With a little help for our thoughts: Making it easier to think for pleasure. | Zendy

Erin Corwin Westgate | Zendy; Timothy D. Wilson | Zendy; Daniel T. Gilbert | Zendy

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With a little help for our thoughts: Making it easier to think for pleasure.

Author(s) -

Erin Corwin Westgate,

Timothy D. Wilson,

Daniel T. Gilbert

Publication year - 2017

Publication title -

emotion

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.261

H-Index - 140

eISSN - 1931-1516

pISSN - 1528-3542

DOI - 10.1037/emo0000278

Subject(s) - pleasure , psycinfo , psychology , set (abstract data type) , task (project management) , experience sampling method , social psychology , cognitive psychology , psychotherapist , medline , management , political science , computer science , law , economics , programming language

Can people enjoy thinking if they set their mind to it? Previous work suggests that many people do not enjoy the deliberate attempt to have pleasurable thoughts. We suggest that deliberately thinking for pleasure requires mental resources that people are either unwilling or unable to devote to the task. If so, then people should enjoy pleasant thoughts that occur unintentionally more than pleasant thoughts that occur intentionally. This hypothesis was confirmed in an experience sampling study (Study 1) in which participants were contacted 4 times a day for 7 days and asked to rate what they had been thinking about. In Studies 2-5 we experimentally manipulated how easy it was for people to engage in pleasurable thought when given the goal of doing so. All participants listed topics they would enjoy thinking about; then some were given a simple "thinking aid" that was designed to make this experience easier. Participants who received the aid found the experience easier and enjoyed it more. The findings suggest that thinking for pleasure is cognitively demanding, but that a simple thinking aid makes it easier and more enjoyable. (PsycINFO Database Record

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