How often have you longed to have time to just sit quietly and think?
Well, be careful what you wish for. Because a study shows that many people find such interludes incredibly unpleasant. So uncomfortable, in fact, that they would rather zap themselves with electricity than be left alone with their thoughts. The shocking results appear in the journal Science. In the experiment, participants were asked to sit alone in a room for up to 15 minutes- with no cell phone, no reading material, no music― so, nothing to entertain them, save their own rambling thoughts. Afterward, most subjects reported that they found it difficult to concentrate and that they did not enjoy the experience. Then, to assess just how much subjects disliked doing nothing, the researchers repeated the experiment. Only this time they gave volunteers the added option of occasionally giving themselves a mild electric jolt. Two thirds of the men in the study― and one quarter of the women―chose to take advantage of the shock option at least once during their time out. The results suggest that if there’s anything worse than losing your mind, it’s getting caught alone with it.

你多久会想着花些时间静静地坐着冥想呢？
那你可得小心了。 有研究显示：许多人对如此小憩感到非常不愉快。 事实上，他们宁愿受点电刺激也不愿独自冥想。 这令人震惊的研究结果发表在科学期刊上。 实验中，参与者被要求独自在一个房间里待15分钟―― 房间里没有手机，没有读物，没有音乐―― 也就是说，除了参与者自己杂乱的思绪，没有任何可以娱乐的东西。 实验结束后，大多数的参与者反馈说难以集中注意力，而且并不享受这一过程。 后来，研究人员又重新试验了一遍，就不喜欢该试验的人数进行了统计。 但这次研究人员为志愿者新增了一项权利，即偶尔的轻微电刺激。 该研究中，男性占了三分之二， 试验结束前，四分之一的女性至少提出过进行一次电刺激。 该研究结果表明：比发疯更可怕的事便是独自冥想。