Review
The Effort Paradox: Effort Is Both Costly and Valued

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Highlights

Prominent models in the cognitive sciences indicate that mental and physical effort is costly, and that we avoid it. Here, we suggest that this is only half of the story.

Humans and non-human animals alike tend to associate effort with reward and will sometimes select objects or activities precisely because they require effort (e.g., mountain climbing, ultra-marathons).

Effort adds value to the products of effort, but effort itself also has value.

Effort’s value can not only be accessed concurrently with or immediately following effort exertion, but also in anticipation of such expenditure, suggesting that we already have an intuitive understanding of effort’s potential positive value.

If effort is consistently rewarded, people might learn that effort is valuable and become more willing to exert it in general.

According to prominent models in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and economics, effort (be it physical or mental) is costly: when given a choice, humans and non-human animals alike tend to avoid effort. Here, we suggest that the opposite is also true and review extensive evidence that effort can also add value. Not only can the same outcomes be more rewarding if we apply more (not less) effort, sometimes we select options precisely because they require effort. Given the increasing recognition of effort’s role in motivation, cognitive control, and value-based decision-making, considering this neglected side of effort will not only improve formal computational models, but also provide clues about how to promote sustained mental effort across time.

Section snippets

The Paradox of Effort

Effort (see Glossary), be it mental or physical, is a common feature of daily life and is encountered every time we need to push ourselves. We regularly face activities requiring exertion of some kind or another, be that running to catch a bus, learning how to play and master the latest video game, or sticking to an unpleasant diet. Effort has a distinct phenomenology, feeling difficult and aversive 1, 2, 3. As such, humans and other animals tend to avoid effort, including the effort that comes

Effort Defined

Effort refers to the subjective intensification of mental and/or physical activity in the service of meeting some goal [10]. As such, it is the process that mediates between how well an organism can potentially perform on some task and how well they actually perform on that task [19]. For example, a person might have the ability to perform algebra, but fail to solve simple algebra problems due to insufficient mental effort [5]. Although related, effort is not the same as motivation, which is a

Effort Is Costly

The notion that effort is costly (that organisms find it aversive and tend to avoid it) is supported by many lines of evidence. Tasks that require effort typically increase sympathetic nervous system activity, including increasing blood pressure, ventilation, sweating, pupil dilation, and plasma norepinephrine release 39, 40, 41, 42. Critically, this sympathetic nervous system activity reflects an aversive response: Effortful tasks prime an aversive affective response [43], evoke contraction in

Effort Adds Value

Despite growing and prominent work in cognitive neuroscience detailing effort’s substantial costs 19, 20, 21, it is clear that effort also adds substantial value, both to the products of effort and to effort itself (Table 1).

Synthesis: When and Why Effort Adds Value

It is clear that effort acts not only as a costly deterrent, but that it can also add substantial value. This latter, counterintuitive effect manifests in many forms, which raises many interesting and important questions concerning the nature of the effort–value relationship (Table 1).

Implications of Effort Being Valued

Although today’s dominant models in economics and cognitive neuroscience generally assume effort acts only as a cost 19, 20, 23, 70, 71, we hope that our analysis of the effort paradox makes clear that this view is incomplete. Effort’s added value cannot be ignored; therefore one theoretical implication of our review is that models of effort, including formal computational models (e.g., [23]), need to consider both effort’s costs and its potential to create subjective value beyond the

Concluding Remarks

Over the past few years, work on the cognitive neuroscience, economics, and psychology of effort has intensified. Were a person to solely consult this recent and influential literature 1, 19, 20, 24, 55, they would be exposed to all manner of evidence illustrating effort’s costs. However, as we build toward a rational and mechanistic account of effort [19], it is important to consider the abundant findings indicating that effort is intrinsically valued and that it boosts valuation.

It has long

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant RGPIN-2014-03744 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by grant 435-2014-0556 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to M.I., and by a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant P20GM103645 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to A.S. We thank Cendri Hutcherson, Blair Saunders, Daniel Randles, Hause Lin, Sebastian Musslick, Zoe Francis, Nathaniel Elkins-Brown, and Naomi

Glossary

Anterior cingulate cortex
the rostral portion of a thick belt of cortex that lies dorsal to the corpus callosum. Research suggests roles for anterior cingulate cortex in effort avoidance, reward-based decision-making, cognitive control, and motivation. Such roles are consistent with the view that the ACC monitors for signals relevant to the expected value of control.
Cognitive dissonance
mental distress experienced when a person simultaneously holds contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, which

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