“I am a dreamer more than sad,” said Michel Houellebecq, who won the Goncourt 2010 (Le Figaro). But “I’m a dreamer so I’m sad,” looks more like most of us, according to a recent Harvard University study published in the journal Science.
People spend 46.9% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they do, and when their minds wander and they would be less happy, according to this study by researchers in psychology Matthew A. Killingsworth, Daniel T. Gilbert.
They used a Web application for iPhone to 2,250 people gather their thoughts, feelings and activities at different times of their days.
“A human mind is a wandering spirit, and spirit is a spirit that roams unfortunate,” they write. “The ability to reflect on what is not happening is something that is learned that an emotional cost,” they add.
“Humans, they say, spend a lot of time thinking about something other than what is happening around them: Seeing events in the past, events that could occur in the future, or perhaps be never happen. The mind that wanders seems to be the default mode of operation of the brain. ”
Killingsworth has developed an iPhone application which communicated with 2,250 participants at random intervals to seek their happiness level, what they were doing, and if they thought their current activity or something else that was pleasant, neutral or unpleasant.
On average, respondents reported 46.9% of the time that their minds wandered, and not less than 30% of the time during each activity, except make love.
“The mind wandering seems omnipresent in all activities,” says Killingsworth. “This study shows that mental life is marked, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present.”
People were happier when they made love, made the year or were in conversation. They were less happy when they were resting, working or using a computer at home.
“In fact, how the spirit leaves the present and in what direction will the thoughts predicted happiness better than the activities in which a person is hired,” said Killingsworth.
Only 4.6% of the happiness of a person at a particular time was due to the particular business in which it was committed, the researchers said, while guiding thoughts to contribute about 10.8%.
The time shift assays conducted by researchers suggest that the wandering of the mind is usually the cause, not consequence, of sadness.
