Are people inherently lazy?
There’s a long-standing tradition in psychology characterizing humans as “cognitive misers.” Misers, in the sense that all things being equal, humans will tend to avoid tasks that require elevated cognitive effort. In other words, zillions of differentiating factors aside, we all tend to try and avoid tasks that require complex, arduous brain thinking for other tasks that might not be so intellectually demanding.
Humans also value their effort. All day and everyday, our brains are masterfully calculating the “cost” of spending that brainpower vis-a-vis the reward that we might stand to obtain as a result. The greater the reward, the harder our brains are willing to work.
All of this sounds obvious, right? What in the world are you getting at, Smith?
Continue reading →