The Zeigornik effect can be considered as a cognitive bias according to which people tend to remember the incomplete duties more and with those already finished. The unfinished activities generate a sort of mental tension that results in maintaining “active”; This is why our mind torments us until we complete them: conclude them means to relieve tension.
Do you know that annoying feeling you feel when the episode of your favorite series ends up on the most beautiful and don’t think about anything but to know how it will end? In narrative this expedient is called Cliffhanger, or suspended final: the plot intentionally stops in a moment of great suspense or twist, leaving the viewer waiting for the conclusion. It may also happen that you constantly think about a person because you have not been able to tell her everything you had in mind. Here, this is the Zeigornik effect and will keep you company insistently, until you complete the task.
The story of the Zeigornik effect
We are in the first half of the twentieth century: Bluma Zeigornik, a Lithuanian psychologist who was conducting studies on human memory, was at dinner in a very crowded restaurant. He realized that the waiters were able to keep in mind a disproportionate number of orders, even for a long time, until they were completely served; Once the dishes arrived on the dining table, the requests fell into the oblivion. Intrigued by this observation, he decided to carry out a simple experiment confirming his theory: he asked a group of students to carry out 20 consecutive activities (rebus, puzzle, manual activities, memory exercises …) some of which could be completed, others were suspended halfway by the examiner, in fact, interrupting the conclusion. When the request to remember the exercises they had carried out, the participants recalled the activities they had interrupted and not the finished ones most. The study therefore showed that when a task does not end, thought invades its memory (the activities completed, however, are more easily forgotten). Zeigornik hypothesized that incomplete activity creates a psychic tension that acts as a push to finish it and prevents the mind from concentrating on other cognitive processes. This “completion anxiety” feeds the detention in memory of the incomplete task.
Therefore, on the one hand we tend to remember more the activities or information not completed than those resolved; on the other, we tend to “close the circle” and end the incomplete as soon as possible to reduce that annoying level of tension.
How it works and what happens in our brain
When we start an activity, the brain sets in motion the dopaminergic circuits of the reward and motivation; These lead us to continue that activity to receive gratification to the end of the task. It appears intuitive, therefore, that until we complete the task, this motivational tension remains active as if it were an open file. If an interruption takes place, a sort of inconsistency is generated: the brain does not receive the gratification that was expected from the completion of the activity, does not release dopamine and consequently we feel dissatisfied. Thus, the prefrontal cortex holds the not concluded task by creating a brain “space” in the working memory and thus maintaining active thought on it. The amygdala and the hippocampus (which are part of the limbic system), contribute to strengthening its memory since information associated with a tension or an emotion has a mnemonic priority. Only when we close the task, does the brain reward us with the release of dopamine, giving us the feeling of relief and freeing space in the mind. This is why an activity left in the middle remains so vivid in memory and makes us feel that sense of dissatisfaction: the brain does not get rid of it until we have completed it.
On the one hand, the Zeigornik effect can be a powerful ally: it pushes us not to leave things in half, reminds us of what has remained outstanding and gives us the motivation necessary to complete our commitments. On the other, however, every task left unfinished remains in the working memory as an open window on the brain screen. Few windows are easy to manage but if they become too many, the attention is fragmented and disperses; In that case we feel submerged with “things to do”, we reduce our productivity and increase our level of stress.
The Zeigornik effect in daily life
The Zeigornik effect does not manifest itself only when we do not conclude a concrete action but accompanies us in daily life even when, to remain inconclusive, it is a thought or a mental process. Let’s see some examples:
- Television series: Well yes, how many times have you happened to not stop watching a television series because the episode ends up always on the most beautiful? It is called Cliffhanger, and it is a narrative technique used in films, books and TV series that consists in interrupting the story in a moment of great suspense or twist, leaving the public in a state of incomplete and waiting for the resolution (due to the Zeigarnik effect);
- Words on the tip of the language: when we cannot remember a term or a name, the mind does not give up and remains blocked on that information until it recovers it;
- Memory of names or faces: if we do not remember the name of “that actor” of the film we are seeing, we feel deeply annoyed and we do not give peace until we find it on Google;
- Relationships: If in a comparison with a person we cannot express everything we wanted, we remain to mull out on the sentences not almost obsessively; It is the same thing that can happen with a partner. When a story stops without there having been a defined closure, the mind recalls the image of that person and pushes us to think about it continuously as long as there is no feeling of having closed the circle. (Spoiler: often there is no objective and definitive closure: the real solution is not so much in receiving answers from the other, as in giving a personal sense to what has happened, accepting that some conversations will remain unfinished).
Strategies to face and overcome it
This mechanism is part of our cognitive functioning, consequently it is not possible to eliminate it completely; However, we can reduce at least the impact:
- Writing: Putting thoughts on white, lists of things to do or unsolved emotions, helps to download and free the working memory;
- Minimum objectives: immediately close the simple or quick tasks and divide the larger ones into small objectives, avoids accumulating too many “open files” and however ensures the feeling of having completed what we had set ourselves, however guaranteeing a gratification;
- Closing rituals: inventing a symbolic gesture (a letter not sent, a diary, a check mark on a list), can give the feeling of having concluded.
The Zeigornik effect reminds us that our mind is programmed to look for completeness: he wants to close circles, to complete what he has started, find meaning to experiences. It can motivate and make us more determined, but also transform into a bulky weight when we overload with unfinished tasks or thoughts. The real challenge lies in distinguishing what is worth concluding and what, however, we can learn to let go.
