Those of the couch potato persuasion may be smarter than active folk, new research suggests.
According to a recent study published in the Journal of Health Psychology, active people feel the need to stimulate their minds with toing and froing in order to escape from their own thoughts.
This is in contrast to the discovery that people with a high IQ get bored less easily, and their superior minds allow them to be more engaged inside their own heads.
The study, which was conducted by the Florida Gulf Coast University, gave their test subjects a trial which dates back three decades. The researchers, led by Todd McElroy, then selected 30 “thinkers” and 30 “non-thinkers” from the pool of candidates.
Over the course of seven days, both groups’ movement and activity were tracked via a device on their wrist. The constant stream of data was then recorded to study their normal level of physical activity.
The results? Those who belonged in the the thinking group were far less active during the week than the non-thinkers.
These findings were described as “highly significant” and “robust” in statistical terms. One thing that has baffled them, though, was that the weekends showed no difference between the two groups.
