Do people like to keep busy for no reason? Or is being idle okay with most of us?
Psychological researchers (Ysee et al., 2010) set to find out.
In two experiments with college students, researchers discovered that we can be happy doing nothing at all and remaining idle. But given even the slimmest of reasons to be busy doing something, and most people will opt for doing something over nothing.
The researchers also found that people were happier when they were busy, even if they were forced into busyness.
How can people be happy being busy, if that busyness serves no purpose?