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The floating duck syndrome: biased social learning leads to effort-reward imbalances

Author

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  • Akcay, Erol

    (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Ohashi, Ryotaro
Abstract
An increasingly common phenomenon in modern work and school settings is individuals taking on too many tasks and spending effort without commensurate rewards. Such an imbalance of efforts and rewards leads to myriad negative consequences, such as burnout, anxiety, and disease. Here, we develop a model to explain how such effort-reward imbalances can come about as a result of biased social learning dynamics. Our model is based on a phenomenon that on some US college campuses is called "the floating duck syndrome." This phrase refers to the social pressure on individuals to advertise their successes but hide the struggles and the effort put in to achieve them. We show that a bias against revealing the true effort results in social learning dynamics that lead others to underestimate the difficulty of the world. This in turn leads individuals to both invest too much total effort and spread this effort over too many activities, reducing the success rate from each activity and creating effort-reward imbalances. We also consider potential ways to counteract the floating duck effect: we find that solutions other than addressing the root cause, biased observation of effort, are unlikely to work.

Suggested Citation

  • Akcay, Erol & Ohashi, Ryotaro, 2023. "The floating duck syndrome: biased social learning leads to effort-reward imbalances," SocArXiv qx7ku, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qx7ku
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/qx7ku
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bing Han & David Hirshleifer & Johan Walden, 2023. "Visibility Bias in the Transmission of Consumption Beliefs and Undersaving," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1647-1704, June.
    2. David Hirshleifer & Joshua B. Plotkin, 2021. "Moonshots, investment booms, and selection bias in the transmission of cultural traits," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(26), pages 2015571118-, June.
    3. Fulya Ersoy, 2021. "Returns to effort: experimental evidence from an online language platform," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(3), pages 1047-1073, September.
    4. Rury, Derek & Carrell, Scott E., 2023. "Knowing what it takes: The effect of information about returns to studying on study effort and achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Erol Akçay & David Hirshleifer, 2021. "Social finance as cultural evolution, transmission bias, and market dynamics," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(26), pages 2015568118-, June.
    6. Ersoy, Fulya, 2023. "Effects of perceived productivity on study effort: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 376-391.
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