Vol.19 Will you zap yourself out of boredom?
Imagine being locked in an empty room with nothing but blank walls, a chair to sit in, and a button to self-administer a mild shock for 15 minutes.
Do you think you’d zap yourself just to relieve boredom?
If you're about to shake your head—think again.
This scenario is actually from a real study conducted at the University of Virginia in 2014, led by psychologist Timothy Wilson.
People were asked to sit alone in a quiet room for 15 minutes. No phone, no books, no distractions—just themselves and their thoughts, with a prompt to “entertain yourself with your thoughts.”
Before going into the room, they were even given a mild electric shock and asked if they’d pay to avoid it—and most said yes.
But here comes the twist: when left alone in the room with nothing to do, two-thirds of the men and a quarter of the women ended up shocking themselves on purpose. Just to relieve the boredom.
When I came across this study, I thought about our relationship with alcohol.
