Higher inhibitory control is required to escape the innate attraction to effort minimization

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests humans have an automatic attraction to effort minimization. Yet, how this attraction is associated with response inhibition is still unclear. Here, we used go/no-go tasks to capture inhibitory control in response to stimuli depicting physical activity versus physical inactivity in 59 healthy young individuals. Higher commission errors (i.e., failure to refrain a response to a “no-go” stimulus) were used as a measure for inhibitory control. Based on the energetic cost minimization theory, we hypothesized that participants would exhibit higher commission errors when responding to stimuli depicting physical inactivity stimuli rather than physical activity stimuli. As expected, mixed effects models showed that, compared to physical activity stimuli, participants exhibited higher commission errors when responding to stimuli depicting physical inactivity (odds ratio = 1.59, 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI] = 1.18 to 2.16, p = .003). These results suggest that physical inactivity stimuli might require high response inhibition. This study lends support for the hypothesis that an attraction to effort minimization might affect inhibitory processes in the presence of stimuli related to this minimization. The study pre-registration form can be found at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RKYHB

Measurement of Motivation States for Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior: Development and Validation of the CRAVE Scale

“…As modern humans rarely need to move to accomplish these primordial objectives, the desire to move would likely be minimal. Moreover, one could point out that exercise is fatiguing, painful and possibly feels punishing, thus not reinforcing ( Williams and Bohlen, 2019 ), some individuals clearly do not enjoy exercise or physical activity ( Chinn et al, 2006 ), humans are possibly “hard-wired” to be sedentary ( Cheval et al, 2018 , 2020 ), and a large portion of the population is, indeed, inactive ( Cheval and Boisgontier, 2021 ). All of these phenomena likely developed in response to the human need to avoid a negative energy balance.…”

Inhibitory control elicited by physical activity and inactivity stimuli: an EEG study

“…Besides epidemiological studies, experimental research has been conducted to examine people's spontaneous reactions toward visual stimuli depicting physical activity and physical inactivity, as these automatic reactions have been thought to explain people's engagement in physical activity Conroy et al, 2010;Moffitt et al, 2019;Rebar et al, 2015). These experimental data suggest cognitive resources are important for avoiding physical inactivity stimuli (Cheval, Daou, et al, 2020;Cheval, Tipura, et al, 2018). For example, individuals exhibited greater brain activity associated with conflict monitoring and inhibitory control when avoiding physical inactivity stimuli, compared to physical activity stimuli in an approach-avoidance task (Cheval, Tipura, et al, 2018).…”

“…For example, individuals exhibited greater brain activity associated with conflict monitoring and inhibitory control when avoiding physical inactivity stimuli, compared to physical activity stimuli in an approach-avoidance task (Cheval, Tipura, et al, 2018). Similarly, to more accurately assess response inhibition, Cheval, Daou, et al (2020) had participants complete a go/no-go task wherein they were asked to avoid making a button-press response on trials with physical inactivity images (no-go trials) and to respond on trials with physical activity images (go trials) in an inhibit physical inactivity condition. Participants were asked to do the opposite in an inhibit physical activity condition.…”

“…The aim of the present study was to assess the neural mechanisms underlying the greater difficulty in withholding responses to physical inactivity stimuli compared with physical activity stimuli. Healthy young individuals completed a go/no-go task presenting physical activity and inactivity stimuli and a control condition presenting neutral stimuli (Cheval, Daou, et al, 2020).…”

Measurement of motivation states for physical activity and sedentary behavior: Development and validation of the CRAVE scale

“…As modern humans rarely need to move to accomplish these things, the desire to move would likely be minimal. Moreover, one could point out that exercise is fatiguing, painful and possibly feels punishing, thus not reinforcing (54), some individuals clearly do not enjoy exercise or physical activity (154), humans are “hard-wired” to be sedentary (155, 156), and a large portion of the population is, indeed, inactive (91). All of these phenomena likely developed in response to the human need to avoid a negative energy balance.…”