Cross-cultural consistency and relativity in the enjoyment of thinking versus doing
Nicholas Buttrick and colleagues, with Timothy Wilson and Daniel Gilbert among the authors, repeated the 2014 thinking-for-pleasure study with 2,557 participants at twelve sites in eleven countries. The result was consistent in every country: participants randomly assigned to do an everyday solitary activity, such as reading or watching television, reported greater enjoyment than participants assigned to think for pleasure. Countries did differ systematically in how much people enjoyed thinking, but a series of nested structural equation models showed those differences were fully accounted for by country-level variation in five individual differences. Need for cognition, openness to experience, meditation experience and initial positive mood went with enjoying thinking more, and reported phone use with enjoying it less. Because the original team was involved, the study extends the work rather than independently testing it.
Nicholas Buttrick and colleagues, with Timothy Wilson and Daniel Gilbert among the authors, repeated the 2014 thinking-for-pleasure study with 2,557 participants at twelve sites in eleven countries. The result was consistent in every country: participants randomly assigned to do an everyday solitary activity, such as reading or watching television, reported greater enjoyment than participants assigned to think for pleasure. Countries did differ systematically in how much people enjoyed thinking, but a series of nested structural equation models showed those differences were fully accounted for by country-level variation in five individual differences. Need for cognition, openness to experience, meditation experience and initial positive mood went with enjoying thinking more, and reported phone use with enjoying it less. Because the original team was involved, the study extends the work rather than independently testing it.
Written from the published abstract (APA PsycInfo record), supplied by Faisal and read 9 October 2026.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
doi:10.1037/pspp0000198. 2,557 participants, twelve sites, eleven countries. Abstract read 9 October 2026.