When someone says that thinking is painful, they might be onto something, as new research shows that mental effort can often come with negative feelings.
“Managers often push their teams, and teachers frequently motivate their students to tackle challenging mental tasks. Initially, this seems effective; indeed, employees and students often engage in mentally demanding activities,” explained Dr. Erik Bijleveld from Radboud University, who led the study. “However, our findings indicate that this assumption might be incorrect: generally speaking, people really do not like putting in mental effort.”
This research was featured in the journal Psychological Bulletin.
The researchers performed a meta-analysis of 170 studies published between 2019 and 2020, involving 4,670 participants, to explore how individuals typically experience mental exertion. They investigated whether mental effort correlates with negative feelings and whether this relationship varies across different tasks or demographics.
The studies involved a diverse range of participants, including health care workers, military personnel, amateur athletes, and college students from 29 different countries. They also encompassed 358 distinct cognitive tasks like mastering new technology, navigating an unfamiliar place, practicing golf swings, and playing virtual reality games. Participants in each study reported their levels of exertion as well as the unpleasant emotions they experienced, such as frustration, stress, or annoyance.
Overall, across all demographics and types of tasks, a higher level of mental effort was linked to a greater sense of unpleasantness among participants.
“Our results demonstrate that mental effort is generally perceived as uncomfortable across different populations and tasks,” noted Bijleveld. “This insight is crucial for professionals, including engineers and educators, when creating tasks, tools, interfaces, apps, materials, or instructions. When substantial mental effort is necessary, it’s essential to provide support or incentives to help individuals cope.”
One notable observation was that the negative correlation between mental effort and unpleasant feelings was still evident, but less intense in studies from Asian countries compared to those in Europe or North America. Bijleveld pointed out that this aligns with the understanding that the discomfort associated with mental effort may vary based on a person’s educational background. Students in many Asian countries often dedicate more time to their studies than their European or North American peers, which might help them better tolerate higher levels of mental strain from an early age.
More significantly, it is observed in real life that despite the unpleasant nature of mentally demanding tasks, individuals still willingly participate in them, Bijleveld remarked.
“For example, why do millions love playing chess? People often realize that engaging in certain mentally taxing activities can bring about rewards. If the advantages of playing chess surpass the downsides, individuals might opt to play and even declare that they enjoy it,” he stated. “However, just because people choose challenging mental activities doesn’t mean they enjoy the mental effort itself. Likely, they might engage in these activities despite the effort required, not because they relish the challenge.”
