Primary Gain

Sometimes when a person gets stuck in a problem, it’s because having that problem gives that person some form of benefit. This effect causes a cognitive bias called primary gain, which can often influence a person’s decision making whilst also making it harder to get rid of that problem. And here’s the uncomfortable truth you need to hear right now: you might be getting something out of your problems that’s keeping you stuck.

Psychiatrists often use “primary gain” in medicine to explain some of the psychological motivators a person has regarding their illness behaviour, yet in its very simplest term, we can also think of primary gain in the following way: primary gain is something we do to gain pleasure and or to avoid pain.

That’s it. Simple as that. But don’t let the simplicity fool you, because this mechanism is behind some of the most intractable problems I see in my practice.

The Reward System

An easy example of primary gain might be staying in bed just because it feels better to stay there rather than getting up and doing something more constructive. Primary gain is the reward you receive from doing one thing or avoiding pain from not doing the other. It’s a very primitive behavioural trait, it’s part of our survival programming.

Skinner’s (1938) operant conditioning research demonstrated that behaviour followed by pleasant consequences tends to be repeated, while behaviour followed by unpleasant consequences tends not to be. This is basic learning theory, but it explains so much of why we stay stuck. If your problem is rewarding you somehow, you’re being conditioned to maintain it.

Often we can easily fall into reward-seeking and pain-avoidance behaviour without even noticing we are doing it, and it’s not too hard to see how it can lead to unhelpful habits.

The Comfort of Problems

The first thing you can do to help yourself when you notice you are affected by primary gain is to notice it is happening. Then you can consciously make an effort to change your behaviour until better habits develop. But here’s where it gets tricky: sometimes you don’t want to notice it, because noticing it means admitting you’re complicit in your own suffering.

However, the real problem arises when the primary gain of having a problem means it’s less painful to stay in your problem rather than facing the hardship of doing something about it. Quick, easy rewards are sometimes all too tempting in the short term, whilst long-term benefits can be too distant to make you want to put the effort in, and in the end, and in most cases, you never do.

Ainslie’s (1975) research on hyperbolic discounting explains why we systematically prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. A small pleasure now feels more valuable than a large pleasure later, even when rationally we know the delayed option is better. Your brain is wired to grab the immediate reward, and staying in your problem often provides immediate comfort even as it undermines your future.

Perhaps there is something in your life that you are getting a reward from doing. Is there something in your life that you are getting a reward from not doing? Is there something that is giving you short-term reward but could be making that problem worse in the long run?

Common Forms of Primary Gain

Let me give you some real examples from my practice, because understanding how primary gain actually operates in real life is crucial to recognising it in yourself.

The employee who complains constantly about their job but never looks for a new one, because the complaining gives them connection with colleagues and an excuse for any failures. The difficult job provides more psychological rewards than they’re willing to admit.

The person in a difficult relationship who gets primary gain from the drama, the intensity, the ability to play victim or rescuer, the distraction from their own issues. A healthier relationship would require actual vulnerability and growth, which is scarier than the familiar difficulty.

Primary gain is one of the most common reasons why people stay trapped in their problems, and I see examples almost daily. Time and again, before a person can fully commit to change, they need to really look at what’s keeping them from changing, and often it’s the reward from the problem itself.

Further reading

• Skinner, B. F. (1938). The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis.
• Ainslie, G. (1975). Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control. Psychological Bulletin, 82(4), 463–496.
• Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders.
• Duhigg, C. (2012). The Power of Habit.
• Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits.