The phrase comes from a paper from Timothy Wilson and colleagues, describing a variety of studies in which participants were asked to sit and think in a bare room for 15 minutes. In one of the studies, the room contained a device they could use to shock themselves, and almost half did—even though they previously answered that they’d pay to avoid a shock!
Related:
- Culturally default behaviors fill spare time with others’ ideas
- Many people find difficult creative work mostly unpleasant in the moment
- It’s hard to hear yourself think
Q. Vivid experiment demonstrating that people prefer doing to thinking?
A. Wilson et al asked people to sit and think for 15 minutes but offered them a device they could use to shock themselves, and many did, despite previously stating that they’d pay money to avoid a shock!
References
Wilson, T. D., Reinhard, D. A., Westgate, E. C., Gilbert, D. T., Ellerbeck, N., Hahn, C., Brown, C. L., & Shaked, A. (2014). Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind. Science (New York, N.Y.), 345(6192), 75–77. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1250830