Based on a new study, people do not like to be quiet with their thoughts and many would even choose to be in pain than to be lost in their own thoughts.
Researchers found that people would rather be shocked electrically than spend time alone. The results show that people are uncomfortable with their thoughts.
"I was surprised that people find themselves such bad company," University of California, Santa Barbara psychology professor Jonathan Schooler said. "It seems that the average person doesn't seem to be capable of generating a sufficiently interesting train of thought to prevent them from being miserable with themselves."
The team carried out 11 experiments with various groups and different situations. Most situations had the participants tasked with thinking and relaxing for about six to 15 minutes with no book, phone or any other form of entertainment. They were later asked to rate how they found the experience.
One experiment had subjects between 18 and 77 years old from a market and a church. The researchers found that no matter the age, income, education, gender or use of social media and mobile phone, people were generally bored to be alone. Previous study [pdf] showed that people were unhappy when their attention wandered because it was inconvenient to be distracted.
The researchers tried to help the participants by allowing them to plan what to think about during their alone time such as an upcoming vacation or a celebrity crush but still, the subjects did not enjoy their quiet time. The group of subjects who were observed while at home mostly admitted to cheating by reading or checking their phones. Most of them also reported that the time they spent thinking was unpleasant.
In the following experiment, the subjects were given a mild electric shock much like a static electricity jolt. It was very unpleasant that three fourths of the participants said they would gladly pay so they would not experience the electric shock again. However, when they were alone in the room just thinking, 67 percent of the men and 25 percent of the women subjects said they were willing to do something that they voluntarily shocked themselves. One man shocked himself 190 times but the average is around seven shocks.
The findings show that men need more stimulation than women and they mindfulness training is important to them in making boring times more manageable.
