The procrastination It is the habit of putting off things we should do, getting bogged down in less important tasks or even deliberately spending our time on things that we force ourselves to believe are more urgent.
But this defect is not only found in human beings, but other animals.
Procrastinating pigeons
James Mazur, Harvard-trained psychologist, has managed to indirectly demonstrate procrastination in animals, specifically in pigeons: he trained a group of them for two different work schedules and gave them the possibility of choosing the one they preferred.
Both had a candy as a reward after the same deadline, but the first one started with a little work and came after a long delay, while the second one started with a long delay and ended with much more work (up to four times more).
Basically, the pigeons had to choose between working a little first, then resting, or taking it easy first, and then face harder work.
We already know what most of us would do, but curiously the pigeons also opted for the same strategy, as explained Piers Steel in his book Procrastination:
They postponed the afternoon despite the fact that much more arduous work awaited them to obtain the reward in the end. (…) The birds leave it until later and even the chimpanzees at the zoo leave it until later.
When it comes to procrastinating, then, almost all animals are cut from the same cloth.
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The news
Animals can also procrastinate just like humans do.
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.