In brief, the effort heuristic follows a tendency to judge objects that took a longer time to produce to be of higher value.
This is especially true in situations where value is difficult to assess or the evaluator lacks expertise in the appraisement of an item.
In the second experiment, non-experts and self-identified experts individually evaluated the quality of two paintings by Deborah Kleven: 12 Lines and Big Abstract.
In the third and final experiment, researchers asked participants to rate the quality of several images of medieval arms and armor presented on a computer screen.
Participants in this condition had less objective information upon which to make a judgment of quality, and thus were more likely to rely on the perceived effort invested by the blacksmith while evaluating.
Human behavior, like that of most other animals, is often driven by rewards and directed by the energetic cost of an action.
[2] At an early age, children learn that good performance due to high effort is valued by adults and that teachers are most likely to reward those who work hard.
Over half a century ago, social psychologist Leon Festinger developed the theory of cognitive dissonance.
People tend to put the most value on goals or items which have required considerable effort to achieve.
[3] This is probably because cognitive dissonance would arise if great effort is made to achieve something that is subsequently evaluated negatively.
Aronson and Mills conducted a study[7] where college students underwent a "severe" or a "mild" initiation to join a discussion group.
Daryl Bem (1965) proposed an alternative to the cognitive dissonance theory in explaining how attitudes are shaped.
However, studies have shown that self-perception is primarily at work when subjects do not have well-defined attitudes regarding the issue at hand.
[12] This resembles the need to justify one's efforts in accordance with the cognitive dissonance theory but there is evidence supporting that other factors may be at play.
[4] The study by Kruger et al. demonstrated that when evaluating an item, people have a tendency to judge objects that took a longer time to produce to be of higher value.