Take a Load Off. Research Says Laziness May Be a Sign of Intelligence.

The more you do, the less you think

August 9, 2016 9:00 am

Rob Gronkowski is about as active as a human can be. But when asked what his superpower of choice would be, the Gronk responded that he’d like a time machine that could take him to Florida and back.

That’s not how time machines work. Or superpowers. Gronk may be a physical specimen, but  a metaphysical one, he is not. And one new study claims that disparity is to be expected.

Florida Gulf Coast University researcher Todd McElroy and a team identified 30 “thinkers” and “non-thinkers” by asking them to answer a series of questions. They then gave members of each control group a wearable device to track their physical activity levels.

After seven days of collecting data, the researchers found that the “thinkers” were far less active, and the “low-need-for-cognition individuals” were more physically active, especially during the five-day work week. The researchers described said difference between the groups described as “robust” and “significant.”

So instead of reading their piece “The Physical Sacrifice of Thinking” in full, we recommend a nap, smart guy.

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