This finding is particularly less pronounced in Asian countries, where educational experiences may help individuals cope better with mental effort.
A new study has made an important discovery: mental activities are often associated with negative emotions. A meta-analysis of 170 studies, encompassing various populations and tasks, indicates that increased mental effort correlates with feelings of frustration and stress. This correlation is particularly less pronounced in Asian populations, possibly due to differences in educational experiences. Nevertheless, individuals still engage in mentally challenging tasks like chess, motivated more by the rewards than the enjoyment of the effort itself.
Mental activities are often associated with negative emotions.
Mental Effort and Discomfort
According to research published by the American Psychological Association, if someone complains that thinking is exhausting and burdensome, they might be right, as mental exertion seems to be linked to feelings of discomfort in many situations.
“Managers often encourage employees, and teachers frequently encourage students to engage in mental effort. On the surface, this seems effective: Employees and students often choose mentally challenging activities,” said senior author Erik Bijleveld, PhD, from Radboud University. “From this, one might conclude that employees and students tend to enjoy thinking deeply. However, our results indicate this is a mistaken conclusion: Overall, people do not actually enjoy mental effort.”
This study was published in the Psychological Bulletin.
Mental effort is often unpleasant, as confirmed by a meta-analysis involving over 4,600 participants across various tasks and demographics. However, people often pursue these challenging activities for the rewards rather than for the enjoyment of the task.
People often pursue these challenging activities for the rewards rather than for the enjoyment.
Insights from a Comprehensive Meta-Analysis
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 170 studies published between 2019 and 2020, involving 4,670 participants, to examine how people generally experience mental effort. They did this by investigating whether mental effort was associated with feelings of discomfort and whether that relationship depended on the task or population involved.
The studies included diverse participants (e.g., healthcare workers, military personnel, amateur athletes, college students) from 29 countries and involved 358 different cognitive tasks (e.g., learning a new technology, navigating an unfamiliar environment, practicing golf, playing virtual reality games). In all the studies analyzed, participants reported the level of effort they exerted as well as the extent to which they experienced discomfort such as frustration, annoyance, stress, or unease.
Bijleveld stated: “Our findings indicate that mental effort is uncomfortable across various populations and tasks.” “This is important for professionals, such as engineers and educators, to keep in mind when designing tasks, tools, interfaces, applications, materials, or instructions. When individuals are required to exert significant mental effort, you need to ensure support or reward them for that effort.”
An interesting finding, according to Bijleveld, is that while the link between mental effort and negative feelings remains significant, it is less pronounced in studies conducted in Asian countries compared to studies in Europe or North America. This aligns with the general idea that the discomfort of mental effort may depend on individuals’ educational histories. He noted that high school students in Asian countries tend to spend more time studying in school compared to their peers in Europe or North America, and thus may learn to endure higher levels of mental exertion from an early age.
In all populations and tasks, greater mental effort correlates with greater discomfort experienced by participants.
Behavioral Implications of Mental Effort
Bijleveld noted that although the inherently uncomfortable nature of challenging mental tasks is evident, people still voluntarily engage in them.
“For example, why do millions of people play chess? Individuals may understand that exerting mental effort in certain activities is likely to lead to rewards. If the benefits of chess outweigh the costs and effort involved, people might choose to play chess and even convince themselves that they enjoy it,” he said. “However, when individuals opt to pursue activities demanding high mental effort, this should not be seen as a sign that they enjoy mental effort. Perhaps people choose activities that require mental effort despite the effort, not because of it.”
