The Art of Thinking Clearly: Better Thinking, Better Decisions

See also Overthinking (ch. 90); News Illusion (ch. 99); Base-Rate Neglect (ch. 28)

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60
HURTS SO GOOD
Effort Justification
John, a soldier in the U.S. Army, has just completed his paratrooper course. He
waits patiently in line to receive the coveted parachute pin. At last, his superior
officer stands in front of him, lines the pin up against his chest and pounds it in so
hard that it pierces John’s flesh. Ever since, he opens his top shirt button at every
opportunity to showcase the small scar. Decades later, he has thrown away all
the memorabilia from his time in the army, except for the tiny pin, which hangs in
a specially made frame on his living room wall.
Mark singlehandedly restored a rusty Harley-Davidson. Every weekend and
holiday went into getting it up and running; all the while his marriage was
approaching breakdown. It was a struggle, but finally Mark’s prized possession
was road-ready and gleamed in the sunshine. Two years later, Mark desperately
needs money. He sells all his possessions – the TV, the car, even his house –
but not the bike. Even when a prospect offers double the actual value, Mark does
not sell it.
John and Mark are victims of 
effort justification
. When you put a lot of energy
into a task, you tend to overvalue the result. Because John had to endure
physical pain for the parachute pin, it outshines all his other awards. And since
Mark’s Harley cost him so many hours – and also nearly his wife – he prizes the
bike so highly that he will never sell it.
Effort justification 
is a special case of 
cognitive dissonance
. To have a hole
punched in your chest for a simple merit badge borders on the absurd. John’s
brain compensates for this imbalance by overvaluing the pin, hyping it up from
something mundane to something semi-sacred. All of this happens
unconsciously and is difficult to prevent.
Groups use 
effort justification
to bind members to them – for example, through
initiation rites. Gangs and fraternities initiate new members by forcing them to
withstand nauseating or vicious tests. Research proves that the harder the
‘entrance exam’ is to pass, the greater the subsequent pride and the value they
attach to their membership. MBA schools play with 
effort justification
in this way:

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they work their students day and night without respite, often to the point of
exhaustion. Regardless of how useful or idiotic the coursework, once the students
have the MBAs in the bag, they’ll deem the qualification essential for their careers
simply because it demanded so much of them.
A mild form of 
effort justification
is the so-called 
IKEA effect
. Furniture that we
assemble ourselves seems more valuable than any expensive designer piece.
The same goes for hand-knitted socks. To throw away a hand-crafted pair, even if
they are tatty and outdated, is hard to do. Managers who put weeks of hard work
into a strategy proposal will be incapable of appraising it objectively. Designers,
copywriters, product developers, or any other professionals who brood over their
creations are similarly guilty of this.
In the 1950s, instant cake mixes were introduced to the market. A surefire hit,
thought the manufacturers. Far from it: housewives took an instant dislike to them
– because they made things too easy. The firms reacted and made the
preparation slightly more difficult (beating in an egg yourself). The added effort
raised the women’s sense of achievement and, with it, their appreciation for
convenience food.
Now that you know about 
effort justification
, you can rate your projects more
objectively. Try it out: whenever you have invested a lot of time and effort into
something, stand back and examine the result – 
only 
the result. The novel you’ve
been tinkering with for five years and that no publisher wants: perhaps it’s not
Nobel-worthy after all. The MBA you felt compelled to do: would you really
recommend it? And the woman you’ve been chasing for years: is she really better
than bachelorette number two, who would say yes straight away?