Learned industriousness as a translational mechanism in anorexia nervosa

Abstract

It remains unexplained why some behaviours persist despite being non-hedonic and ostensibly aversive. This phenomenon is especially baffling when such behaviours are taken to excess in the form of psychopathology. Anorexia nervosa is one psychiatric disorder in which effortful behaviours that most people find unpleasant (such as restrictive eating) are persistently performed. We propose that the social psychology theory of learned industriousness provides a novel mechanistic account for such phenomena. This theory posits that high-effort behaviour can be conditioned to acquire secondary reinforcing properties through repeated pairing with reward. Accordingly, effort sensations become less aversive and more appetitive, increasing willingness to engage in effortful behaviour. In this Perspective, we review pre-clinical behavioural and biological data that support learned industriousness, contrast learned industriousness with other models of non-hedonic persistence (such as habit learning), highlight evidence that supports learned industriousness in individuals with anorexia nervosa and consider implications of the model, including translation to other psychiatric presentations. Individuals with anorexia nervosa persistently exert effortful behaviour such as restrictive eating that most individuals find aversive. In this Perspective, Haynos et al. propose a novel mechanistic account for why such behaviours persist from the social psychology theory of learned industriousness.