14 DAY TRIAL // In a paper published in the journal Science this July 3, psychologists argue that, according to a recent investigation, most people in this day and age would pick physical pain over spending be it only a few minutes alone with their thoughts.
More precisely, it appears that, if made to choose, too many folks would prefer giving themselves mild electric shocks to taking some time to ponder on what the tiny wheels inside their heads have been up to lately.
This claim is based on information obtained while carrying out a series of experiments with the help of both male and female volunteers who were all undergraduate students at the time the investigation was conducted.
During one of these experiments, the volunteers were left alone in one room, with no gadgets or gizmos that they could have used to distract themselves. 67% of the male and 25% of the female volunteers ended up electrocuting themselves voluntarily just to have something to do.
What's more, the psychologists behind this research project say that, when simply left alone in a room and not given the opportunity to shock themselves out of boredom, about 50% of the 409 volunteers who took part in these experiments admitted to not liking the experience.
Malia Mason, psychologist currently working with Columbia University in New York, US argues that the outcome of this investigation only goes to show that too many people are not at ease with their own thoughts and can't control them all that well either.
“We lack a comfort in just being alone with our thoughts. We’re constantly looking to the external world for some sort of entertainment,” the Columbia University psychologist explained in a statement, as cited by Nature.