6 The Neurobiology of FOPO
I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.
—ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
Alone with Our Thoughts
“I don’t have any time for myself.” A common lament, or boast, in a culture where busyness has replaced leisure time as a status symbol. We signal both our fatigue and our social worth in a single declarative sentence. We imply that scarcity and demand make us desired human capital, but our lives would be better if we had time by ourselves.
It’s a nice thought, having more time to ourselves. But, as University of Virginia psychology professor Timothy Wilson and his colleagues discovered, many of us hate being alone with our thoughts and would go to shocking lengths to avoid doing so.1
Wilson’s team asked ...
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