Sitting alone with one’s thoughts could foster a sense of rest and relaxation, yet many find this activity difficult. In two preregistered experiments (Study 1: n = 266, Study 2: n = 369), we focused on autonomy-supportive and controlling framings of solitude as drivers of motivation for solitude, positive experiences such as enjoyment and relaxation, negative experiences such as frustration and boredom, and negative thoughts like worries and rumination. In Study 1, we found support for one hypothesis that autonomy-supportive instructions to sit alone with thoughts led to greater autonomous motivation for solitude compared to controlling instructions that pressured participants to sit alone. However, the effect of instructions on autonomous motivation was trivial, with a smaller effect observed in Study 2. More importantly, we did not find evidence that our autonomy-supportive instructions meaningfully influenced self-reported measures of participants’ experiences with sitting alone with thoughts, nor both self-reported and behavioral measures intention to be in solitude again. Examination of null effects suggested that most differences between autonomy-supportive and controlling-instruction conditions were likely too small to be practically meaningful. However, some null findings in relation to excitement, relaxation, or frustration during sitting alone with thoughts were equivocal and required larger sample sizes to determine whether there was indeed an absence of effect. Consistent with findings reported by Nguyen et al. (2018), participants displayed drops in high-arousal types of affect and increases in low-arousal types of affect. Future research is needed to explore other factors that influence motivation for solitude and lead people to benefit from the regulatory effects of time spent alone.

中文翻译：

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独处与我们的想法：在孤独的安静时间里，作为享受驱动力的自主支持框架的调查

独自坐着思考可以培养一种休息和放松的感觉，但许多人发现这项活动很困难。在两个预先注册的实验中（研究 1：n = 266，研究 2：n = 369），我们专注于支持自主和控制孤独的框架作为孤独动机的驱动因素，积极体验如享受和放松，消极体验如沮丧和无聊，以及诸如忧虑和沉思之类的消极想法。在研究 1 中，我们发现了一个假设的支持，即与迫使参与者独自坐着的控制指令相比，支持自主的指令与思想单独坐在一起会导致更大的独处自主动机。然而，指令对自主动机的影响是微不足道的，在研究 2 中观察到的影响较小。更重要的是，我们没有发现证据表明我们的自主支持指令会有意义地影响自我报告的参与者独自坐着思考的经历，也没有证据表明自我报告和行为测量都打算再次独处。对无效效应的检查表明，自主支持和控制指导条件之间的大多数差异可能太小而没有实际意义。然而，一些与独自坐着思考时的兴奋、放松或沮丧有关的无效发现是模棱两可的，需要更大的样本量来确定是否确实没有效果。与 Nguyen 等人报告的结果一致。（2018），参与者表现出高唤醒类型的情感下降和低唤醒类型的情感增加。