Why does empathy feel like hard work? Why do we avoid effort yet find it meaningful? How is technology reshaping our motivation, empathy, and well-being?
The Work and Play Lab uses methods from social psychology and cognitive science to understand the mental effort we use to reach our goals and how we spend our leisure time. Our recent research explores the effort paradox, empathy avoidance, and AI's surprising compassion (work) as well as how social media increases boredom and polarization, and the real effects of chronic cannabis use (play). We're committed to open and transparent science, publicly posting data and materials, preregistering studies, and running replications.
Learning to play a musical instrument is hard. So is trying to run a marathon, writing a term paper, and caring for a sick child. These things involve frustration, pain, and disappointment — yet we do them anyway. In part two of Hidden Brain’s look at the allure of suffering, psychologist Michael Inzlicht explains what we get from doing things that are difficult, and why the things we think will make us happy often do not.
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