Here's a piece of recent work done by Christopher Hsee, of University of Chicago, a prominent researcher of psychology and one of those who established the term hedonomics.
It was three years ago when I was helping with some research on his team that Prof. Hsee told us about the original idea behind the article: he wanted to prove that people sometimes do things only to "release their excessive energy". Sounds like a strange idea, but he said he had a way to prove it (which is pretty much you read from the article above). I was soon convinced he's a genius.
Then we went to a few colleges to do the "experiments". I still remember some details: after finishing one survey, we "lied" to students that the questionnaires of next survey was not ready and they had 15 minutes to kill. They could either stay in the room or hand in the questionnaire to another location in the building where I was collecting the papers and sending out candies... At the end of the day, our data suggests that people would choose the farther location not for a better candy, but as an excuse to take a walk and avoid idling.
Now I'm really happy to see this very project is published, and realized that perhaps I should find myself some more "busyness" in order to be happier, rather than staying home all day long...
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