American psychologists from Ohio State University studied the psychological processes associated with procrastination; the tendency to avoid performing demanding tasks even if this leads to negative consequences. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Personality and Individual Differences (PID).
Through a series of tests, scientists found that the psychological mechanism known as “valence bias” plays an important role in procrastination. In psychology, valence is understood as the subjective attractiveness (positive valence) or unattractiveness (negative valence) of an object, event or situation.
Valence evaluation is related to motivation and is responsible for people’s ability to adapt to new conditions, starting from positive or negative attitudes.
As experiments show, people with a tendency towards negative attitudes are more likely to postpone important things until later, without much need.
Scientists have also found that the impact of negative attitudes can be counteracted by reflecting on the problem. This way, people find reasons to motivate them to complete a task on time.
Researchers have found that focusing on negative attitudes can be beneficial in some situations, such as helping a person prepare better for an exam.
Psychologists have noted that the best results in solving various problems come from a balanced approach, when people are willing to take into account both the positive and negative aspects of the task they face.
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