Inferring attitudes from mindwandering

Self-perception theory posits that people understand their own attitudes and preferences much as they understand others',by interpreting the meaning of their behavior in light of the context in which it occurs. four studies tested whether people also rely on unobservable behavior, their mindwandering,when making such inferences. it is proposed here that people rely on the content of their mindwandering to decide whether it reflects boredom with an ongoing task or a reverie's irresistible pull. having the mind wander to positive events,to concurrent as opposed to past activities,and to many events rather than just one tends to be attributed to boredom and therefore leads to perceived dissatisfaction with an ongoing task. participants appeared to rely spontaneously on the content of their wandering minds as a cue to their attitudes,but not when an alternative cause for their mindwandering was made salient. © 2010 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.