14 DAY TRIAL // Most people take working for granted. They find that getting a job is something that comes natural, and admit that they would otherwise be bored out of their skulls. This mentality may be deeply rooted in the fact that our species appears to literally hate being idle, and doing nothing, experts say. A group of scientists argues in a new study that many individuals engage in a host of actions simply because they are bored. This happens as long as these people can find some sort of justification for whatever they are doing.
Most of the time, these reason to not have any sort of objective relevance, but, on the other hand, people are known for their ability to deceive themselves. Doing meaningless tasks for extended periods of time is something that we are very good at. But, oddly enough, humans are not terribly good at working if they are not given a strong reason to do so. In other words, we can do a lot of things if conditioned by our own will, but suddenly become reluctant to working when this is asked of us for no reason. Whenever we feel that doing something is a waste of time, we remain idle, even if we would otherwise get bored by doing so.
“In their strife for survival, human ancestors had to conserve energy to compete for scarce resources; expending energy without purpose could have jeopardized survival,” the investigations team argues, in a paper published in the July issue of the esteemed scientific journal Psychological Science. The scientists add that they noticed a very peculiar correlation between happiness and work. In the case of test subjects that chose to remain idle rather than working, happiness levels were lower than in individuals who kept themselves busy.
The team believes that our adversity towards idleness should be harnessed by authorities, even for no particular reason. “Governments may increase the happiness of idle citizens by having them build bridges that are actually useless. Airports have tried to increase the happiness (or reduce the unhappiness) of passengers waiting at the baggage carousel by increasing the distance between the gate and the baggage claim area, forcing them to walk far rather than wait idly,” the experts conclude, quoted by LiveScience.