Free time can be very good for mental health. In fact, it may even be considered a priority for productivity, according to a study published by an American university in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
According to Selin Malkoc, professor of marketing at Ohio State University in Columbus, several studies have suggested that free time can benefit mental health. In fact, free time itself can make people more productive because it decreases stress. However, there are people who think that free time can be considered a “waste” and it is precisely these people who are most at risk of depression and stress, as the researcher herself reports.
The researchers conducted several experiments on 199 university students by collecting various data on their leisure activities and answering different questionnaires. The questionnaires focused on their levels of happiness, stress, anxiety and depression. In addition, specific questions were asked to find out how the subjects themselves valued free time and whether they considered it to be “lost time”.
Researchers found that the more subjects viewed free time as a waste of time, the more unhappy, depressed, stressed and anxious they were. Additionally, the researchers performed another experiment on the same college students, asking them to watch a funny cat video. This experiment was carried out during other more “boring” survey experiments. The researchers noticed that some subjects still disliked the videos, showing that it’s hard to change a person’s beliefs regarding free time. According to Rebecca Reczek, professor of marketing at Ohio State University and another author of the study, free time should be seen as a kind of productive goal, something that helps people and always produces results. profits.
