There was a recent fascinating experiment with a group of undergraduate students who are part of the digital/social media generation.
In the first half of the study, they experienced a collection of stimuli (a spanish guitar riff, an exposure to a cockroach, an electric shock, the sound of knife scraping) and were asked to share how much they’d pay to avoid the bad stimuli. Most folks said they’d pay $1.5 to $2 to avoid an electric shock.
They were then asked to entertain themselves with their thoughts for 15 minutes in an empty room. They were told that they could choose to experience one “randomly selected” stimulus during this period.
In reality, all participants were given the “electric shock” option. A computer recorded whether and how many times the participant chose to administer an electric shock.
25% of the women and ~70% of the men found it preferable to shock themselves rather than sit with their own thoughts (study summary).
Mindblowing.
