Possibly just an innate impulse to have "a job" and optimize it? Sort of like how our predisposition towards traditionally scarce foods like sugar and fat lead to negative consequences when they're close to infinitely available.
That's a plausible direction, but what I'm looking for is then a detailed analysis of what constitutes job-ness.
Another possible line of inquiry is mastery. We're a tool-using species and we definitely have some disposition to skill acquisition and skill perfection.
A third would be something related to wealth acquisition. That idle games burst through the diminishing returns curve by continually upping the game, overriding a mechanism that keeps us from over-focusing.
And I'm sure there are more possibilities. Which is why I'd love to see an analysis of the game mechanisms, as I think it would narrow the hunt.
