What is The Labor Illusion?
Some apps intentionally add fake loading screens or 'calculating' delays. People tend to trust and value results more when the computer appears to be working hard on their behalf, even if the actual calculation took milliseconds.
Where it comes from
Buell & Norton, Harvard Business School (2011)
How it hooks you
Exploits effort heuristics: visible labor reads as value, even when the labor is simulated.
What the research shows
Buell and Norton found users prefer sites that show visible 'work' during a wait over instant results, and rate those results as more valuable.
Source: Buell & Norton, 'The Labor Illusion', Management Science (2011)
How to resist it
Remember that the visible 'work' is an animation. Judge the result on its own merits, not on how long it seemed to take.