For this week’s extra show (and thank you sincerely for your patronage)… I decided we’d jump into this article that crossed my path this morning.
It came, first, from PsyPost, as a snappy headline that popped up in my browser.
That online article said:
New research suggests the “lying flat” lifestyle actively decreases long-term happiness
A study in China found that young people who adopted the “Lying Flat” lifestyle—a passive attitude characterized by giving up efforts and goals in order to relieve competitive pressure—tend to report lower satisfaction with their lives. Interestingly, this passive attitude predicted lower life satisfaction later, but life satisfaction did not predict future adoption of this lifestyle, indicating that it is the “lying flat” attitude that leads to diminished life satisfaction. The paper was published in Behavioral Sciences.
The “Lying Flat” phenomenon, known in Chinese as tang ping, is a social trend that emerged in China as a quiet form of resistance to intense work and social pressures. It refers to the decision of some young people to withdraw from competitive career striving and material ambition. Instead of pursuing promotions, property ownership, or marriage at all costs, individuals adopting this stance aim to meet only minimal living needs. It describes a personal rejection of societal pressures to overwork and over-achieve. Literally, tang ping refers to a person lying flat on their back, with the whole body relaxed, making no movement, and responding to nothing.
The movement arose partly in response to long working hours, high housing prices, economic inequality, and limited upward mobility. It is closely connected to criticism of the so-called “996” work culture (working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week). People supporting tang ping describe feelings of burnout, disillusionment, and a lack of meaningful reward for extreme effort. Unlike overt protest movements, lying flat is largely a passive and individual adaptation rather than a collective and organized one.
Chinese authorities and state media have criticized it as defeatist and socially irresponsible. Some online discussions about the phenomenon were censored, reflecting political sensitivity around youth disengagement. More broadly, the concept has become a symbol of generational fatigue in high-pressure economies. It is conceptually similar to the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” or the rise of NEETs (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) that became popular in Western societies at roughly a similar time.
Lead author Huanhua Lu and colleagues wanted to examine the relationship between the adoption of the “lying flat” (tang ping) lifestyle and life satisfaction. Their hypothesis was that the adoption of this lifestyle would be associated with lower life satisfaction, and that this lifestyle would actively diminish satisfaction with life over time. They conducted two studies.
Participants in the first study were 960 undergraduates from Beijing. Their average age was approximately 20 years, and roughly 55% of them were men. Of the total, 470 were recruited from a national “double first-class” key university (an institution with better financial and academic resources), while 490 were from an ordinary college. Study participants completed assessments of their endorsement of the “lying flat” lifestyle (using the Lying Flat Tendency Scale) and their life satisfaction (using the life satisfaction dimension of the Index of Well-being).
The second study involved a final sample of 109 participants from a university who completed a longitudinal follow-up study (originally 120 were recruited, but 11 dropped out). Their average age was 19 years, and 44 of them were women. They completed the same two assessments twice, one month apart.
Results of the first study showed that the endorsement of the “lying flat” lifestyle was associated with significantly lower life satisfaction, even after controlling for gender, age, university attended, and subjective socioeconomic status. Women tended to endorse the “lying flat” lifestyle more than men. Furthermore, this lifestyle tended to be endorsed more by students from the ordinary college than by those from the “double first-class” university.
Results of the second study showed that endorsement of the “lying flat” lifestyle at the first time point negatively predicted life satisfaction one month later. However, life satisfaction at the start of the study did not predict the endorsement of the “lying flat” lifestyle one month later. This indicates that it is likely the “lying flat” lifestyle that leads to diminished life satisfaction and not vice versa.
“The present study first revealed a temporal directionality between the ‘lying flat’ and life satisfaction. This suggests that ‘lying flat’, which serves as a temporary relief mechanism in the face of overwhelming pressure, may come at the cost of long-term psychological functioning,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the broader psychological implications of adopting the “lying flat” lifestyle. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on young people from Beijing universities. Studies on other demographic groups, other areas, and people from different cultures might not produce identical results.
So obviously. We have thoughts and questions.
As a population that gets trapped in freeze states and deep depressions… and often overworks themselves into sickness… I think we all know a thing or ten about the lying flat lifestyle. At least, in bouts.
And I can tell you, I have a lot of problems with this post. And the authors behind it who have clearly not had the same experiences.
Being a person who suffers from cognitive depression and goes through periods not too dissimilar from what they described, except I keep working in some capacity so I can survive and OTHERWISE just give up on existing…
You don’t often admit how life-dissatisfied you are while continuing to attend to that life.
