Psychological Science 2015, Vol. 26(9) 1423–1429 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0956797615589585 pss.sagepub.com Research Article People typically value objects because of their intrinsic properties (e.g., functionality, beauty). However, attribu- tions of value are also affected by the personal effort invested in obtaining objects (Bloom, 2010; Higgins, 2007). Such effects occur primarily in two types of situa- tions, each encompassing different patterns of effort- reward relations (Aronson, 1969; Higgins, 2006). When effort leads to the attainment of a desirable reward (a consonant relation), the effort is aligned with the moti- vational incentive to attain the reward, and eventually leads people to appreciate the reward more than if it had been attained effortlessly (Higgins, 2006; Higgins & Scholer, 2009; Labroo & Kim, 2009). The second, more intriguing situation, is one in which the investment of effort leads to the attainment of undesirable rewards. This creates a dissonance between the effort invested and the reward attained, a dissonance that has been elaborated on by Festinger (1957), in general, and Aronson and Mills (1959), specifically, in the realm of “effort justification.” The goal of the present studies was twofold: first, to assess the development of effort-based object valuations, evident in consonant situations, and second, to shed light on possible mechanisms underly- ing dissonance reduction. In Aronson and Mills’s (1959) classic effort-justification paradigm, participants underwent a severe, mild, or no- initiation procedure in order to join an unexpectedly dull discussion group. The main finding was that the partici- pants who reported most enjoying the discussion were ones who had undergone the severe initiation. Following cognitive-dissonance theory, this was interpreted in terms of the presumed psychological discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions and behaviors, and the consequent motivation to reduce the discomfort by any available means. Specifically, participants who under- went the severe initiation likely were the most compelled to justify their seemingly unreasonable effort by boosting the value of the dull “reward” post hoc. 589585PSS XX X 10.1177/0956797615589585Benozio, DiesendruckFrom Effort to Value research-article 2015 Corresponding Author: Avi Benozio, Department of Psychology and Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel E-mail: avi.benozio@gmail.com From Effort to Value: Preschool Children’s Alternative to Effort Justification Avi Benozio and Gil Diesendruck Department of Psychology and Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University Abstract In the current studies, we addressed the development of effort-based object valuation. Four- and 6-year-olds invested either great or little effort in order to obtain attractive or unattractive rewards. Children were allowed to allocate these rewards to an unfamiliar recipient (dictator game). Investing great effort to obtain attractive rewards (a consonant situation) led 6-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, to enhance the value of the rewards and thus distribute fewer of them to others. After investing effort to attain unattractive rewards (a dissonant situation), 6-year-olds cognitively reduced the dissonance between effort and reward quality by reappraising the value of the rewards and thus distributing fewer of them. In contrast, 4-year-olds reduced the dissonance behaviorally by discarding the rewards. These findings provide evidence for the emergence of an effort-value link and underline possible mechanisms underlying the primacy of cognitive versus behavioral solutions to dissonance reduction. Keywords cognitive development, decision making, rewards, judgment, avoidance Received 9/27/14; Revision accepted 5/12/15