Have you ever spent 15 minutes just sitting down, idle, slowing down your jumbled thoughts? How was it?
Well, some (or most) people really don't like to be alone with their thoughts. In fact, people taking part in one new study by Timothy Wilson, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, chose to receive an electric shock rather than spend 15 minutes alone in a room with nothing to do.
The brains of mammals evolved over generations to watch for dangers and opportunities. Only humans minds' evolved the ability to think about thinking. Still, people are uncomfortable controlling their own thoughts, which might explain the popularity of meditation, a process in which one thinks deeply or focuses on one's mind for a period of time.
For the study that was mentioned before, Wilson's group recruited 146 college students. The researchers asked each student to sit alone in a room without any devices or distractions for anywhere between 6 to 15 minutes. Most participants said they had trouble concentrating, and also found the experience unpleasant.
The researchers then asked 44 of these people to sit alone at home, too. Again, the results showed that they found the experience very uncomfortable. A few even said they had cheated. They listened to music or read instead of just thinking in silence.
Finally, the scientists asked 66 adults between the ages of 18 and 77 at a farmer's market or church to do the same thing. And like the students, these people reported finding it unpleasant to sit at home alone with their thoughts.
But here's the surprise: The scientists asked 18 men and 24 women to sit quietly and just think about anything for 15 minutes, the same test as before. But for this experiment, the participants could give themselves a (painful) electric shock as a distraction if they wished. The shock wouldn't even make their thinking time end any earlier. Still, twelve men and six women chose to receive a shock, rather than just continue to sit in peace.
Why is entertaining ourselves so hard...maybe subjects just couldn't decide what to think about? Nope. In several studies, some were offered topics to fantasize about (going on a beautiful hike, etc.), but that had no effect on difficulty or enjoyment.
Wilson leans towards the "scanner hypothesis": Mammals have evolved to watch for dangers and opportunities in their surroundings, so focusing on their inner thoughts is...somewhat unnatural. "It would be a little odd to see a chimpanzee posed like Rodin's thinker* for extended periods of time," he said.
To test the idea, Wilson and his collaborators gave some subjects just a bit of a distraction—a rubber band to play with. Compared to enjoyment in the regular thinking task, these alternatives had mixed results—sometimes they led to more enjoyment, sometimes less, sometimes the same amount.
Wilson did that there wasn't yet any strong evidence to prove the scanner hypothesis yet, but he's convinced he's correct. His team also hopes to see if practice makes the task easier. They did find a small relation between meditation experience and ability to just sit down and think.
As for me, I would never have thought of sitting idle for 15 minutes doing nothing. But for the sake of this article I tried it out and found the experience to be neither comfortable nor desirable.
