Keeping busy makes us happier

June 21, 2010 Posted in: General Interest 0 Comments

Have you ever been forced to wait for fifteen minutes at the airport luggage carousel? You’ve probably felt miserable and irritated. Now think about how you would have felt if you’d spent the same waiting time walking to the carousel. Wouldn’t you be far happier?

In a recent study, Hsee and colleagues conclude that we’re happier when busy but that –unfortunately– our instinct is for idleness. That means that unless we have a reason for being active we choose to do nothing.

Hsee offered 98 students a choice between delivering a completed questionnaire to a location that was a 15-minute round-trip walk away, or delivering it just outside the room and then waiting 15 minutes, and offered either the same or different types of chocolate snack bar were offered as a reward at the two locations. If the same snack bar was offered at both locations then the majority of students chose the lazy option, delivering the questionnaire just outside the room. By contrast, if a different (black vs. white) bar was offered at each location then the majority chose the far away ‘busy’ option. This was the case even though earlier research showed both snack bar options were equally appealing. In other words, Hsee said, the students’ instinct was for idleness, but when they were given a specious excuse for walking further, most of them took the busy option. Crucially, when asked afterwards, the students who’d taken the walk reported feeling significantly happier than the idle students, consistent with Hsee’s theory that we’re happier when busy.

In a variant of this first study, students asked to evaluate a bracelet had the option of either spending fifteen minutes waiting time sitting idle or spending the same time disassembling the bracelet and rebuilding it. Those given the option of rebuilding it into its original configuration largely chose to sit idle – consistent with our having an instinct for idleness. By contrast, those told they could re-assemble the bracelet into a second, equally attractive and useful design tended to take up the challenge – again, an excuse, however superficial, for activity seems to be all it takes to spur us on. As before, those who spent the fifteen minutes busy subsequently reported feeling happier than those who sat idle.

Given that being busy makes us happier but that our instinct is for idleness, there appears to be a case for encouraging what we may call ‘futile busyness,’ that is: busyness serving no purpose other than to prevent idleness.

To me, this kind of studies reinforce my view that, if possible, we should remain as active as possible as a way to achieve or maintain a healthy mental status. Even if we cannot hold a regular job, choosing to engage in some form of daily activity is extremely beneficial, and must always be encouraged by the mental health professionals as well as the families of those who suffer from a debilitating mental health condition.

Reference: Hsee CK, Yang AX, & Wang L (2010). Idleness aversion and the need for justifiable busyness. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 21 (7), 926-30

Source: The British Psychological Society’s Research Digest blog