Your mind kindof can’t let you see how miserable you are and how pointless everything you do is…
And when it does, that’s the moment you end up sprawled out on the goddamn floor.
Or shortly thereafter. Ya know? Give it a few days, you can’t do it anymore.
It’s not usually like a month out you report “yeah, I can’t fucking do this anymore” and then predictably, gradually, slide into dysfunction. You at least lie to yourself and others, sometimes, in between.
So unless they asked these individuals AS they were entering the lying down lifestyle “what’s your life satisfaction level?” like… moment 0 of going horizontal…
I don’t believe in the relevance of their T1 measurement.
Because it’s the wrong time to take a measurement. It’s a random day, full of hiding and numbing one’s misery, as usual. And what do we do on those days? We keep a strong face and do what we think we’re supposed to.
If you polled most people going about their normal business on a usual day, even if they were absolutely devastated inside, as I, for one, often am… don’t you think they’d report “yeah, everything is fine, whatever, I’m here, I’m breathing, I’m working, I’m doing what I’m supposed to, I’m satisfied enough.”
The very fact that they’re responding to this survey indicates to me that they probably haven’t authentically reached or surpassed the threshold of life dissatisfaction awareness yet. They’re not at the rock-bottom that inspires someone to stop moving.
Maybe THE NEXT DAY they wouldn’t feel satisfied, wouldn’t respond, and would begin lying on the floor waiting for the sweet kiss of death.
But at the moment that they’re polled, they’re functioning, they’re just having a typical operational experience in their mundane reality… I don’t think that it’s indicative of how they’re really feeling, under the masking and performative action. Especially in Chinese culture.
And I don’t think it’s a stable measure. I think realization of deep life dissatisfaction is always about one spilled glass of water away, when you’ve been suppressing it for months or years.
Again, until that breaking moment… the final straw… the instance of exhaustion… the mind just keeps going… keeps telling itself that it’s fine, it’s happy enough, it can keep doing this… because it has to. And it doesn’t help to be aware of how much you’re suffering when there’s nothing you can do about it.
So… I wondered if this summary article was correct.
Note. Whenever you read an article like this – a cliff notes reporting of a research study that’s been simplified for a wider online audience – you need to be careful. Because very often the conclusions they state are not the conclusions from the research. But they are conclusions that make good click-baity headlines. Controversial ones.
Just be mindful of it. If you ever want an academic article, yourself, to check for validity… let me know. I’ll try to get it.
And considering how batshit stupid it is to believe that people aren’t life-dissatisfied BEFORE THEY STOP MOVING OR INTERACTING WITH ANYTHING MATERIAL REALITY – I mean, come the fuck on, that’s completely unpsychological and untethered from any real life experience – I found that paper to make sure this PsyPost author wasn’t taking creative license with the findings.
Let’s find out.
Here are some excerpts:
Does “Lying Flat” Lead to Greater Life Satisfaction? Evidence from Empirical Research
Literally, “lying flat” refers to a person lying flat on his or her back, with the whole body relaxed, making no movement and responding to nothing (Y. Chen & Zhang, 2023). In this state, the individual seems to be indifferent to the outside world and does not respond to any stimuli. This attitude of “inaction”, “no effort”, is the sociological derivation of the word “lying flat” (Ou, 2023). Many scholars have discussed the characteristics of “lying flat” and agreed that individuals truly “lying flat” showed the following characteristics: no goals, no effort, and no action (Y. Chen & Cao, 2021; C. Deng, 2022; Hu & Wang, 2023; Lin & Gao, 2021; Ling & Wang, 2023; C. Ma & Wang, 2022; Qin & Dai, 2022; Wei & Wang, 2023). From a cultural perspective, the emergence of the “lying flat” phenomenon in China reflects a tension between traditional Confucian values—emphasizing diligence, perseverance, and societal contribution—and the modern pressures of hyper-competition, economic uncertainty, and social stratification (Confucius, 2014).
As a localized response to these evolving dynamics, “lying flat” may represent not just a psychological reaction, but a cultural adaptation to increasingly perceived futility in achieving success through conventional effort.
While “lying flat” has gained particular visibility in China, similar sentiments are observable globally. For instance, in Western societies, movements like “quiet quitting” or the rise of NEETs (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) reflect young people’s disillusionment with traditional success narratives in the context of unstable job markets and escalating social pressures (Eurofound, 2012). Comparing “lying flat” with global phenomena can provide a broader framework for understanding youth disengagement in different socio-economic systems.
