Popular conceptions hold that effort is costly and aversive, causing people to generally avoid effort unless justified. We critically discuss evolutionary, phenomenological, and behavioral arguments supporting this “law of least effort”, proposing that people may approach effort without direct extrinsic benefits. First, a “need for effort” is functional for health and learning. Second, experiencing contingency of effort and reward in the context of broader goals may lead to effort-seeking behavior. Moreover, beliefs with implications for the meaning of effort (e.g., as signaling difficulty or lack of talent) predict effort preferences. Thus, evolutionary, developmental, and social-cognitive factors may drive the pursuit of challenging goals that lie beyond life necessities but are essential for improvement and long-term development.

中文翻译：

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挑战最省力法则


流行的观念认为，努力成本高昂且令人厌恶，导致人们通常会避免努力，除非有正当理由。我们批判性地讨论支持这一“最省力定律”的进化论、现象学和行为论据，提出人们可以在没有直接外在利益的情况下努力努力。首先，“努力的需要”对于健康和学习是有作用的。其次，在更广泛的目标背景下经历努力和奖励的偶然性可能会导致寻求努力的行为。此外，对努力意义有影响的信念（例如，表示困难或缺乏才能）可以预测努力偏好。因此，进化、发展和社会认知因素可能会推动人们追求具有挑战性的目标，这些目标超出了生活必需品的范围，但对于改善和长期发展至关重要。