14 DAY TRIAL // A new study carried out by two Harvard University psychologists, found that most people spend almost half of their waking time thinking of what is not going on around them, and this is actually making them miserable.
Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University, conducted a study based on an iPhone web application, that allowed gathering 250,000 data points on 2,250 subjects' thoughts, feelings, and actions as they went about their lives.
The volunteers were contacted at random intervals and asked how happy they were, what they were currently doing, and whether they were thinking about their current activity or about something else that was pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant.
They reported spending 46.9% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they were doing, and this mind-wandering actually made them unhappy.
Killingsworth and Gilbert said that “a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.
“The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”
Humans are the only animals that spend a lot of time thinking of past events, of things that might happen in the future or may never occur at all.
The volunteers that took part at this study were aged from 18 to 88 years, were representative for a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and occupations, and 74% of them were American.
When asked about what they were doing, they could choose from a list of 22 general activities, like walking, eating, watching TV or shopping.
The respondents had their minds wandering 46.9% of the time, and no less than 30% of the time during every activity, except making love.
Killingsworth, who is a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, said that “mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities.
“This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present.”
The two psychologists found that people were happiest when making love, exercising, or having a conversation, and the least happy when working, resting or using a home computer.
“Mind-wandering is an excellent predictor of people's happiness,” said Killingsworth.
“In fact, how often our minds leave the present and where they tend to go is a better predictor of our happiness than the activities in which we are engaged.”
What they also found was that mind wandering was not a consequence of being unhappy, but the cause of it.
“Many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering and to 'be here now,'” Killingsworth and Gilbert wrote in their paper appearing in the journal Science.
“These traditions suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” and this study confirms it.
The web app the researchers have developed to study happiness can be found at www.trackyourhappiness.org.