Health. Do you often procrastinate? We explain why.

Procrastination is the act of postponing the execution of a task or a decision, for example, until the next day. Often, this is done while keeping in mind the potentially negative consequences of this postponement, not only for ourselves but also for those around us.

There would thus be an element of irrationality in procrastination. Even though the scientific literature appears incomplete on this subject, some authors have managed to identify underlying psychological reasons.

Such as stress, as highlighted by British psychologist Fuschia Sirois (Durham University), according to whom, " from the point of view of mood regulation, stressful contexts necessarily increase the risk of procrastination ".

Indeed, in his view, " they deplete coping resources and lower the threshold of tolerance for negative emotions ." As a result, in such contexts, the risk of procrastination increases because it constitutes " a low-cost way of avoiding new negative and difficult emotions ."

Self-protection

At Princetown University (England), there is a particular interest in student procrastination… “ It is often a self-protection strategy for the young people in question ,” report its representatives.

“ For example, procrastinating allows you to always have the excuse of ‘lack of time’ in case of failure, which preserves confidence in your own abilities .” This observation relates to the notion of stress, also through the idea, in a way, of “ avoiding work in order to… avoid being judged on our skills .”

Who are the procrastinators?

In 2022, an Inserm team delved into the brains of procrastinators during a study conducted with 51 participants. They underwent several tests during which their brain activity was measured by MRI. They had to assign a subjective rating to rewards and to efforts required.

Did they prefer a small immediate reward or a larger reward later? To make a small effort right away or a larger effort later? " Imaging data revealed the activation at the time of decision-making of a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex. This region is responsible for performing a cost-benefit calculation by integrating the costs (efforts) and benefits (rewards) associated with each option," notes Inserm.

Regarding procrastination specifically, the participants underwent two tests. In the first, they had to decide either to make an effort on the same day to be rewarded, or to make an effort the next day and wait until then to obtain the reward.

In the second phase, back home, they had to fill out several rather tedious forms and return them within a month to be compensated for their participation in the study. The results, taken together, allowed the scientists to develop a mathematical model for decision-making.

"Procrastination could be specifically linked to the impact of delay on the evaluation of tasks requiring effort. More precisely, it can be explained by the tendency of our brain to count costs faster than rewards," explains Mathias Pessiglione, a researcher at Inserm .

Using test results and brain imaging, researchers were able to establish a procrastination profile for each participant with their model. This profile took into account their attraction to rewards, their aversion to effort, and their tendency to downplay benefits and costs over time. The model proved capable of predicting how long it would take each participant to return the completed form!