A wandering mind is an unhappy mind.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Observational experience-sampling cohort study
PubMed 21071660 · doi:10.1126/science.1192439
What was done
Researchers developed and deployed a smartphone application to sample participants' real-time thoughts, feelings, and actions during daily life.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values, sample sizes, or effect sizes. It states qualitatively that participants thought about non-present events almost as frequently as present activities, and that mind-wandering was typically associated with unhappiness.
Why it matters
It provides real-time observational evidence that stimulus-independent thought is prevalent in daily life and correlates with decreased happiness.
Limits
The abstract provides no sample size, demographic data, or quantitative metrics. As an observational self-report study, the direction of causality between mind-wandering and negative mood cannot be definitively established from the abstract alone.