The Pain of Thinking: How Mental Effort Leads to Unpleasant Feelings

Introduction

If somebody complains that it hurts to think, they may be onto something, as mental exertion appears to be associated with unpleasant feelings in many situations, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Main Digest

"Managers often encourage employees, and teachers often encourage students, to exert mental effort. On the surface, this seems to work well: Employees and students do often opt for mentally challenging activities," said senior author Erik Bijleveld, PhD, of Radboud University. "From this, you may be tempted to conclude that employees and students tend to enjoy thinking hard. Our results suggest that this conclusion would be false: In general, people really dislike mental effort."

Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 170 studies, published between 2019 and 2020 and comprising 4,670 participants, to examine how people generally experience mental effort. They did so by testing whether mental effort is associated with unpleasant feelings and whether that association depends on the task or the population involved.

The studies used a variety of participants (e.g., health care employees, military employees, amateur athletes, college students) from 29 countries and involved 358 different cognitive tasks (e.g., learning a new technology, finding one's way around an unfamiliar environment, practicing golf swings, playing a virtual reality game). In all studies analyzed, participants reported the level of effort they exerted as well as the extent to which they experienced unpleasant feelings such as frustration, irritation, stress or annoyance.

Across all populations and tasks, the greater the mental effort, the greater the unpleasantness experienced by participants.

"Our findings show that mental effort feels unpleasant across a wide range of populations and tasks," said Bijleveld. "This is important for professionals, such as engineers and educators, to keep in mind when designing tasks, tools, interfaces, apps, materials or instructions. When people are required to exert substantial mental effort, you need to make sure to support or reward them for their effort."

One interesting finding, according to Bijleveld, was that while the association between mental effort and adverse feelings was still significant, it was less pronounced in studies conducted in Asian countries compared with those in Europe or North America. This fits with the general idea that the aversiveness of mental effort may depend on people's learning history. High school students in Asian countries tend to spend more time on schoolwork than their European or North American counterparts and may therefore learn to withstand higher levels of mental exertion early on in their lives, he said.

More important is the real-world observation that despite the aversive nature of mentally challenging tasks, people still voluntarily engage in them, said Bijleveld.

"For example, why do millions of people play chess? People may learn that exerting mental effort in some specific activities is likely to lead to reward. If the benefits of chess outweigh the costs, people may choose to play chess, and even self-report that they enjoy chess," he said. "Yet, when people choose to pursue mentally effortful activities, this should not be taken as an indication that they enjoy mental effort per se. Perhaps people choose mentally effortful activities despite the effort, not because of it."

Article

"The unpleasantness of thinking: A meta-analytic review of the association between mental effort and negative affect," by Louise David, MSc, Maastricht University; Eliana Vassena, PhD, and Erik Bijleveld, PhD, Radboud University. Psychological Bulletin, published online Aug. 5, 2024.

Related Information

• Why Thinking Hard Makes You Feel Tired: A study found people who spent over six hours working on tedious and mentally taxing tasks had higher levels of glutamate - an important signaling molecule in the brain.
• Exercise May Improve Thinking Ability and Memory: American Academy of Neurology guideline shows exercising twice a week may improve thinking ability and memory in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
• A Shoulder to Cry On - Empathy, Thinking & Feelings: Researchers studying empathy in relationships find in the absence of caring, understanding alone does not cut it when stressful situations arise.
• Why We Believe in Gods: Religious Beliefs Not Linked to Rational Thinking: Studies have suggested people who hold strong religious beliefs are more intuitive and less analytical, and when they think more analytically their religious beliefs decrease.
• Brain and Body Conflict Helps Thinking Outside the Box: New study shows physical and psychological ambivalence leads to expanded creativity and open-mindedness.
• Brain Scans Reveal Hidden Shape of Thinking Predicting Learning Better Than Test Scores: New findings point to a new way of integrating neuroscience with education.
• When Negative Thoughts Turn to Depression: Negative thinking is a red flag for clinical depression stopping such thoughts early can save millions of people from mental illness.
• Help Dealing with Bad Memories and Emotions: Researchers studied mechanisms of focusing away from emotion during recollection of personal negative emotional memories like how sad you were or how embarrassed you felt.

Attribution/Source(s):

This peer reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World due to its significant relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by American Psychological Association, and published on 2024/08/05, the content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity. For further details or clarifications, American Psychological Association can be contacted at apa.org. NOTE: Disabled World does not provide any warranties or endorsements related to this article.

Related Publications▶ Share This Page

Page Information, Citing and Disclaimer

Disabled World is a comprehensive online resource that provides information and news related to disabilities, assistive technologies, and accessibility issues. Founded in 2004 our website covers a wide range of topics, including disability rights, healthcare, education, employment, and independent living, with the goal of supporting the disability community and their families.

Cite This Page (APA): American Psychological Association. (2024, August 5). The Pain of Thinking: How Mental Effort Leads to Unpleasant Feelings. Disabled World. Retrieved September 15, 2024 from www.disabled-world.com/health/neurology/thought-pain.php

Permalink: <a href="https://www.disabled-world.com/health/neurology/thought-pain.php">The Pain of Thinking: How Mental Effort Leads to Unpleasant Feelings</a>: Mental exertion appears to be associated with unpleasant feelings in many situations, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Disabled World provides general information only. Materials presented are never meant to substitute for qualified medical care. Any 3rd party offering or advertising does not constitute an endorsement.