A New Study Offers a Glimpse into the Minds of Americans
A recent study, currently in preprint, has shed light on what Americans think about on a daily basis. The researchers surveyed 258 participants, who provided a total of 23,338 thought record entries over a two-week period. The participants’ ages ranged from 19 to 71, with 47% being female, 21% being non-white, and education spans ranging from 10 to 21 years.
Source: cdn2.psychologytoday.com
The study employed the experience sampling method (ESM), where participants received random notifications throughout the day, prompting them to record their thoughts. The participants reported on the thoughts they were having, including whether they were intentional or intrusive, and which category they applied to. The researchers analyzed the thought records for more granularity than the initial categories.
Source: cdn2.psychologytoday.com
The Most Common Categories of Thoughts
The study found that the largest category of thoughts related to senses/percepts, accounting for 19.1% of all thoughts. Many of these thoughts centered on interoceptive sensations, such as thinking about one’s tiredness. The second most common category was work/job, making up 16.6% of thoughts, followed by food, which accounted for 14.2%. These three categories combined accounted for almost half (49.9%) of all thoughts recorded.
The next most popular categories accounted for around one quarter (22.8%) of thoughts, including hobbies/games/play/art (10%), relationships/people (9.7%), and health/safety (7.6%). The remaining categories included chores (6.9%), self-reflection (5.8%), financial/housing/shelter (2.3%), world issues/social issues/politics (3.2%), narratives/stories (2.3%), and music (1.4%).
Interestingly, the authors reported that what people were thinking about predicted momentary happiness more strongly than what they were doing, or characteristics such as demography or socioeconomic status.
Who Were They Thinking About?
In the area of relational thoughts, friend was the most commonly used term. The frequency with which people reported thinking about friends was almost the same as reporting on four romantic relational terms in husband, wife, boyfriend, and girlfriend. Friends were mentioned 4.4 times more than co-workers, though the authors themselves highlight that a friend can be a co-worker, so this might have related more to framing. Altogether, 46% of participants mentioned thinking about friends at least once.
Pets were commonly thought about, with cats and dogs (combined) slightly exceeding the frequency of daughters and sons (combined). Spouses thought of each other, but not as much as they thought of their children. Fathers, sisters, and brothers appeared relatively less than children, while mothers were thought about more than all three combined, and three times more than fathers.
Four Clusters of Thinkers
The authors used cluster analysis to find patterns in thinking styles and reported four clusters: Worrier, Domestic, Bodily, and Work-hard play-hard. The Worrier cluster thought about world/political/social issues 60% more and health/safety 50% more than the average. The Domestic cluster thought about finances/housing, chores, and narratives/stories around 50% more than average. The Bodily cluster thought a lot about senses/percepts, tuning into their bodies, around 50% higher than the average. The Work-hard play-hard cluster thought about work 50% more than average and hobbies/games/arts around 25% more.
The study provides a fascinating insight into day-to-day thinking across a cross-section of Americans over a two-week period. While the broad categories of thinking clusters can be useful initial data, more rigorous research would need to further test this beyond 258 people. As well as more general considerations about the potential weakness of relying on self-report, self-reporting on one’s inner thoughts will likely include a high degree of filtering, if not persona projecting. Shyness, embarrassment, and other self-conscious emotions like guilt would likely play a role.
