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Do humans prefer cognitive effort over doing nothing?

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  • 1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People often avoid mental effort, but this study found little evidence they choose to avoid effort when the alternative is doing nothing. Findings suggest inactivity can be as costly as mental exertion.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Humans and animals inherently avoid mental and physical effort.
  • However, prolonged inactivity or 'doing nothing' is also perceived as aversive.

Approach:

  • Utilized the demand selection task across 12 studies.
  • Participants chose between cognitively demanding tasks and non-effortful alternatives (e.g., inactivity).

Key Points:

  • Little evidence suggests people actively avoid effort when the sole alternative is inactivity.
  • Some participants even appeared to prefer engaging in effortful tasks over doing nothing.
  • Internal meta-analysis supported these observations.

Conclusions:

  • The aversiveness of inactivity suggests it may be as costly, if not more so, than exerting mental effort.
  • This challenges the assumption that effort is always avoided when possible.