Many of the individual differences in cognition, motivation, and learning—and the disruption of these processes in neurological conditions—are influenced by genetic factors.
As much as half of a child's motivation to learn—or lack of motivation—may be driven by a genetic predisposition, according to an analysis involving more than 13,000 identical twins in six countries.
While some may have a rare gene that reduces one's will to be active, for others, laziness may be a learned response to the environment.
If you like to put things off or surf the internet instead of getting work done, you might be able to blame your ancestors. Procrastination and laziness are based in our genetics, and you can be predisposed to both, says Sharad Paul, MD, author of The Genetics Of Health: Understand Your Genes for Better Health.
The genetic heritability of procrastination
The best-known study on the topic found that almost half (46%) of the variance in procrastination can be attributed to genetic factors, as opposed to environmental ones.
Although there is no direct relationship between ADHD and procrastination, some of the symptoms of ADHD can lead an individual to procrastinate. Procrastination is not a symptom specific to ADHD. That said, people with ADHD do commonly experience it due to the other symptoms of the condition.
Procrastinators are made and not born. That's both the good news and the bad news. Good because it's a learned response, and what's learned can be unlearned. The bad news is that while it's possible to change, it takes a lot of intentional planning to transform this habit.
Science supports laziness
The data found that those with a high IQ got bored less easily, leading them to be less active and spend more time engaged in thought.
Is it such a bad thing to be lazy though? Perhaps not, as according to a study by scientists from Florida Gulf Coast University laziness could correlate with high intelligence. The study found that people with a high IQ rarely got bored. As a result, they spent more time lost in thought.
Women who carried a variant of the TH gene reported having less control over their actions and were more likely to be procrastinators. They were also genetically more likely to have higher dopamine levels.
Laziness is characterized by a diminished level of energy, activity, and motivation. On one hand, it is cited as a personality trait that explains the occurrence of distinct but related concepts like procrastination and idleness.
Apathy is when you lack motivation to do things or just don't care much about what's going on around you. Apathy can be a symptom of mental health problems, Parkinson's disease, or Alzheimer's disease. It often lasts a long time. You may lack the desire to do anything that involves thinking or your emotions.
These intricate neural circuits and structures are shaped by interactions between the experiences we have and the genes we are born with, which together influence both how our motivation systems develop and how they function later in life.
Finally, personality traits of conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion have been positively associated with intrinsic motivation. Conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism on the other hand have been positively related to extrinsic achievement motivation (Deckers, 2014).
Everyone experiences a lack of motivation at some point in their life. Whether you're having a hard time finding a sense of motivation to do your laundry or work on the business pitch you've been thinking of, we all get into slumps.
Research suggests that highly intelligent people get bored easily and spend more time thinking, behaviour that comes across as 'laziness'. A study by the Florida Gulf Coast University looked at a group of 'thinkers' and 'non-thinkers', studying their activity levels over the course of a week.
They can, but it's not just that. It's that IQ is a very noisy measure of all intellectual talents averaged together, and some people with unimpressive general IQs can still be extremely talented in particular fields. Even such a stereotypically intellectual pursuit as chess only correlates with IQ at 0.24.
They procrastinate a lot
Mahesh Garkoti says smart people are likely to procrastinate on quotidian tasks, mainly because they're working on things that are more important. That's an interesting proposition — but some scientists would say that smart people procrastinate even on work they find meaningful.
Research has shown that there is a high correlation between being intelligent and socially anxious. The higher your IQ, the higher the chance your social apprehension is higher than usual.
The Intersection of Arrogance and Intelligence
But they're often related. Being smart, bright and clever often leads to business success. But having these intellectual gifts also means that one gets used to being right, being perceived as a good problem-solver and being valued by others. And this leads to arrogance.
Studies show young people are more likely to procrastinate than older age groups. In fact, many people seem to outgrow procrastination as they mature. A 2016 study that analyzed procrastination in several different age groups found that procrastination was highest in 14-to-29-year-olds, the youngest age group studied.
We may delay and avoid because we don't feel we have the competence to do a task or make a decision. We feel that others will look down on us or we will upset them if we do poorly on a task. We want others to value us so we procrastinate because we don't believe we're "good enough" to achieve without losing face.
Working on trivial things instead of what you should be doing. Always having excuses for not doing things on time. Delaying taking action even after you decide what to do. Wasting time repeatedly and being unable to do anything about it.