Study: Many people are not comfortable alone with their thoughts

How far would you go to avoid being alone with your thoughts?

People vastly prefer passive activities like reading or listening to music over spending just a few minutes by themselves. Being alone with no distractions was so distasteful to two-thirds of men and a quarter of women that they elected to give themselves mild electric shocks rather than sit quietly in a room with nothing but thoughts in their heads, according to a study from the University of Virginia.

While the ability to mentally detach is unique to humans, it’s not often done, the researchers said. In a hyperconnected world, Department of Labor data show 83 percent of Americans don’t spend any part of their day just thinking. The series of11experiments detailed in the journal Science show the extent people will go to avoid the experience.

“Our intuition was that this shouldn’t be so hard,” said Timothy Wilson, the lead researcher and a psychologist at the University of Virginia. “We kept being surprised by our own results. A few people did enjoy it, but for most, not so much.”

Researchers initially asked a group of 146 college students to sit in a room without books, cellphones or any distractions and provided these simple instructions: Stay in your seat, stay awake and entertain yourself with your own thoughts for six to 15 minutes.

It was harder than they expected. Most students reported that their minds wandered. Also, they were bored. A follow-up effort found similar results when students were asked to go through the same steps in a quiet room at home. They were even less likely to enjoy the experience. One-third cheated by listening to music, playing on a mobile phone or moving around.

“The mind evolved to solve problems in the world, to look for dangers and opportunities to engage,” Wilson said. “If everything is turned off from the external world, it’s hard for people to direct their thoughts for any length of time.”

While most of the work was done with students, the researchers recruited participants from a church and a farmers market to test the theory in older people. The results didn’t differ. There was no evidence that any group, based on age, education, income or social media usage, was more likely to appreciate time spent in reflection.

“Our intuition was that this shouldn’t be so hard.”