As someone who rarely takes my running shoes out of my closet, I’m both in awe and perplexed by my endurance athlete friends. What is especially difficult to understand is that their love for running marathons and cycling up mountains does not come despite the fact that those efforts are extremely grueling. They enjoy them for that very reason.
As a species, humans often think of ourselves as inherently lazy, even though scientists prefer words like “effort-phobic.” But we know that the effort is so worth it that you might choose a more difficult process, even if the result is the same. We also seem to value after-the-fact efforts and are unduly proud of flat-pack furniture that is poorly assembled, for example because it was a pain to put together.
“On the other hand, effort costs money,” says psychologist Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto in Canada. “On the other hand, we seem to have a tendency to value things that we have worked hard to earn.” I named it “Paradox”.
Since then, psychologists have continued to unravel the origins of the effort paradox and why some people struggle with tasks that others find easy. They’re discovering new ways not only to get off the couch and put on their running shoes, but also how to learn more effectively, empathize with others better, and even build more meaningful lives. It’s about providing insight. “(Apparently) if I could become…”
(Tag to translate) Psychology
