What theory explains where motivation to do something depends on perception of others' input?
I've found if not an answer then at least a good starting point to this. 

The theory of trust in management literature explains that in a contractual situation, the actors may be motivated to fulfil their end of the bargain based on the trust they place to the actor on the opposite side. Specifically, there's two types of trust:


Competence trust = perception that the other party is able to fulfil their end of the contract.
Goodwill trust = perception that the other party will fulfil their end of the contract. 


Even though this discusses it in a formal contract setting, I feel this applies to 'social contract' context as well, i.e part of why a person is willing to spend effort on something like fill up tax reports is because he trusts that his effort will not be reciprocated by the tax agency who will then handle the money and make use of it properly.

The paper is here: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.114.3411&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf