For decades, psychology and neuroscience have suggested that if humans and animals naturally try to make as little effort as possible, it is because putting in the effort is not enjoyable.

Another possible interpretation: is that it’s not the actual effort that individuals avoid, it’s the effort wasted – effort that leads you nowhere or whose benefits do not justify putting in the effort. This vision is explored in a recent article I co-wrote with Roy Baumeister at Harvard University, Guido Gendolla at the University of Geneva, and Michel Audiffren from the University of Poitiers and published in 2026 in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

How did we come to pinpoint that it’s effort-wasting that people avoid rather than actual effort?

To support our thesis, we conducted a critical, two-pronged synthesis of the scientific literature. First looking at child development. We thought that, if the effort was intrinsically unpleasant, effort rejection should be observed very early in development.

Infants and young children do not show any spontaneous aversion to effort: they engage in it freely, associate pleasure with satisfaction,........

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