Researchers found that people who have something to do, even if it's something pointless, are happier than people who sit idle.
The team was interested in knowing that why people are so busy doing what they are do in the modern society. People keep themselves busy, run around, work hard, way beyond the basic level. Though there are reasons, like making a living, earning money, accruing fame, helping others, and so on, but the researchers feel that there's something deeper - we all have excessive energy and we want to avoid idleness.
The lead authors think it may be possible to use this principle - people like being busy, and they like being able to justify being busy - to benefit society.
If we can devise a mechanism for idle people to engage in activity that is at least not harmful, but it is better than destructive busyness, note the researchers.
The lead researcher himself has been known to give a research assistant a useless task when he doesn't have anything for them to do, so he isn't sitting around the office getting bored and depressed. He says that though he's aware that this is not particularly ethical, it keeps the person happy.
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