Why humans respect hard work regardless of results

Dr. Azim Shariff Have you ever had a co-worker make a big show of how hard they work-even though they don't get great results? They do this because people attach moral value to hard work, something Dr. Azim Shariff calls "effort moralization. Dr. Shariff, Canada 150 Research Chair and social psychologist in UBC's department of psychology, investigates how our often-ancient moral intuitions shape and respond to cultural institutions and technologies in the modern world. In a TED Talk released today, he discusses our tendency to value displays of effort and the impact that has on society. Your research shows people attach moral worth to hard work, regardless of what the work produces. Why do we see mere effort as moral?. Because human life depends so much on cooperation with other people, we are constantly sizing up who are likely to make good cooperation partners. Any quality likely to make someone a better cooperation partner is seen as a moral quality.