Driver of discontent or escape vehicle: the affective consequences of mindwandering

Abstract

An emerging body of evidence suggests that our penchant for entertaining thoughts that are unrelated to ongoing activities might be a detriment to our emotional wellbeing. In light of this evidence, researchers have posited that mindwandering is a cause rather than a manifestation of discontent. We review the evidence in support of this viewpoint. We then consider this evidence in a broader context—with regards to mindwandering's antecedents, respecting the observation that people frequently find pleasure in their off-task moments, and in light of the lay beliefs people hold about its causes. We report data from two studies that speak to the potential challenges of establishing a definitive causal link between mindwandering and wellbeing. First, to advance the idea that mindwandering can convey affective benefits, in spite of negative feelings about mental disengagement, we examined cortical responses in a unique individual who presents with a long history of excessive—but enjoyable—task-irrelevant thinking. Second, to explore the idea that lay beliefs about mindwandering may substantially color the affective responses people have to a mindwandering episode, we surveyed people's beliefs about mindwandering's antecedents and related them to the affective reactions people anticipated to off-task moments. Our hope is to provide a nuanced evaluation of the available evidence for the assertion that mindwandering causes unhappiness, and to provide a clear direction forward to better evaluate this possibility.

A penny for your thoughts: dimensions of self-generated thought content and relationships with individual differences in emotional wellbeing

“…Might mental health and thought content dynamically influence each other, creating positive feedback loops? While some studies have found initial evidence for causal relationships between the frequency and/or content of self-generated thoughts and wellbeing (Moberly and Watkins, 2008; Smallwood et al, 2009a; Killingsworth and Gilbert, 2010; Smallwood and O’Connor, 2011; Marchetti et al, 2012a; Ruby et al, 2013), a complete understanding of the nature of these relationships will require overcoming several methodological and conceptual challenges (Mason et al, 2013). …”

Affective neuroscience of self‐generated thought

“…, p. 291). The frequent daydreaming of these individuals differs from typical self‐generated thought (which also occurs frequently) in that it is highly immersive as well as highly rewarding and enjoyable; negative feelings associated with this phenomenon have more to do with the social embarrassment or guilt associated with these excessive fantasies, as opposed to the content of the fantasies themselves …”

“…To our knowledge, a single‐subject case study reported by Mason and colleagues has been the only investigation of the phenomenon of “excessive” daydreaming with functional neuroimaging. Researchers compared brain activation during this individual's fantasies to a condition where the subject was asked instead to concentrate intensively on a task, and found widespread activations associated with daydreaming (Fig.…”

Love is the triumph of the imagination: Daydreams about significant others are associated with increased happiness, love and connection

“…However, research increasingly acknowledges that daydreaming is unlikely to be a homogenous experience and has begun to explore the conditions under which daydreaming is associated with negative and positive emotion. For example, the relationship between daydreaming and emotion may depend on its phenomenological and emotional content (Andrews-Hanna et al, 2013;Poerio, Totterdell, & Miles, 2013), temporal focus (Ruby, Smallwood, Engen, & Singer, 2013), interest in thought content (Franklin et al, 2013), personal lay theories (Mason, Brown, Mar, & Smallwood, 2013) and current depressive symptomology (Marchetti, Koster, & De Raedt, 2012). As an extension to these factors we propose that the social content of daydreaming will also have an impact on how daydreaming relates to emotional well-being and, in particular, to positive social feelings rather than negative emotion more generally.…”