Do you have an "Inner Monologue"?

[Edward64]

(Poll is for the sake of science!)


This popped up on my google feed and found it fascinating. It's not a new discussion/discovery (I found much older articles) but it is to me.

I have an inner voice, I just assumed everyone did. But apparently not so and I'm in the minority. It blows my mind!

Internal Monologue: What It Is, What It Means, and More

Some people may experience an internal dialogue more often while others may not experience one at all. Having an inner voice is not typically a cause for concern unless it is often self-critical.

Have you ever “heard” yourself talk in your head? If you have, then you’ve experienced a common phenomenon called an internal monologue.

Also referred to as “internal dialogue,” “the voice inside your head,” or an “inner voice,” your internal monologue is the result of certain brain mechanisms that cause you to “hear” yourself talk in your head without actually speaking and forming sounds.

Not “hearing” your inner voice doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have an internal monologue, though, because some people access it visually instead of auditorily. For example, you might “see” do-to lists in your head but not be able to “hear” yourself think.

People with a hearing impairment may experience their inner monologue through signs or images.

It turns out there is, at least in the sense of having an inner conversation in unspoken words. About 30 to 50 percent of people, according to psychologist Russell Hurlburt’s research, regularly think to themselves in internal monologues.

[Edward64]

Examples that I've found ...

You can tell that you have an inner monologue when you experience signs like having songs stuck in your head, replaying a favorite podcast or movie in your mind, or having a conversation with yourself. Some people experience inner monologue in the form of hearing their voice going over the words when they read a book.
:
Also known as internal dialogue, inner monologue is a voice inside your head. It occurs due to certain brain mechanisms that make you hear yourself talk without actually speaking. This “little voice in your head” is a common occurrence, but not everyone experiences it.

An internal monologue (also called an inner monologue or internal dialogue) is considered an inner voice that narrates your thoughts throughout the day.

"I think everybody will recognize it themselves. One is going back over a communication event. We will often replay it in our minds and think about it and talk to ourselves about it. For example, I wish I had remembered to tell [this person] about this or that, or the other possibility is preparation for talking to somebody and kind of rehearsing."

[Kodos]

Yes. Yes I do.

[Internal monologue: "Should you have really shared that?"]

[Bobble]

I "talk to myself" without speaking and I think that counts. No more obvious than when I give imaginary press conferences in my head over sports management games. But, my inner voice has never said anything to me that I didn't deliberately "say" to myself. So, there's no movie-like back-and-forth in my head where I'm arguing with myself or surprised by what "I" have said.

[molson]

How should I answer this question.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Bobble

I "talk to myself" without speaking and I think that counts. No more obvious than when I give imaginary press conferences in my head over sports management games. But, my inner voice has never said anything to me that I didn't deliberately "say" to myself. So, there's no movie-like back-and-forth in my head where I'm arguing with myself or surprised by what "I" have said.

Yes, this is me & do think it counts.

There are times when I have the devil/angel (e.g. both sides) in my internal discussions but am not "surprised by what I've said").

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Yes. Yes I do.

[Internal monologue: "Should you have really shared that?"]

I do too.

[Internal monologue: "Start fires and eat extra-toasty cheeze-its"]

[Ksyrup]

This describes about 85% of what I would consider my typical "social interactions."

Is that a problem?

[molson]

I find it really relaxing when I'm nature, or just the back yard, and I try to think about things without using an inner monologe. Rather than speaking in my head, I just am.

[Ksyrup]

My inner monologue just said that sounds impossible.

[molson]

.....

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by molson

I find it really relaxing when I'm nature, or just the back yard, and I try to think about things without using an inner monologe. Rather than speaking in my head, I just am.

Nature does have a nice meditative effect. More being in the moment, less thinking when you're off by yourself. Running did that for me as well.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

My inner monologue just said that sounds impossible.

Even for a computer?

