrialists of Punjab were "unable to cope with the sudden abolition of the FEP, yet lacked the resources to move their units closer to the sources of raw materials". The abolition of the FES did not benefit Bihar. Bihar remained marginalised. The study on Bihar and UP notes that even after the withdrawal of the policy, "industrial agglomeration bias continued" and engineering industries were established in areas closer to markets or elsewhere where better infrastructure was available or there were other financial incentives. The mineral-rich states did not receive the investment that the FES had supposedly diverted away from them. The abolition simply removed the subsidy that had allowed landlocked states like Punjab to compete, without replacing it with any mechanism for genuine regional development. The real beneficiaries of the abolition were imperialist capital and the comprador bourgeoisie. The removal of the FES was part of the broader neoliberal package that opened the Indian market to foreign goods and allowed multinational corporations to restructure supply chains in their own interests. The deindustrialisation of Punjab was not a correction of an earlier injustice. It was the destruction of a regional industrial base that had been built under the earlier regime, and its replacement by a model of development that served the interests of global capital. ===The Theoretical Resolution=== The confusion; whether any equalization measure is inherently exploitative, is resolved by distinguishing between capitalist equalization and socialist planning. Under capitalism, any policy of equalization is a redistribution of surplus among fractions of the bourgeoisie. The FES was a capitalist equalization policy. It transferred surplus from the mineral-rich states to the industrial bourgeoisie of other regions. It was exploitative because it was designed to serve the interests of capital, not the interests of the working class. The fact that it benefited the workers of Punjab incidentally by providing employment in the factories that were set up there, does not make it a socialist measure. It was a bourgeois development policy that happened to create jobs in one region while extracting wealth from another. Under socialism, the state is not an instrument of the bourgeoisie. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat; the organised power of the working class over the former exploiting classes. A socialist state would not use the FES as a mechanism for transferring surplus from one set of capitalists to another. It would plan the development of all regions in the interests of the working people. It would nationalise the mines and the factories, and it would direct investment to the regions that had been exploited under capitalism, not merely to compensate for past extraction but to integrate those regions into a planned national economy in which raw materials are processed where they are extracted, infrastructure is developed, and the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The goal would not be to equalise freight rates so that capital can locate anywhere it likes. The goal would be to develop the productive forces in all regions, to create integrated industrial complexes that process raw materials where they are extracted, and to ensure that the surplus generated by the working class is used for the benefit of the working class. The FES was not a socialist measure. It was a capitalist planning mechanism within a bourgeois state. Its abolition was not a liberation. It was a neoliberal restructuring that served the interests of imperialism. The correct Marxist-Leninist position is to oppose both; to oppose the FES as a mechanism of internal exploitation, and to oppose its abolition as a mechanism of imperialist restructuring. The demand is not for the restoration of the FES, nor for the free market. The demand is for the nationalisation of industry and the planned development of all regions under workers' control. ==The Organic Composition of Capital and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall== Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall operates in agriculture as in industry. As capitalist farmers invest in machinery, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the organic composition of capital; the ratio of constant capital (machines, seeds, fertilizers) to variable capital (labour), rises. The farmer spends more on inputs and less on labour. But the surplus value is extracted from labour. As the proportion of labour in total investment falls, the rate of profit tends to fall. The Punjabi capitalist farmer responds to falling profitability in the only way possible under capitalism: by expanding the scale of production. He buys more land, invests in larger machinery, and intensifies production.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sinha|first=Shreya|date=2021-01-17|title=Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|journal=Third World Quarterly|publisher=Routledge|volume=42|issue=4|pages=699–716|doi=10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762|issn=0143-6597|quote=For instance, in each failed attempt at diversification discussed above, the farmers turned their entire attention back to agriculture, often expanding their scale of production through leasing of land. These farmers considered agriculture, grudgingly, a potentially more secure form of remuneration than other activities. Diversifying capitalist households thus retain their landholdings and they are reluctant and/or unable to exit farming altogether.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bansal|first=Gaurav|date=December 2020|title=Tenancy and Accumulation: A Study of the Capitalist Farm Sector in Punjab|url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/nanna/record/311104/files/Tenancy_and_Accumulation_A_Study_of_the_Capitalist_Farm_Sector_in_Punjab.pdf?withWatermark=0&withMetadata=0&registerDownload=1&version=1#3#1|journal=Review of Agrarian Studies|volume=10|pages=28–47|quote=In the context of stagnation of agricultural productivity and declining profitability per unit of land, this group of capitalist farmers was able to enhance their total income by leasing in land.}}</ref> This works for the largest farmers, who can achieve economies of scale. But the middle peasant cannot expand indefinitely. Land is finite. Credit is limited. The cost of inputs continues to rise. The profit margin continues to shrink. The result is a crisis of reproduction. The middle peasant cannot cover costs. He borrows. He falls into debt. Eventually, he sells his land. The process of concentration accelerates. The rich peasant becomes a capitalist farmer. The middle peasant becomes a poor peasant or a landless labourer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=One of the main consequences of this agrarian distress has been that the marginal and small farmers, who find it increasingly hard to sustain on farming, are getting pushed out from agricultural sector.}}</ref> The poor peasant's children have no land to inherit. They have no skills for urban industry. They join the reserve army of labour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etvbharat.com/en/state/punjab-bjp-chief-writes-to-world-bank-president-ajay-banga-over-remarks-on-states-youth-and-farmers-enn26062306283|title=Punjab BJP Chief Writes To World Bank President Ajay Banga Over Remarks On State's Youth And Farmers|last=Bharat|first=E. T. V.|date=2026-06-23|website=ETV Bharat News|language=en|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=He said the trend shows bigger structural changes in Punjab's agrarian economy, where young people often struggle to find alternative employment after moving away from agriculture due to a lack of skill development opportunities and financial guidance.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/blogs/politics/jaiveer-shergill/agrarian-crisis-in-punjab-a-need-for-urgent-corrective-political-action-14401-1155397.html|title=Agrarian crisis in Punjab: A need for urgent corrective political action - Jaiveer Shergill’ Blog|website=News18|access-date=2026-09-20|quote=As many as 6,550 industrial units have been declared sick and 18,770 units have shut down or migrated out of Punjab since 2007. Thus, a large chunk of ‘reserve army of labour’ is prevalent in the economy. It is estimated that about 75 lakh persons are unemployed in Punjab and the numbers are adding up each day.}}</ref> This process, operating over four decades, has produced the structural unemployment that Punjab faces today. The land cannot absorb the labour. The cities have no industry to absorb the displaced peasantry. The youth are trapped: too educated for manual labour, too poor for capital-intensive farming, with no industrial jobs to move into. ==The Education Trap== The expansion of education in Punjab, while a genuine achievement in literacy rates, has produced a specific contradiction. The state invested in schools and colleges. The children of the middle peasantry and even the poor peasantry became educated. But the economy did not create jobs that required that education. The result is credential inflation. A bachelor's degree, which once guaranteed a government job, now qualifies you for nothing. A master's degree is the new minimum. Young people spend years acquiring qualifications that have no market value, accumulating debt, and then find that the only jobs available are as security guards, retail workers, or delivery drivers, jobs that require no education at all. The Marxist concept of the "latent" and "stagnant" forms of the relative surplus population applies here. The latent surplus population consists of agricultural workers who are barely employed and ready to migrate to industry. The stagnant surplus population consists of those with extremely irregular employment, living in chronic poverty. Punjab's educated unemployed youth are a specific variant of the relative surplus population. They are not floating in Marx's sense, because they have never been incorporated into industrial employment. They are not latent in Marx's strict sense, because they are not agricultural workers awaiting industrial employment. They are an educated reserve army; a stratum that has been credentialized but not proletarianized, warehoused in the education system but not absorbed into the labour market. The education system has become a mechanism for warehousing surplus labour, keeping young people off the labour market for a few more years while credentializing them for jobs that do not exist. ==The Specific Crisis of the Jat Sikh Peasantry== ==The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha== The Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (MMM) is the independent class organization of the landless Dalit proletariat. It was organized in 2002 by Bant Singh, a Majhabi Sikh Dalit agricultural labourer and singer, across 12 villages in Mansa district. Its struggle is not for MSP. It is for land, housing plots, and the abolition of caste-based exploitation. It is affiliated with the CPI(ML), the revolutionary communist party of India. The MMM has led land seizures, protests for homestead land, and struggles against the caste-based violence that the kulak class uses to maintain control. Bant Singh himself was attacked and lost three limbs for taking his daughter's rapists, kulak landowners, to court. The MMM represents the correct class line in Punjab agriculture. It is not a "farmer" organization. It is a proletarian organization that fights the kulak and the state simultaneously. Its existence is proof that the rural proletariat, when organized independently, can challenge the entire structure of class and caste power. cxneexkyo1nv5hcbk68komkfr771zno 0 332187 2834070 2834013 2026-09-21T00:19:40Z Jtneill 10242 added [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Relationships]] using [[Help:Gadget-HotCat|HotCat]] 2834070 wikitext text/x-wiki {{title|Title goes here:<br>Subtitle goes here?}} <div align=center>Edit the wording (and [[w:Stylistic or specialised usage|casing]]) above so that it matches the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/Current|topic list]].<br>[[Motivation and emotion/About/Staff|Seek approval]] for any changes.<br>Do not add your name; authorship is shown in the [[Special:History/{{PAGENAME}}|page history]].</div> __TOC__ ==Overview== {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} [[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]] ; Introduce the topic with a scenario Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it. The scenario should: * Start with a lead in bold, such as '''Scenario, Case study, Imagine this ...''', or another another phrase that suits the scenario. * Describe a '''realistic problem, situation, or question''' related to the topic. * Be engaging and accessible to a reader who is new to the topic. * Provide a context that can be revisited when explaining the psychological concepts and research later in the chapter. * Avoid explaining theory or research in detail— the purpose is to illustrate the problem, not solve it. * Be presented in a [[#Feature box|feature box]]. * Include a relevant image, with a figure caption, to help illustrate the scenario. Cite the figure (e.g., see Figure 1) within the scenario. For the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|topic development]], the scenario can be planned using bullet-points. ;Feature box colour To change the feature-box colour: # Select Edit source # Find theme=3 # Change 3 to another theme number {{RoundBoxBottom}} The Overview section should consist of three parts: # '''Scenario''': A short, engaging case study or real-world example in a feature box, with an accompanying image (see above) # '''Explanation of the problem, issue, or topic''': Brief explanation of the problem, why it is important, and an outline of how psychological science can help # '''Focus questions''': Unpack the sub-title into focus questions in a feature box Recommended length: 180 to 330 words. This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed