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:

1. That people vary, falling into more cognitive people and less cognitive people who enjoy thinking more or less
2. 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…