Judgments of effort exerted by others are influenced by received rewards
Rollwage, Max ; Pannach, Franziska ; Stinson, Caedyn ; Toelch, Ulf ; Kagan, Igor ; Pooresmaeili, Arezoo
Citable Link (URL):http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gs-1/17354
Journal Article (Published version)
First published (peer reviewed)
Scientific Reports 2020; 10(1) p.1-14: Art. 1868
Abstract
Estimating invested effort is a core dimension for evaluating own and others’ actions, and views on
the relationship between effort and rewards are deeply ingrained in various societal attitudes. Internal
representations of effort, however, are inherently noisy, e.g. due to the variability of sensorimotor
and visceral responses to physical exertion. The uncertainty in effort judgments is further aggravated
when there is no direct access to the internal representations of exertion – such as when estimating the
effort of another person. Bayesian cue integration suggests that this uncertainty can be resolved by
incorporating additional cues that are predictive of effort, e.g. received rewards. We hypothesized that
judgments about the effort spent on a task will be influenced by the magnitude of received rewards.
Additionally, we surmised that such influence might further depend on individual beliefs regarding the
relationship between hard work and prosperity, as exemplified by a conservative work ethic. To test
these predictions, participants performed an effortful task interleaved with a partner and were informed
about the obtained reward before rating either their own or the partner’s effort. We show that higher
rewards led to higher estimations of exerted effort in self-judgments, and this effect was even more
pronounced for other-judgments. In both types of judgment, computational modelling revealed that
reward information and sensorimotor markers of exertion were combined in a Bayes-optimal manner
in order to reduce uncertainty. Remarkably, the extent to which rewards influenced effort judgments
was associated with conservative world-views, indicating links between this phenomenon and general
beliefs about the relationship between effort and earnings in society.
Sponsored by EU

Sponsor:
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2020
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