Just because it's published is no reason not to question the validity of the study. I've been in science long enough to know that flawed work can into important journals.

The Globe article's title and the original title of the HN post focused on the electrical shocks, implying that people would prefer doing something very painful rather than think silently. I can't read the article itself, but the Science Editor's summary included this:

In fact, many of the people studied, particularly the men, chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than be deprived of external sensory stimuli.

Doesn't sound terribly unpleasant. That changes a lot in terms of the headline's conclusion, at least for me.