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Laziness Is Now Officially Contagious, According To Research

Does the thought of peeling yourself off the sofa at some point today fill you with anguish? Sure, perhaps you were born lazy. But according to new research, it could be because you’ve been surrounded by lazy people in the first place.
Psychologists from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research have found that laziness is catching, as we tend to adjust to fit in with those around us. The same goes for impatience and prudence, too.
The researchers, Marie Devaine and Jean Daunizeau, said their study contributes to previous findings that people don’t tend to have fixed character traits, but follow the habits of others. In the study, 56 participants were set tasks involving effort (to analyse laziness), risks (prudence) and delay (impatience).
To measure effort, they were asked to grip a device at between 10 or 90% of their ability for a low or high reward in return. For impatience, they were made to choose between a small reward to be given to them in three days, or a bigger one in up to a year later.
And for prudence, they could pick between winning 90% of a small prize, or getting a bigger prize – but with a lower chance of receiving it. They did each task several times, and were told how a previous participant had guessed throughout the process. Which lead the authors to find that ‘people learn from others’ lazy, impatient or prudent behaviour’.
They wrote in the study – published in journal PLOS Computational Biology – that ‘we have shown that people’s attitude towards effort, delay or risk drifts towards that of others’. They also noted that just 19% of the people who changed in their attitude towards effort, delay or risk because of this were aware they were doing it.
So maybe we should learn to be more mindful of who’s influencing us. Or maybe we just can’t be arsed.
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