Analysing the data when 81 people stood in the first version of the booth and tried to count their thoughts for one minute.
The project
Participants were tasked with predicting and then counting the number of thoughts they have in 1 minute. They answered a short questionnaire and 81 complete responses came back over three days.
Sample responses:
Full Analysis
Four findings stood out:
1. Almost everyone recognised their thoughts as automatic
89% of participants said their thoughts arose at least partially beyond their control – either “yes” (38%) or “in some ways” (51%). Only 4 people said no.
This is arguably the most significant finding in the dataset. If thoughts arise automatically – uncontrolled, happening to us rather than by us – it raises an obvious question: why do we put so much significance on them?
We tend to take our thoughts seriously, act on them and build identities around them. But if they’re just arising on their own, perhaps a more useful relationship is a lighter one.
That insight sits at the core of most contemplative traditions and modern cognitive therapy. What ThoughtCounter adds is the experience of arriving at it yourself, through direct observation, in a minute of quiet. Not being told that thoughts are automatic but noticing it first-hand.
2. We dramatically overestimate how many thoughts we have
- 81 total participants
- 18.6 thoughts counted p/min (mean)
- 26.2 thoughts predicted p/min (mean)
- -10.0 variance (counted minus predicted)
Participants were asked to predict how many thoughts they’d count before they started. On average, they predicted 10 more than they actually counted.
Only 2 out of 59 matched pairs predicted exactly. 59% counted fewer than predicted. 37% counted more.
People seem to carry a mental model of their own mind as busier, noisier, and more chaotic than one minute of direct observation shows. This could be down to a few possibilities: Their counting isn’t entirely accurate; counting changes the mind; or our self-concept is inflated.
3. The booth and environment dominated thoughts
When asked to describe what they noticed in free text, the single most common theme – appearing in 19 responses – was the environment and surroundings.
Sound appeared in 16 responses. Sensory experience more broadly in 14.
Several participants explicitly noted that their thoughts were entirely about where they were, not what was inside them. One wrote: “I noticed all my thoughts were to do with my surroundings!”
The environment dominated participants’ thoughts, suggesting that where you are shapes what you think. This speaks to the importance of the booth itself as part of the work – and is also exactly why it would be interesting to take the pop-up to completely different locations. It also calls into question the idea of a fixed, countable stream of internal thoughts.
4. What even is a thought?
Several responses questioned what counts as a thought at all – feelings, bodily sensations, the sound of someone’s voice outside. The counting frame assumes you know what you’re counting and a lot of participants weren’t sure.
Quotes worth highlighting
“Knowing I had to notice thoughts stopped them.”
This is the observer effect. (predicted 100, counted 11).
“My thoughts had performance anxiety at first — a lot of incomplete feelings and sentences.”
Humanises the experience immediately and will resonate with anyone who’s tried to meditate.
“Many of my thoughts are linked to my desires, fears, ambitions — all mingled together, in a beautiful maelstrom.”
“Mostly images, feelings, sounds, impressions. I’m surprised at how quickly my mind moves between abstract images.”
“There are different layers of thoughts — from nothing, bodily feelings, to thinking.”
What counts as a thought…
Next steps
It will be interesting to see what happens when the booth moves to different locations and environments – and how that affects thoughts.
First hand recognition that thoughts arise automatically seems obvious but is huge IMO. I plan to keep this a central theme to address in the email sequences.
Will revisit the responses/quotes from the questionnaires in a couple of weeks time – highlighting any that can be used in longitudinal sequences or marketing materials.