[Ghost Econ]

People who say they have no inner monologue don't understand the question or are idiots. And way more than 30-50% think with their inner monologue.

[jbpostbot]

?

[Brian Swartz]

I'm curious how you know that.

[SirFozzie]

I actually talk my inner monologue a lot of the time. Mostly because it's just me in the house (and the dog) 90-95% of the time, so if I don't talk to myself as I work, I wouldn't talk at all.

[GrantDawg]

I do, and I find as I have gotten older I will often randomly say it out loud at times when I think (or hope) I am alone. It has started to become more involuntary for some reason. I have always had times when I would verbalized things just to help me sort something out, but now I just blurt out a sentence or phrase randomly every once in awhile.
Something else I will swear to: I had an internal monologue before I was very verbal. Part of that was because I was late to being able to be verbal. I was three when I had my tongue clipped. Before that, I was unable to form many words and mostly communicated with grunts. My little sister that was only 13 months younger than me shared a little grunt language, and I thought about things using those grunts at times. I could remember some it till I was 8 or 9, but i eventually lost it. My sister lost the "language" well before that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I actually talk my inner monologue a lot of the time. Mostly because it's just me in the house (and the dog) 90-95% of the time, so if I don't talk to myself as I work, I wouldn't talk at all.

Or while gaming ... or driving ... or pretty much anything I do.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

People who say they have no inner monologue don't understand the question or are idiots. And way more than 30-50% think with their inner monologue.

Your reaction here was basically my reaction.

Either the number is waaay higher than 30-50% or what I'm counting (and apparently most of those replying so far) is different than what the study was counting.

[Edward64]

I asked my wife and kids. We are 4/4 for inner monologue. And the survey here also lends to something is off.

So I dug a little deeper. There was an article behind a paywall but think below may explain the discrepancy.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...ence-1.5486969

According to Hulburt, not many people have an inner monologue 100 per cent of the time, but most do sometimes. He estimates that inner monologue is a frequent thing for 30 to 50 per cent of people.

"There are very big individual differences," he said, "Some people have absolutely none and some people have pretty close to 100 per cent."

So what he seems to be saying is

1) There are some people with no inner monologue, some with close to 100%; most have "sometimes"
2) For people that have it, the 30-50% is a "frequent thing" (vs orig quote I had above said "regular thing")

It is not 30-50% have inner monologue and 70-50% do not have inner monologue. It's the debate between "regular" vs "frequent" inner monologue. I have not found what the definition of regular vs frequent means in this context.

If anyone finds out what the % of having "no inner monologue at all" let us know.

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Or while gaming ... or driving ... or pretty much anything I do.

My inner monologue is pretty much "don't say that out loud."

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

My inner monologue is pretty much "don't say that out loud."

Unless the kid is home, there's hardly ever anybody around me to hear anything, so out loud isn't much of an issue for me at this point lol

[cuervo72]

Inner monologue? For years I typed it out in FOBLchat.

(I also don't understand the "no" answers. The question reads to me "do you think??" I don't know, maybe people don't. I should learn to stop overestimating them. Really the only case where I would think it would be a question is for individuals who don't have language, which these days I would not assume is many. Babies, perhaps. My question would be for those who are multilingual, what language(s) are their monologues in. I'm sure there have been studies.)

[Ksyrup]

Me and myself were discussing this while I mowed the lawn and I don't think I understand why an "inner monologue" is considered to be the same as an "inner dialogue" or "voices in your head." I don't really have a full conversation with myself - a dialogue - I just "hear" my thoughts as if it's a voice only I can hear (that's the best way I can describe it) which can be anything from "Jesus that dude is an idiot" to thinking through a work issue or practicing a talk I need to have with someone. It's a monologue "out loud" in my head.

To me, a dialogue with voices in my head is a different beast. What comes to mind is the Hi Ren video - arguing with the bad thoughts and doubts in your head as a conversation. That's not really what I do or what I consider to be an "inner monologue." Perhaps that's why people answer no to the question - because talking to voice in your head sounds like admitting you're crazy or something.

