By "thought", I mean any notion/idea/comment/saying etc. that goes through the person's brain.
By "average person", I mean a regular "Joe Bloggs" person with say around a 100 IQ (i.e. isn't a fool or a genius).
By "day", I mean the waking hours so roughly 16 or 17 hours.
2006-07-24 06:02:46 · 11 answers · asked by McDuff 2 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
I think that once saw a TV advert that said the average was either 30,000 or 60,000 (can't remember which).
This would imply that an averge person would have a thought around every two seconds (in the first case) or every second (in the last).
Not sure how they measured this (if at all). It may be that is really impossible to measure properly.
2006-07-24 07:39:31 · update #1
That is one of the smartest questions I have read ...
I have no idea how many thoughts but a lot !!!
all depends of what you do ? and how you invest your free time, I mean if you are busy during the day .. you probably do a lot of thinking .. how to solve this .. how to do that ...
But if you only play video games or sleep throughout the day .. you probably don't think much ..
2006-07-24 06:07:28 · answer #1 · answered by Xavier 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a Zen idea that each moment of perception (called a 'Nen') ,follows after another.
Some reflect back on the previous nen creating awareness of a primary thought or perception (conciousness). Every few nen ,one of them recognises this recognizing and says "that's a being recognizing things, I am that being".
Another nen then recognises a succession of these thoughts and says " I continue through time".
In reality however ,there is just a succession of seperate nen thoughts , each independant and different from each other.
Even these thoughts can be seperated into 'absortion' thoughts and 'self reflective' thoughts . The former are completely absorbed in something, eg: a fan watching sport, and since there is no reflexion there is no memory of self or time. the other sort seperates us from 'reality' in as far as we are absorbed in the reflexive thoughts ,but allows us to recognise and remember the other thoughts .So we can recognise some thoughts ,but never all .
Unless we find the secret escape hatch ...?
2006-07-24 09:05:36 · answer #2 · answered by GreatEnlightened One 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it's a Sun Reader who loves Big Brother and nothing more than eating a McDonalds whilst looking forward to early Saturday evening viewing on ITV1 - None.
2006-07-24 06:07:18 · answer #3 · answered by Uncle Sid 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have read about 50'000 thoughts a day. In any case, you think LOTS during the average day, and your brain doesn't switch off when you are sleeping. Even if you are not consciously thinking, the brain is still working and processing things. That's one reason why you have dreams.
2006-07-24 08:30:12 · answer #4 · answered by The Global Geezer 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting question. First, we would need to separate what I call "autonomic" thoughts from consciously generated ones. For the average person, that would probably reduce the total by more than half. For rednecks, it would reduce the total by over 90%, probably!
2006-07-24 06:16:06 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
there is no quantitative way of doing that yet, even if we had the data the analysis would be exceedingly difficult Mr Kipling
2006-07-24 07:18:19 · answer #6 · answered by Dirk Wellington-Catt 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you cannot measure a persons thoughts. they are continuous.
blessed be,
Elizabeth
2006-07-24 06:07:15 · answer #7 · answered by elizabeth j 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Will have to think about that one
2006-07-24 06:05:45 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
infinite
2006-07-24 06:06:05 · answer #9 · answered by twifu 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
thousands
2006-07-24 06:08:38 · answer #10 · answered by iansun 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