Thinking About Thinking: People Underestimate How Enjoyable and Engaging Just Waiting Is

The ability to engage in internal thoughts without external stimulation is a unique characteristic in humans. The current research tested the hypothesis that people metacognitively underestimate their capability to enjoy this process of "just thinking." Participants (university students; t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. General 2022-12, Vol.151 (12), p.3213-3229
Main Authors: Hatano, Aya, Ogulmus, Cansu, Shigemasu, Hiroaki, Murayama, Kou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cognitive psychology
Critical thinking
Emotional Intelligence
Female
Human
Internal Rewards
Intrinsic Motivation
Male
Metacognition
Pleasure
Prediction
Reward Learning
Stimulation
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Summary:The ability to engage in internal thoughts without external stimulation is a unique characteristic in humans. The current research tested the hypothesis that people metacognitively underestimate their capability to enjoy this process of "just thinking." Participants (university students; total N = 259) were asked to sit and wait in a quiet room without doing anything. Across six experiments, we consistently found that participants' predicted enjoyment and engagement for the waiting task were significantly less than what they actually experienced. This underappreciation of just thinking also led participants to proactively avoid the waiting task in favor of an alternative task (i.e., Internet news checking), despite their experiences not being statistically different. These results suggest an inherent difficulty in accurately appreciating how engaging just thinking can be, and could explain why people prefer keeping themselves busy, rather than taking a moment for reflection and imagination in our daily life.
ISSN:0096-3445
1939-2222
DOI:10.1037/xge0001255