One Is The Loveliest Number!

Why it pays to spend time alone.

- Megan Jones

IN 2011, RESEARCHERS at Harvard University and the University of Virginia exposed study participants to a small, painful electric shock. They then handed over $5 and asked each person how much of the $5 they’d be willing to forfeit to avoid the unpleasant sensation. In the next step of the study, the participants sat, solo, in a room for 15 minutes. The only available stimulation was the option of shocking themselves by pushing a button.

Of those who had said they’d offer money to escape the zap, more than 60 per cent of the men and a quarter of the women voluntarily shocked themselves. Physical pain, it seemed, was preferable to spending a few minutes alone with their thoughts.

Solitude, clearly, isn’t our most comfortable state. But based on recent research, we’d be wise to overcome anxiety around being by ourselves. While nobody’s advocating becoming a hermit, there are benefits to spending at least some time alone.

We become better people