Do Humans Prefer Cognitive Effort Over Doing Nothing?

Humans and other animals find mental (and physical) effort aversive and have the fundamental drive to avoid it. However, doing nothing is also aversive. Here, we ask whether people choose to avoid effort when the alternative is to do nothing at all. Across 12 studies, participants completed variants...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. General 2023-04, Vol.152 (4), p.1069-1079
Main Authors: Wu, Raymond, Ferguson, Amanda M., Inzlicht, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect
Animals
Aversion
Avoidance
Boredom
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Cognitive Control
Decision Making
Experimental psychology
Female
Human
Humans
Male
Mental health
Meta-analysis
Motivation
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Summary:Humans and other animals find mental (and physical) effort aversive and have the fundamental drive to avoid it. However, doing nothing is also aversive. Here, we ask whether people choose to avoid effort when the alternative is to do nothing at all. Across 12 studies, participants completed variants of the demand selection task, in which they repeatedly selected between a cognitively effortful task (e.g., simple addition, Stroop task, and symbol-counting task) and a task that required no effort (e.g., doing nothing, watching the computer complete the Stroop, and symbol-viewing). We then tabulated people's choices. Across our studies and an internal meta-analysis, we found little evidence that people choose to avoid effort (and hints that people sometimes prefer effort) when the alternative was doing nothing. Our findings suggest that doing nothing can be just as costly-if not more costly-than exerting effort.
ISSN:0096-3445
1939-2222
DOI:10.1037/xge0001320