from the book chapter. The topic development submission should communicate your current thinking and plans for the project. It is not expected to be a fully developed or final product. Key resources: * [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]] explains how to edit * [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|Topic development guidelines]] * [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter|Book chapter guidelines]] {{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''Focus questions''' Break the sub-title down into three to five [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter/Focus questions|focus questions]]. Align the top-level headings with these focus questions. * What is the first focus question? * What is the second focus question? * What is the third focus question? Ask [[w:Open-ended question|open-ended]] questions. For example: {{cross}} Is there a relationship between weather and criminal behaviour? (closed-ended)<br> {{tick}} What is the relationship between weather and criminal behaviour? (open-ended) {{RoundBoxBottom}} ==Headings== Each chapter should use this standard heading structure: * [[#Overview|Overview]] * 3 to 6 major headings tailored to the topic; can have sub-headings: ** avoid sections with only one sub-heading (use 0 or 2+ sub-headings) ** provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections * [[#Conclusion|Conclusion]] * [[#See also|See also]] * [[#References|References]] * [[#External links|External links]] ==Key points== * For the topic development, provide at least three bullet-points for each heading and sub-heading, including the Overview and Conclusion * Include key citations ==Figures== [[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]] * For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure; this can be the figure in the scenario * For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples * Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] which hosts free-to-use media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, and audio * Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed * Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section * Provide descriptive figure captions (use '''Figure #''' and explain the relevance of the image to the text) * Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2) ==Learning features== Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options: {{anchor|Scenarios}} ;Scenarios * Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action * Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages) * Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s) {{anchor|Feature box}} ;Feature boxes * Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect * Consider using feature boxes for: ** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples ** Focus questions ** Tips ** Quiz questions ** Take-home messages ;Embedded links * When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to: ** Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]") or ** Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]") {{anchor|Tables}} ;Tables * Use tables to organise and summarise information * Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1) * Tables should be captioned * [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted '''Table 1''' A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other {| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto; |- ! !! Known to self !! Not known to self |- | '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot |- | '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown |} ;Quizzes * One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end * Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages * Ask easy rather than hard questions * Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]] Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit": <quiz display=simple> {The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature: |type="()"} + True - False {Long and complex quiz questions are recommended: |type="()"} - True + False </quiz> ==Conclusion== * Arguably the most important section * Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking * For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research * Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem * Recommended length: 150 to 330 words {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? * What are the answers to the focus questions? * What are the practical, take-home messages? }} ==See also== List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example: * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity) * [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021) * [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia) * [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity) {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic * Include the source in parentheses }} ==References== Provide the references for all citations in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. Alternatively, you can use wiki style (as used on Wikipedia), as long as the information is complete and the formatting is consistent. APA style example: {{Hanging indent|1= Rosenberg, B. D., & Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. ''Motivation Science'', ''4''(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091 Sacks, O. (1985). ''The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales''. Harper & Row. }} {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Important aspects of APA referencing style ** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces ** Year of publication in parentheses ** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop ** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop ** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable) ** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]: *** Use "Edit source" *** <nowiki>{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}</nowiki> * The most common mistakes include: ** Incorrect capitalisation ** Incorrect italicisation ** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks ** Citing sources that haven't been consulted }} ==External links== [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example: * [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne) * [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com) {{tip|Suggestions for this section: * Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic * Include the source in parentheses after the link }} [[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]] [[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Relationships]] gzewmqhiwc5b6o9om2gfsfsth95gorf 3 332188 2834019 2026-09-20T13:54:27Z MathXplore 2888076 advert1 ([[m:User:ZbVl/VD|Vandoom]]) 2834019 wikitext text/x-wiki == 2026-09-20 == <div class="mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left" lang="en">[[File:Information.svg|25px|alt=Information icon]] Hello. 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