Study: Deep Thinking Causes Stress

A new review of previous research conducted by researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands has shown that feeling mentally exhausted when facing complicated mathematical problems, or when making difficult decisions is not just a passing sensation, but can be a cause of stress. Students and employees are often encouraged to exert mental effort, which gives the impression that they enjoy deep thinking. However, results suggest that this conclusion is incorrect, as people generally do not like mental effort, Psychologist Erik Bijleveld said. Bijleveld pointed out that these results are important for engineers and teachers when designing educational tools and tasks, stressing that the human mind tends to consider mental effort an uncomfortable experience. The researchers based their study on analyzing 170 previous studies that included 4,670 participants and conducted 358 cognitive tests. The results showed a strong link between increased mental effort and increased negative feelings such as frustra tion, stress, and anxiety. It was also noted that this relationship exists across different age and professional groups, from students to military personnel. Source: Qatar News Agency