NEWS LESSONS / Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking / Intermediate•P

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Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking

Level 2 l Intermediate

Key words2Match the key words with the definitions. Then, find the words in the article to read them in context. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.

Are you a person who is easily bored or are you happy to sit and do nothing?

1. an invitation to do something that might be difficult ____________________ (para 1)

2. so extreme that you cannot deal with the feeling ____________________ (para 2)

3. the quality of something that is long and boring ____________________ (para 2)

4. the state of being completely alone ____________________ (para 3)

5. always looking for something exciting to experience ____________________ (para 4)

6. without being affected or influenced by ____________________ (para 6)

7. the speed at which something happens ____________________ (para 7)

8. to try hard to do something that you find very difficult ____________________ (para 9)

9. If your mind or thoughts ____________________, you stop concentrating and start thinking about other things, especially because you are bored. (para 9)

10. to get someone’s attention and prevent them from concentrating on something ____________________ (para 9)

11. a short phrase used for explaining why you are doing something ____________________ (para 10)

12. to not obey the rules ____________________ (para 11)

13. to make something more interesting ____________________ (para 18)

14. a talk to a group of people about a particular subject, especially at a university ____________________ (para 18)

Warmer1

pace tedium unbearablechallenge regardless of sensation-seeking solitude

lecture wander strugglecheat cheer up distract in case

NEWS LESSONS / Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking / Intermediate•P

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Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking

Level 2 l IntermediateShocking but true: students prefer jolt of pain to being made to sit and thinkIan Sample, science editor 3 July, 2014

1 What surprised researchers was not how hard people found the challenge but how far they would go to avoid it. The task? To sit in a chair and do nothing but think.

2 Some found it so unbearable that they took the safe but alarming opportunity to give themselves mild electric shocks to break the tedium.

3 Two-thirds of men pressed a button that gave them a painful shock during a 15-minute period of solitude.

4 Under the same conditions, a quarter of women pressed the shock button. The difference, scientists suspect, is that men are typically more sensation-seeking than women.

5 The report from psychologists at Virginia and Harvard Universities tries to answer the question of why most of us find it so hard to do nothing.

6 In more than 11 separate studies, the researchers showed that people hated being left to think, regardless of their age, education, income or the amount of time they spent on smartphones or social media.

7 Timothy Wilson, who led the work, said the findings were not necessarily due to the pace of modern life or the spread of mobile devices and social media. Instead, those things might be popular because of our constant need to do something rather than nothing.

8 In the first experiments, students were taken – alone, without phones, books or anything to write with – into a room and told to think. The only rules were that they had to stay seated and not fall asleep. They were told that they would have six to 15 minutes alone.

9 The students were questioned when the time was up. On average, they did not enjoy the experience. They struggled to concentrate. Their minds wandered even with nothing to distract them.

10 In case the unfamiliar setting reduced the ability to think, the researchers did the experiment again with people at home.

11 They got similar results. In fact, people found the experience even more miserable and cheated by getting up from their chair or checking their phones.

12 To see if the effect was found only in students, the scientists tested more than 100 other people, aged 18 to 77, from a church and a farmers’ market. They also disliked being left to their thoughts.

13 But, the most surprising result was yet to come. To check whether people might actually prefer something bad to nothing at all, the students were given the option of giving themselves a mild electric shock.

14 They had been asked earlier to say how unpleasant the shocks were, compared to other options, such as looking at pictures of cockroaches or hearing the sound of a knife rubbing against a bottle.

15 All the students chosen for the test said they would pay to avoid mild electric shocks.

16 To the researchers’ surprise, 12 of 18 men gave themselves up to four electric shocks and six of 24 women did the same.

17 The scientists said that the most surprising thing was that being alone with their thoughts was so hard for many people that they gave themselves an electric shock – something the participants had earlier said they would pay to avoid.

18 Jessica Andrews-Hanna at the University of Colorado said many students would probably give themselves an electric shock to cheer up a tedious lecture. But, she says we need to know more about the motivation of the shockers in Wilson’s study.

19 “Imagine – a person is told to sit in a chair with wires attached to their skin and a button that will deliver a harmless but uncomfortable shock, and they are told to just sit there with their thoughts,” she said.

