The challenges of the disengaged mind

Social psychologist Timothy Wilson conducts the study placing volunteers in a room with nothing but a button. If pressed, they would receive an electric shock. After 15 minutes of sitting in an unfurnished completely empty room alone, 67 of males and 25 of females chose to willingly electrocute themselves over doing nothing. With some participants deciding to press the button multiple times. It is also worth pointing out that the volunteers had previously stated that they would be willing to pay money to avoid the pain of such an electric shock.

TODO

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4330241/

Now, the question is why would people rather inflict pain on themselves than to just sit with their boredom?

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” - Blaise Pascal