Well, is “responding to someone saying ‘if people (“just”) do X, then Z” really “spontaneous”?
Like, presumably the person saying something like that at least thinks that the people listening would prefer Z to be the case. If they are right, then, if marginal increases in the doing of X results in marginal increases of Z, and the people listening want Z, then saying “the more you X, the more Z” seems like a sometimes reasonably effective way to cause more Z by causing people to do more X.
You can call that “an incentive” if you want - that wouldn’t be incorrect - though I think that word often has connotations of “artificial external incentive”, and I don’t think that’s always so necessary.
Like, presumably the person saying something like that at least thinks that the people listening would prefer Z to be the case. If they are right, then, if marginal increases in the doing of X results in marginal increases of Z, and the people listening want Z, then saying “the more you X, the more Z” seems like a sometimes reasonably effective way to cause more Z by causing people to do more X.
You can call that “an incentive” if you want - that wouldn’t be incorrect - though I think that word often has connotations of “artificial external incentive”, and I don’t think that’s always so necessary.