20 “As they sit there, their mind starts to wander and it naturally goes to that shock – was it really that bad?”

© Guardian News and Media 2014First published in The Guardian, 03/07/14

NEWS LESSONS / Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking / Intermediate•P

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Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking

Level 2 l Intermediate

Related words4

1. What was the challenge the researchers set the students?

2. What were the rules?

3. Who carried out the studies?

4. How many studies were carried out?

5. Where were they carried out?

6. Who were the subjects?

7. How were the volunteers prepared for the test?

8. What did they say they would do to avoid an electric shock?

9. the results for the male students

10. the results for the female students

11. the results for the other volunteers

12. the conclusion

13. the possible connection to use of mobile devices and social media

What can you remember? Complete the box with facts from the article. Then, read again to check your answers and to see if you forgot anything.

Choose the best word to complete each sentence.

Fact box3

think thoughts mind

1. Try not to ______________ about anything.

2. Try to empty your ______________.

3. Let your ______________ come and go.

4. What’s on your ______________?

5. What did you ______________ about the film?

6. What are your ______________ on the subject?

NEWS LESSONS / Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking / Intermediate•P

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Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking

Level 2 l Intermediate

Close your eyes and sit and do nothing until your teacher tells you that time is up.

Reflection• How long do you think you sat for?• How did it make you feel?

• What information from the article did you find most surprising?• Would you have pressed the electric shock button if you had taken part in the study?• Is it sometimes necessary or important to be able to do nothing but sit and think? Why? Why not?

Work with a partner or in a group of three. Use your questions from Task 5 as the basis for a short role-play.

Pairs

Student A is a researcher. Student B is a student in the study. A asks B all the questions for the student and B asks A all the questions for the researcher.

or

Groups of three

Student A is a researcher. Student B is a student in the study. Student C is a journalist. Student C asks students A and B the questions and makes brief notes of their answers. After the group interviews, all student Cs report back to the class.

An interview role-play6

Try it out8

Discussion 7

Write three questions that you would you like to ask the researchers.

1.

2.

3.

Write three questions that you would you like to ask the students in the study.

1.

2.

3.

Questions5

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Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking

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KEY

1 Warmer

Teacher’s note: Extend this into an empathy task by asking the students to guess how the other students (and you) would answer the question.

2 Key words

1. challenge2. unbearable3. tedium4. solitude5. sensation-seeking6. regardless of7. pace8. struggle9. wander10. distract11. in case12. cheat 13. cheer up14. lecture

3 Fact box

Teacher’s note: Students’ answers will vary. This is OK. Get them to work together on this task so that it becomes a collaborative and communicative exercise.

4 Related words

1. think 2. mind3. thoughts 4. mind5. think 6. thoughts

5 Questions

Teacher’s note: Check the students’ questions and correct where necessary before they move on to Task 6.

8 Try it out

Unless you know that your students will be able to cope extremely well with this task, keep the timing short – perhaps around two minutes. Do not tell them beforehand how long they should sit with their eyes closed.

1. to sit in a chair and do nothing but think for 15 minutes

2. They had to remain seated and awake.

3.psychologists at Virginia and Harvard Universities; The work was led by Timothy Wilson.

4. more than 11

5. in a room and, later, in the subjects’ homes

6.students and, also, more than 100 other people, aged 18-77, from a church and a farmers’ market

7.They were shown pictures of cockroaches or heard the sound of a knife being scraped against a bottle. They rated these alongside the unpleasantness of a mild electric shock.

8. pay money

9.Twelve out of 18 men (two-thirds) gave themselves electric shocks during the 15 minutes of solitude.

10.Six out of 24 women (one quarter) gave themselves electric shocks during the 15 minutes of solitude.

11. They also disliked being left to their thoughts.

12.Doing nothing is so unbearable for some people that they would self-administer a painful shock to relieve the tedium.

13.

The findings do not necessarily mean that mobile devices and social media have made us less able to be still, but, rather, that we love them so much because we have a natural urge to always be doing something.The findings showed that people hated being left to think regardless of their age, education, income or the amount of time they spent on mobile devices or social media.