Abstract

In his new book Propelled: How Boredom, Frustration, and Anticipation Lead Us to the Good Life (2020), Elpidorou oversimplifies the behavioral data on unexpected outcomes, and, as a result, has a more expansive view of “frustration” than should be allowed. I argue that in order to understand the basis of human motivation, we need to distinguish between non-rewards and punishments. Humans are highly motivated by what they perceive as an unexpected non-reward, but they are not by what they experience as an aversive punishment. And it is aversive punishments that we find frustrating; in contrast, we find unexpected non-rewards invigorating.