People would rather be electrically shocked than left alone with their thoughts | Science | AAAS
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/07/people-would-rather-be-electrically-shocked-left-alone-their-thoughts
# People would rather be electrically shocked than left alone with their thoughts
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A notable quote from an independent researcher:
> “When people are spending time inside their heads, they're markedly less happy.”
People simply do not like to think. Indeed, I think, most of the time we are running on an autopilot and like to keep it that way.
Reminds me of a good quote:
> “I suppose that you seldom think. Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.”
> -- [George Bernard Shaw](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/20/shaw-think/)
Well, as an elitist, I like to tell myself that I better my fellow humans by trying hard to think somewhere between two or three times a year and a few times a week.
The article does not say what kind of thinking people were asked to engage in. I observe myself thinking at least about 2 kinds of topics:
1. myself, that is primarily my emotions and whatever raises them; and
2. external world, stuff I need to sort out with for others, etc.
Now, I would claim that thinking about oneself typically leads to [rumination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumination_(psychology)) and as such is most of the time unproductive (although I admit, deeply satisfying sometimes).
Dealing with the external world, on the other hand, for me at least, leads to manipulation of external facts. Now either you don't mind having "your own facts", or you deeply care for what is true outside (as much as you can establish what it even means and approximate it).
And here we come to why it might be so difficult to think "on command", or "just like that". Personally, I think when I speak, or when I write. That is, when I can engage an _external memory_. Because to manipulate external facts I need to keep track of them and the thinking, in my case at least, is about _structuring_ them, _connecting the dots_ between them, _backtracking_ and so on. That is, massageing thoughts until something useful comes out (a solution to a problem I have).
But we also know that human short term memory is limited to somewhere [between 5 and 9 things](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory#Capacity). When I sleep badly, even less.
So no wonder I find it hard to think without speaking to somebody or writing things down.
_I think, when I express myself._ And that’s one of the reasons for signing up to this space - I am looking to get a cheap and easy way to express tidbits of information I want to think about.
🇳🇱
@FailForward I saw this study a while back, the conclusions seem highly dubious to me.. all they know is a person shocked themselves when left alone in a room. There is no reason to think that it was because they didnt want to be left alone with their thoughts.
I love being left alone with my thoughts, I look forward to it. I love the time before bed because i get to lie in bed and think of all the cool things i didnt have time to think about when awake. So much so I have trouble sleeping.
Despite this as a child and even as an adult I loved taking apart those electric lighters with the shocking igniter in it. I'd play with it, shocking myself repeatedly watching the sparks fly. I suspect the shock they used in the study was of a similar nature. I see no real reason to draw the conclusion they did from the observed behavior though.
@freemo Thanks for your thoughts.
First, the full report is [here](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6192/75.full).
The full text seems a careful craft to me, though I have no formal training in psychology. In the end, this was published in AAAS Science journal, so no surprise there.
There are few notable observations to extract:
1. the main objective was to investigate the following questions: i) _Do people choose to put themselves in default mode by disengaging from the external world?_ and 2) _And when they are in this mode, is it a pleasing experience?_
2. Their main conclusions is this: **_Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative._**
3. they cite several studies supporting their similar conclusions to theirs
4. there is a series of experiments culminating with the one with electro-shocks. That seems to just a final fancy twist, but their conclusions are supported well by the previous experiments already.
Personally, I can relate well to the main conclusion of the paper. Just recall observing people waiting for something, be it in a hospital or in public transport. Today, listening to music, or mindless clicking into a smartphone (reading news, tweets, toots, whatever) seems to be the major activity of most under 50 years old in such contexts. But even before the age of smartphones, in 90's it was hard to observe people calmly thinking while waiting. Most people would fidget with something, read, kick into a wall, do whatever just to _kill the time_ (up to a threshold where they would feel embarrassed which would push them into some "normal staring into a nearby wall" for a while before restarting the fidgeting, etc.). Indeed, there are folks one can observe who engage in calm observation of the world and thinking (probably), but when I look around, it's a small minority.
And me personally? As I wrote in the parent piece, I tend to find myself running in circles and ruminating (as they also mention in the article). When I have stuff to deeply think about, when left to my own devices I typically end up frustrated when I do not have a piece of paper to jot down my thoughts, because after a short while I feel like I am not making progress (difficult to keep my whole context in my short memory). The only time I find enjoyable "just thinking" is when I go for a walk and let my mind "wander around". But that is not much thinking, right? Perhaps "entertaining some random thoughts" (maybe it's rather a kind of "meditation" than thinking) would better describe what I do at those times.
@FailForward Fair. sorry i dont have the mental capacity to put into a proper response right now. Super busy and very little energy left.