Effort justification
The tendency to value an outcome more because we worked hard or suffered to get it. It eases the discomfort of thinking the effort might have been wasted.
In everyday life
Members of a club with a harsh initiation often rate the club more highly than members who joined easily.
After waiting four hours in line for a restaurant's famous burger, you rave that it's the best you've ever eaten, while a friend who walked in with no wait found it ordinary.
Why your mind does this
To act at all, we need some belief that our choices matter and that we can pull them off. A bit of extra confidence gets us moving, keeps us going after setbacks, and protects our sense of self-worth and our standing in a group.
Its family, in 30 seconds: Confidence to act
How to spot it
Ask whether you would value the result as much if it had been handed to you for free.
How to counter it
Judge the outcome by comparing it with alternatives, and leave the effort you spent out of the scoring.
Same family: Confidence to act
- Overconfidence effect
- Social desirability bias
- Third-person effect
- False consensus effect
- Hard-easy effect
- Lake Wobegon effect
- Dunning-Kruger effect
- Egocentric bias
- Optimism bias
- Forer effect
- Barnum effect
- Self-serving bias
- Actor-observer bias
- Illusion of control
- Illusory superiority
- Fundamental attribution error
- Defensive attribution hypothesis
- Trait ascription bias
- Effort justification
- Risk compensation
- Peltzman effect
SourcesAronson & Mills (1959)·Wikipedia