Is it true that up to half of people have no inner monologue? I investigated

theguardian.com

6 points·YeGoblynQueenne··3 comments

What it's like living without an inner monologue (2020) (30 points, 10 months ago, 24 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39698532

Not everyone has an internal monologue (1225 points, 2020, 875 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22193451

Not sure I can call it a 'monologue'. It isn't put into words until I want to examine it - most of the time e.g. cooking I just chop and look at the pot and consider.

I surely don't talk to myself about it - "Looks like two more minutes on the ham". I just reset the timer to 2 minutes and press start.

So, I'm not sure "inner monologue" means anything? Ask me what I was thinking about, I can fire up the old 'text generator' and emit something descriptive. But I also don't think about that - "First an adjective, then a noun, maybe a verb and an adverb or two. Then what, three or four sentences?"

No we just do most of our thinking without talking about it.

Some people literally have an incessant prattling which narrates pretty much everything they think about. Some couldn’t type this sentence without every word repeated to themselves.

And others are as you describe. And still yet others, something else (like psycho-emotional playback and thought image chain reactions.)

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