Random Thoughts Could Lead to Self-Insights, Study Finds
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard Business School found that meaningless as they may seem, random thoughts may actually provide meaningful insight into oneself.
Moreover, the ideas can influence judgment and decisions more than similar, more deliberate kinds of thinking — even on important topics such as commitment to current romantic partners.
The research consisted of five different studies. The first three were designed to test the hypothesis that the more spontaneous a thought is, the more it is believed to provide meaningful self-insight. Participants rated the extent to which different thought categories are spontaneous or controlled and the extent to which each provides self-insight.
As part of the process, they recalled either a pleasant or unpleasant childhood event and evaluated the degree that the recollection would provide meaningful self-insight if it happened spontaneously or deliberately.
They were also asked to generate thoughts about four strangers through a deliberative or spontaneous process and rated how much those thoughts provided them with valuable self-insight.
The results suggest that when people evaluate a particular thought, they not only consider its content, they are also influenced by their more general beliefs about different thought processes.
The last two experiments extended the investigation to determine if the greater insight attributed to spontaneous thoughts leads them to have a greater impact on judgment.
The researchers tested this first by having participants think about a love interest other than their present or most recent significant other spontaneously or deliberately, report the self-insight that the thought provided and then indicate their attraction toward that person.
They found that those who spontaneously generated a thought of a love interest believed that thought revealed more self-insight and perceived their attraction to be stronger than the participants who identified a love interest with deliberate thinking.
“The perception that a thought popped into mind out of nowhere can lead people to overvalue their own insights. When considering a thought that came to mind spontaneously, it may be useful to ask yourself the following question: had the same thought come to mind after careful deliberation, would it seem just as meaningful?” said Giblin.
“If you realize that your interpretation of a particular thought depends on whether it came to mind spontaneously, that’s an indication that your beliefs about these different kinds of thoughts might be affecting your judgment.”
Their findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Source of this article:
Random Thoughts May Offer Self-Insights
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