The Easier-Is-Better Heuristic: The False Allure of Easy Work

Abstract

People are highly sensitive to effort expenditure and have an evolved goal to minimize it. As such, people tend to favor tasks that are easier over more difficult tasks. However, there are several downsides to reducing task demand, such as experiencing boredom, that make easier tasks less enjoyable. Across six studies, we examine people’s beliefs about the relationship between task demand and task enjoyment. We find that people inaccurately anticipate that making a task less demanding will increase its enjoyability (Study 1). We extend our findings to a more objective conceptualization of task demand (Study 2) and find that the effect persists even when tasks are familiar (Study 3). We test our proposed mechanism that people fail to consider other task dimensions that impact task enjoyment because effort avoidance is a highly salient goal (Study 4). In Study 5 we find that people accurately anticipate that challenging, yet attainable, tasks will be more enjoyable than tasks which exceed their abilities. Finally, in Study 6 we surveyed working professionals to test the implication of the effect on job satisfaction and retention. Taken together, these results suggest that people operate on an “easier-is- better” heuristic, meaning they believe that any decrease in task demand will lead to an increase in task enjoyment. These beliefs matter because they likely guide people’s decisions about what work to pursue and what work to avoid.