Research Hit: It's Official - Thinking Hurts!
A research review finds that more mental activity is unpleasant irrespective of population group
Well to be fair, thinking is hard work?
Indeed true cognitive effort, is, well effortful. But we might assume that this varies. Similar to attitudes to physical activity.
So doesn’t it vary - surely some people enjoy cognitive activity - think Sudoku?!
Well, yes that would be the working assumption:
That people vary, falling into more cognitive people and less cognitive people who enjoy thinking more or less
We enjoy some mental stimulation and sometimes difficult mental exertion such as in voluntarily solving tough problems or playing chess.
But that is not what these researchers found!
Are they sure?
It does sound counter intuitive. But Louise David et al. reviewed 170 studies, published between 2019 and 2020 and comprising 4,670 participants. What they found is that consistently the more mental effort that was exerted the less pleasant the task felt. Because of the number of studies, multiple types of tasks, population groups, and contexts such as professional or free time, it is probably a pretty robust finding.
Why do people play chess then?
Well the researchers did comment on this - there are multiple factors at play such as reward of playing a game, or winning. Also often with games such as Sudoku we like an optimal amount of difficulty that allows us to solve the problem, we don’t go for the most difficult.
The other interesting fact is that just because you enjoy playing Sudoku doesn’t mean that you enjoy mental activity in other areas.
As the researchers noted:
"…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."
Of note is that they did find a small difference to Asian populations who experience slightly less discomfort than us Westerners which the researchers attribute to upbringing.
So there are some differences?
Yes, albeit small. And this doesn’t stop you actively engaging your brain to keep it sharp!
See this post that talks about cognitive reserve:
Reference
Louise David, Eliana Vassena, Erik Bijleveld.
The unpleasantness of thinking: A meta-analytic review of the association between mental effort and negative affect.
Psychological Bulletin, 2024
DOI: 10.1037/bul0000443