our Twitter (X) feedView our Youtube channelView our Instagram feedView our Substack feedView our Spotify feed Busying yourself with research often feels easier, safer, and more satisfying than taking action. Mind and BehaviorEmotional IntelligenceMotivationBehavioral PsychologyAnalytical Thinking I recently had coffee with a university colleague who told me she was in the middle of planning a workshop. She had bought a couple of books about hosting workshops, had created a spreadsheet projecting attendance under different scenarios, and was now comparing ticketing platforms.
But she still hadn’t invited a single person. We talked about how none of that research was necessarily a waste of time. When you love learning, figuring out the best approach can be enjoyable in itself.
But every answer can produce another question, and before you know it, preparation has become the project. Worse, that endless research keeps you busy while the harder questions wait: Will anybody be interested? You could call this a problem of overthinking, but research points instead to several nuanced and overlapping tendencies that can make gathering information feel easier, safer, and more satisfying than taking action. **A better option could be hiding somewhere.** You might find a venue that suits your workshop and still spend another weekend looking because there might be an even better option out there.
Psychologists call this tendency to seek the best possible choice _maximizing_, and studies suggest that people higher in maximizing tendency explore more alternatives before selecting one. **Research feels like a respectable form of avoidance.** The task we’re avoiding may expose us to rejection, uncertainty, or embarrassment; reading about it does not. In that way, psychologists have argued that procrastination can serve as a form of short-term mood regulation, which is why we often find ourselves opening another tab instead of taking action. Four times a year, the Big Think print magazine shows up at your door.
Big ideas from the world's biggest thinkers. No feed required. **Thinking itself can feel rewarding.** Psychologists use the term _need for cognition_ to describe how much people enjoy sustained mental effort. People higher in this trait tend to put more effort into decisions and are less inclined to change their research approach under time pressure. **Without a clear sense of when to stop, it’s easy to keep looking.** Researchers found that participants with a stronger need for certainty spend longer gathering information, particularly when there is no clear rule for making a choice.
You might have studied many different ways to run workshops, without knowing what would make one preferable to the others. Reading more about each approach may give you a better understanding of your options without bringing you any closer to a decision. Taken together, these tendencies help explain why the research phase of a project can be so tempting to linger in.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
