Do you have an inner monologue?
It turns out 60% of people don't... which blows my mind!
Inner monologues
My latest favourite question to ask when I’m in a group of 3-4 people is:
“Do you have an inner monologue?”
A few months ago I would have assumed the answer to this 100% of the time would be:
“Of course I do, we all do, you idiot.”
So I have never thought to ask that question of anyone until… during one of our long lunches at the Edinburgh Festival, Mr.N proffered the remarkable insight that apparently ‘about 50% of people don’t have an inner monologue’!
What the actual?!!
This incredible factoid astounded three out of the four of us, to the point of incredulity… and the fourth member of our group, surprised us further by freely admitting to not having voices in his head.
“How strange!” My inner monologue thought “how can people think without the running commentary?!”
We Googled it to discover that only ‘between 30-50%’ of people have an inner monologue, which means approximately 60% of us don’t!
“This will make a great post!” interjected my inner monologue.
A bit of background
I would class myself as someone who has an inner monologue, always have had, and therefore had just assumed that everyone else has one.
I have referenced it several times in my previous posts, in fact this post was almost written entirely from my inner monologue’s point of view.
So when I returned from Edinburgh I thought I’d do a bit of research and find out exactly what’s going on with all those people who don’t have one.
The problem here, is that the numbers returned are at best a bit woolly.
“I didn’t see any Argyll jumpers” quipped my inner monologue.
The recurring stat of ’30 to 50%’ in itself sounds like they couldn’t be arsed to count up the votes properly. Why not just say 40%!?!
“Google hasn’t been this obtuse since we were trying to find out how many calories a blow job burned” spat my inner monologue (Mrs.M).
Anyway the point is, my research came back inconclusive, so I was left disbelieving it.
“Surely they just didn’t ask the rights questions?”
“How did they define inner monologue?”
“What are we having for dinner?” chimed in Mrs.M.
I just couldn’t possibly imagine that there are people who don’t have one, that I thought I’d shelve the idea, as surely everyone would think it was a mad suggestion, based on very little research.
Until, I listened to the Adrift podcast (episode 324) which starts off with a conversation between the two hosts (our very own
& Geoff Lloyd), who are at opposite ends of the inner monologue spectrum!It’s bloody fascinating, I urge you to go and listen.
“Yes, I’ll wait here until you return” chimed in Mrs.M with more than a whiff of disappointed resignation.
Back from the podcast?
What did you think?
Mind blowing eh?
Like my festival-going friend, not only does Geoff not have an inner monologue, but he also can’t visualise things, which is called aphantasia and affects 3% of people.
Incredible!
Being a very visual person, I can’t even imagine, not being able to imagine things.
The 3rd option
During our Edinburgh lunch chatter on the subject, the other thing that came to light, is that two of our number were referring to their ‘inner monologue’ as an ‘inner dialogue’.
Which when I picked them up on it, they fiercely defended.
It wasn’t my Radio 4-esque running commentary of thoughts, it was a full blown conversation!
When they experienced these inner ‘voices’ they were having a discussion with themselves, to explore the options, each voice taking an opposing view.
It sounded a bit ‘devil and angel’ but not as clichéd as that.
My inner monologue, is just one voice, my own, commentating on what’s going on, or listing suggestions of what might happen next, and even at times daring me to action a thought we’ve just had.
‘We’ are never in conversation with ‘each other’ I am merely ruminating on thoughts before I release them into the wild and say them out loud.
It feels like I’ve always done this, and I’m shocked to find out that not only is everyone else not doing this, but in fact I’m in the minority.
Writers are more likely to have an inner monologue than not
I did wonder whether men vs women were more likely to have an inner monologue, but there’s no correlation there.
However, the demographic ‘writers’ are much more likely to have an inner monologue than not.
I guess because we think in words and often try out sentences in our heads before committing them to the keyboard… or at least I do.
Off on a tangent
The way we ‘see’ numbers and time can vary greatly too.
I have always seen numbers in colour, 48 being the most Christmassy number, because four is red and eight is green… obviously. 😉
This is called Grapheme-color Synesthesia, I think I am in the minority on this front, it would be funny to meet someone who saw numbers as the same colours as me!
I’m not sure where it came from, maybe a classroom when I was very little had the numbers 0-9 on the wall in bright colours and they stuck?
I think this is where I get the coloured days of the week from, an old graphical representation of the days of the week on a classroom wall.
The two weekend days stretching below Mon-Fri in warm yellow tones, Saturday being more orangey than Sunday.
Before we head back to Monday (red) and through to Friday (green). I still associate these colours with the days of the week.
I find it fascinating to find out how other people think, and it’s particularly amazing if it’s totally different to me.
Start the conversation
Next time you are in the company of three or more people, I urge you to ask them whether they have an inner monologue.
You’ll be surprised at not only how many different variations you’ll hear back, but it’s also a joy to see everyone being totally surprised, not only by everyone’s differences, but also bonding if there are similarities in the group.
It seems to be a subject that no one really talks about, so we had either concluded that we are unique (and probably best not to talk about the voices in our head), or we are exactly the same as everyone else.
The reality it turns out, is extremely varied.
Some food for thought for you.
Toodles!
K8x
Join in the comments below:
Do you have an inner monologue, or a dialogue perhaps?
Do you see numbers or days of the week in colour?
Thank you for being here, please ❤️ (below) if you enjoyed this piece, it really helps others find it.
It’s so interesting, isn’t it? And nobody really talks about it. Although I did try and strike up this conversation with a fellow school parent last week and it fell a bit flat. I’m probably now the weird parent.
Also, I’d pay good money to see your Google search history!
Hi Kate,
The Judge, "Kate won't want to hear what you have to say. It is of no consequence."
Pleaser, "Yes, she will. We want her to feel better about her post and then she will love Gary."
Judge, "But he's got nothing useful or worthy to say."
Mr Hypervigilant, "I'll read the other comments first, so we know what we're dealing with and I can help minimise any threats."
Wimp, "Please Gary don't, you might get some nasty comments back, better to sit back and not upset anyone."
Deep Mind, "Trust Gary to know what he's doing."
Me, "I hear you all, and I understand your position, but I choose to engage with Kate. I'm sure I'll learn more about life.
As you see, I don't have an internal 'monologue'. Instead I had/have an internal 'chorus'. I used to call them my Demons. They are still here with me, but I re-named them to suit their new roles as my Champions.
I suspect I'm not unique.