Abstract
Numerous studies have captured the nature of mind-wandering and how it changes across the lifespan; however, the influence of culture has been neglected. This study investigated the joint effects of culture and age in a large scale online questionnaire-based survey of 308 adults over 18 years of age, both in France and the United Kingdom. To capture a profile of thinking style, self-report measures of mind-wandering frequency, mindfulness, mood, rumination, self-reflection, future thinking, depressive symptoms, and cognitive failures were gathered. Findings revealed an earlier decrease in mind-wandering frequency for French speaking participants. Cultural effects were demonstrated on rumination and reflection rates across the life span, with in general more rumination and less reflection for English speakers. Overall, negatively toned thoughts were dominant for English compared to more expressive thoughts in general for French speakers. Confirmatory factor analyses featured different theoretical models to explain mind-wandering frequency in the French and British populations. This study provides the basis for further investigations of sociocultural influences on the eclectic phenomenon of mind-wandering.
Highlights
Numerous studies have captured the nature of mind-wandering and how it changes across the lifespan; the influence of culture has been neglected
Analyses replicated previous findings by revealing the commonly found negative correlation linking mind-wandering to age, and positive correlations linking mind-wandering to mindfulness, cognitive failures and depression scores
This study aimed to investigate the influence of culture on mind-wandering experience across different age groups, by comparing a population of English (UK) and French (France) speakers
Summary
Numerous studies have captured the nature of mind-wandering and how it changes across the lifespan; the influence of culture has been neglected. Given how socio-cultural research has dominated investigations into psychological phenomenon, it is surprising that no recent direct comparisons of populations on the nature and frequency of self-generated thoughts have been carried out. Others failed to demonstrate any cultural differences, between Portuguese and Brazilian participants, in terms of frequency or content of mind-wandering experiences (Gonçalves et al, 2017). Their results suggested that Portuguese students used mind wandering to their advantage more than Brazilian students. Considering that two languages may impact on the nature of abstract thoughts differently, it is not unreasonable to suggest language will have a more universal impact on self-generated thoughts studied here
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