ANATOLY IVANOV / PROSE / 2019-12-10

PEOPLE PREFER TO DO SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING, EVEN IF IT’S PAINFUL

by Anatoly IVANOV

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / OUTSIDE NEWS

A team at the University of Virginia’s Department of Psychology meta-analysed 11 studies, and

“found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts.

Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative.”

ADD YOUR COMMENT

ABOUT ANATOLY IVANOV / PROSE

Find out more about my posting and comments policy, as well as publishing frequency and copyright issues.

TIP: To print images, enable “Print backgrounds” in your browser preferences.