Sit in a room with no phone, no book and no task, for somewhere between six and fifteen minutes, and think. It is the easiest instruction anybody will ever give you, and it might even be pleasant. Across , people kept rating it below every dull alternative on offer. How far below?
Far enough to hurt. Participants typically did not enjoy the time alone, they enjoyed much more, and many of them preferred to administer to themselves rather than be left with their thoughts. Most people, the authors conclude, would rather be doing something than nothing, even when the something is bad.
The instruction could hardly be lighter. Sit in a room by yourself for six to fifteen minutes with but think. No phone, no book, no task, no conversation.
Across eleven studies, participants typically did not enjoy it. They rated mundane external activities as much more enjoyable, which means the thinking period lost not to pleasure but to ordinary dullness, and it lost consistently.
In the version everybody remembers, participants could give themselves a mild electric shock they had already felt once, and many of them did rather than continue sitting with their thoughts. Some of those same people had said beforehand that they would pay money to avoid feeling it again.
The authors read it as a preference for doing over not doing, even when the doing is negative. The limits are worth keeping in view, since these are brief laboratory sessions and a familiar mild shock is not real pain. Within those limits, an empty mind is worse company than a jolt.
wat. Given a room, a chair and their own thoughts, many people reached for the shock button instead.
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A mind with nothing to occupy it turns out to be unpleasant company, which says something about how much of our day is spent making sure that never happens.
How do we know?
Wilson and colleagues ran eleven studies in which people spent six to fifteen minutes alone with nothing to do and rated the experience. Some versions offered a mild shock they had already felt once.
What is still unknown
These are short sessions in a laboratory room, and preferring a familiar mild shock over boredom is not the same as wanting pain.
Learn something?
Where to next
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