Mind-wandering may lead to unhappiness

  "A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind," Killingsworth and Gilbert wrote.

  A study, published in the journal Science this week, showed that mind-wandering may lead to a bad mood. 46.9 percent of peoples’ waking hours are spent in an absent-minded state, which can lead to feelings of frustration.

  The study was directed by psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University.  Killingsworth developed an iPhone website app to collect data regarding subjects’ thoughts, actions and feelings as they went about their lives.

  The 2,250 subjects in this study ranged in age from 18 to 88, representing a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and occupations. Seventy-four percent of them were American.

  "A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind," Killingsworth and Gilbert wrote, "The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost."

  Unlike animals, human beings spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on in their immediate surroundings, such as recalling what has happened in the past, imagining what will happen in the future, or pondering events that may not happen at all. In fact, mind-wandering appears to be the human brain's default mode of operation.

  In order to track this behavior, Killingsworth found an iPhone web app that contacted 2,250 volunteers at random intervals to ask what they were currently doing, how happy they were, and whether they were thinking about their current activity or about something else that was pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant.

  The subjects included general activities, for example, walking, running, shopping and watching TV, etc. The result showed that 46.9 percent of the volunteer’s time was mind-wandering; additionally, no less than 30 percent of each activity was performed absent-mindedly, except having sex.

  "Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities," says Killingsworth, "This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present."

  The study also showed that the happiest time was having sex, exercising, or engaging in conversation. By contrast, resting, working, or using a home computer were the least happy activities. Only 4.6 percent of a person’s happiness in a given time was attributed to what she or he was doing; however,a person’s mind-wandering stage caused 10.8 percent of his or her happiness.

  Time-lag analyses indicated that the subjects' mind-wandering was generally the cause, not the consequence, of their unhappiness.

  "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 note in Science. "These traditions suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind."

  This study seems like substantive proof of the tradition.

Stephen Lau and editing by Rachel Stockton