AIM Framework glossary
Source Hypotheses
Canonical definition
Source Hypotheses, denoted HA, HI, and HM, are the three mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive Hypotheses about which motivational source generated a particular want: - HA: "This want arose from Appetitive need" - HI: "This want arose from Intrinsic Motivation" - HM: "This want arose from Mimetic Desire"
Explanation
Source Hypotheses partition the space of possible origins for any experienced want. For any desire, exactly one Hypothesis is true at the level of primary causation, the want was predominantly generated by bodily deficit, by self-endorsed engagement value, or by social transmission from models. The Individual's task in Source-tagging is to correctly identify which Hypothesis applies. Because the three Hypotheses are exhaustive, the probabilities an Individual assigns across them must sum to one. Source Opacity means this identification is difficult; Common-Currency Integration means the phenomenology of wanting does not distinguish sources; Confabulation means the narratives generated to explain wants are systematically biased toward the Appetitive and Intrinsic Hypotheses even when the M-Hypothesis is true.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.