The Effort Heuristic
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 40, pp. 91-98, 2004
8 Pages Posted: 19 Feb 2010
Date Written: 2004
Abstract
The research presented here suggests that effort is used as a heuristic for quality. Participants rating a poem (Experiment 1), a painting (Experiment 2), or a suit of armor (Experiment 3) provided higher ratings of quality, value, and liking for the work the more time and effort they thought it took to produce. Experiment 3 showed that the use of the effort heuristic, as with all heuristics, is moderated by ambiguity: Participants were more influenced by effort when the quality of the object being evaluated was difficult to ascertain. Discussion centers on the implications of the effort heuristic for everyday judgment and decision-making.
Keywords: Judgment and decision-making, Heuristics and biases, Social cognition, Effort
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