Procrastination is puzzling. Why, after
6 million years of evolution, do modern day humans have the tendency to put off
work and watch just one more episode of How I Met Your Mother?
It turns out that humans
procrastinate because we evolved from a much less developed species of ape.
Throughout our evolution, our brains have gotten more and more complex, as
regions responsible for the most complicated thinking have developed. However,
the core of our brain, the part responsible for the most basic needs and feelings,
has barely changed at all. It is this primitive part of our heads that results
in our amazing ability to put off any assignment for weeks on end.
In his TEDx Talk, Vik Nithy explains
the conflict between the more developed part of our brain, the prefrontal
cortex, and the more primitive limbic system. The prefrontal cortex tells us
that we need to work to be successful. The limbic system however, is home
to the amygdala. The amygdala is responsible for all of our fear and anxiety.
While it may have originally been intended to protect our ancestors from danger
in the wild, the amygdala now tells our brain to freak out whenever we get
assigned an important essay. In the wild, the amygdala had to shut down
all other parts of our brain so our body could concentrate on the danger at
hand. Today, the amygdala has the unhelpful tendency to shut down our critical
thinking whenever we are tasked with studying for midterms.
Psychologists also credit
procrastination to an annoying little thing called temporal discounting. The
farther away the reward, the less importance it has in our brain. Watching one
more YouTube video now is more rewarding to our primitive brains than doing
well on a test two weeks in the future. Of course, this all changes the night
before the test.
Our brain’s system of reward doesn’t
help either. Dopamine is released in our brain whenever we do something
enjoyable. This could be getting a good term grade, but more often than not it
is playing video games or hanging out with friends. Our ape brains give more
priority to the constant dopamine received from relaxing on our phones than the
one time dopamine high gained from getting things done for a change.
In conclusion, if you ever feel bad
at yourself for failing to get something done on time, turn on a video game and blame evolution.
Moffit,
Mitchell, and Gregory Brown. "The Science of Procrastination - And How To
Manage It." YouTube. YouTube, 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Dec.
2013.
Nithy,
Vik. "Why We Procrastinate by Vik Nithy @ TEDxYouth@TheScotsCollege."YouTube.
YouTube, 13 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Schachner,
Emma. "How Has the Human Brain Evolved?: Scientific American." How
Has the Human Brain Evolved?: Scientific American. Scientific American, 13
July 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.
Thanks Will for this well-researched informative post about procrastination. I never, in a million years, would have linked procrastination to evolution. The theory of "temporal discounting" seems more plausible to me. Of course, I have conducted no research to back that up. I don't exactly see the connection between the evolutionary importance of fear and anxiety and procrastination.
ReplyDeleteTwo technical observations for you. First, you write that humans have evolved from "a much less developed species of ape." This means that some species of ape were more and less developed than others, and that we evolved from the lesser developed species. Is this what you meant? Or did you simply mean that we evolved from a less developed species, in general? Also, as a general rule, never use any conjugation of the verb "to get" unless you are using it in its correct context, which is "to acquire." I would avoid the usage "have gotten more and more complex."