[Edward64]

FWIW I went to reddit to find examples/descriptions of not having the internal monologue. Fascinating stuff

Blocked

1. If I see a bus i don't think those words, or any words. I just check the number and if it's my bus i get ready to enter. I don't need to narrate it.

2. I just normally don't do the step of verbalising my thoughts - unless I'm writing them out, or speaking. If I am purely thinking, it's mostly visuals and spatial relationships and abstract.. stuff.

3. Not the person who's farther up in the thread, but I don't have an inner monologue/little voice in my head, maybe I can explain it. When I read, I go from viewing the words on the page/screen/etc. to understanding and conceptualizing the meaning, with no verbal or auditory step in between. As I was reading comments here, I understand them and what they are saying, but I don't "hear" anything in my head, and I don't need to. The only time I ever hear words in my head is if I get a song stuck in my head (one with lyrics, at least - I listen to a lot of classical music so most of it is instrumental).

4. Like when I need to do something I don’t say with my internal voice “I need to go do the laundry now” I just go and do it. Most of my “thoughts” throughout the day aren’t me talking to myself in my head, it’s memories and images and concepts.

5. What does this have to do with speed reading? Well the word->concept->understanding model is applied there as well. So instead of reading the words by saying them to himself like an average person would, he is instead looking at the words and understanding them without having to say them himself at all which is essentially skipping the steps it would normally take to digest the knowledge.

6. So, I can "hear" things inside my head, but I don't talk to myself in my head. For example, I don't hear myself tell myself to make a phone call, but I watch myself pick up the phone, dial a number etc.) Even now as I'm typing this out, I see pictures in my head that go alongside what I'm writing.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

[extra-toasty cheeze-its"]

GOATed snack

[Ksyrup]

That is interesting. I can't even conceptually understand what this means:

Even now as I'm typing this out, I see pictures in my head that go alongside what I'm writing.

WTF is that person "seeing?" It's obviously something more than just watching himself type. He's talking about seeing pictures that go with what he is writing. I mean, if you're talking about someone riding a horse, I suppose I can understand "seeing" that, but pictures that go alongside typing out a comment about not having an inner monologue? Huh?

[Edward64]

Yeah, I can't "picture" it either.

For the person that voted "No", care to share your experiences or how you would describe it?

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by jbpostbot

?

I don't think postbots have an inner monologue.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

(I also don't understand the "no" answers. The question reads to me "do you think??" I don't know, maybe people don't. I should learn to stop overestimating them. Really the only case where I would think it would be a question is for individuals who don't have language, which these days I would not assume is many. Babies, perhaps. My question would be for those who are multilingual, what language(s) are their monologues in. I'm sure there have been studies.)

This is exactly what was going through my mind as to what my reply would be as I was reading the thread.

My first thought was if you're thinking you are having the monologue. What else is thought?

The second was about what language a person thinks in if they are multilingual.

The only thing that makes me wonder about the original question is hear keeps being put into quotes, "hear". I mean, do I literally hear my voice as I would in a home video? No, but there are words in my head.

For things like the "bus example" (too lazy to quote every post) my experience is "no, I don't verbalize everything I see" in the moment. Too me that makes sense and doesn't really fit the question. It's more like a "but what about x,y, or z?" exception for argument's sake. Nothing like this is going to be 100% of the time. Now if I'm in a hotel and am taking a bus to the airport? Yeah, "bus" does come into the internal conversation. IE "I've got to be in the lobby by 6:55 to catch the 7:00 bus."

[Brian Swartz]

The answer that I've read from other psychologists is that some people don't think in words, they think in pictures, as was referenced in another post or two. I.e. they generally don't 'think' in words at all.

It's also worth noting that some forms of meditation are aimed at emptying your mind of that constant 'busyness'.