“Lying flat” is an alternative lifestyle chosen by some young people who are dissatisfied with the status quo of life, so can “lying flat” improve an individual’s life satisfaction? Some young people claimed in online forums that “lying flat” was a way of life independently chosen by individuals in the face of pressure, reflecting the subjectivity of human beings, and that “lying flat” can alleviate pressure and anxiety and make individuals happier, with higher levels of life satisfaction (Cao, 2020; Feng, 2021; Luo, 2021; Z. Ma, 2021; Sun et al., 2021; X. Wang, 2018, 2021, 2022; Yang, 2021).
In this sense, “lying flat” might represent a rational and adaptive response to social conditions perceived as unjust or excessively demanding.
When structural barriers hinder upward mobility, “lying flat” may serve as a form of psychological self-preservation, minimizing stress and protecting mental health in the short term, which may temporarily increase an individual’s life satisfaction. However, most theorists argue that truly “lying flat” (i.e., giving up the pursuit of goals, making no effort, and taking no action) may cause an individual to lose their enthusiasm and motivation for life, and it will affect the individual’s personal growth and career development, which will in turn decrease their life satisfaction
Ah, so they do get it. It’s burnout protection; my system is so stressed, I cannot allow it to be stressed about anything anymore. I will retreat and survive this, then figure out what to do. They speak to a sense of hopelessness and helplessness predating the lying flat. (one thinks)
Then they continue and it becomes infuriating as we walk through various frameworks for understanding where human satisfaction comes from:
Self-Determination Theory posits that individuals are motivated to pursue activities that satisfy three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Chirkov et al., 2003; Deci & Ryan, 2000, 2008; Deci et al., 2001; Ryan & Deci, 2000). When individuals engage in hard work and when they feel competent in their abilities to accomplish tasks, they are more likely to experience a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, contributing to overall life satisfaction (Diener et al., 2003; Ferreira et al., 2020; T. Liu et al., 2019; Morales-García et al., 2024; Žnidaršič & Marič, 2021). And individuals engaging in “lying flat” do not work hard or do not make an effect, making it difficult to gain a sense of competence, which is not conducive to life satisfaction.
What if you are never considered competent no matter how hard you work?
Goal-Setting Theory posits that setting specific, challenging goals leads to increase motivation and performance (Locke & Latham, 2006; Tubbs, 1986). When individuals set ambitious goals and work diligently toward achieving them, they experience a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction upon goal attainment, which contributes to overall life satisfaction (Schunk, 1990; Sheldon & Elliot, 1999; W. Wang et al., 2017). And individuals engaging in “lying flat” do not have clear goals and are not willing to work hard, which makes it difficult to gain a sense of accomplishment and is not conducive to increasing life satisfaction.
What if you can’t achieve your goals no matter how hard you work?
Positive Psychology emphasizes the importance of cultivating strengths, virtues, and positive experiences to enhance well-being and life satisfaction (Fredrickson, 2001; M. Seligman et al., 2005). From this perspective, working hard can be viewed as a means of self-improvement, personal growth, and leading to greater overall life satisfaction. And individuals who engage in “lying flat” do not have clear achievement goals, do not work hard, and do not make progress, thus losing opportunities for self-improvement and personal growth, which is not conducive to increasing life satisfaction (Ryff, 1989; Sheldon & Houser-Marko, 2001; Waterman, 1993; Weigold et al., 2020).
What if you’ll never make progress no matter how hard you work?
And, I’m sorry… working is a means of self-improvement and personal growth?? What boss sold these authors that life? Is this sponsored by capitalism?
They continue, saying everything we scream about internally, aloud:
Income that can meet basic needs (such as food, shelter, and healthcare) was found to be positively correlated with life satisfaction (Ding et al., 2021; FitzRoy & Nolan, 2022).
What if it can’t?
Progress toward meaningful goals that can boost individuals’ sense of competence was also demonstrated to be associated with greater levels of life satisfaction (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999; W. Wang et al., 2017).
Progress? Like? Renting forever and working until death? Paying more to billionaires for the right to never retire or be stable?
A positive association between work engagement and life satisfaction was also found (Ferreira et al., 2020; T. Liu et al., 2019; Morales-García et al., 2024; Žnidaršič & Marič, 2021). That is, when individuals are fully engaged in their work, experiencing a sense of purpose, involvement, and enthusiasm, it often spills over into other areas of their life, contributing to higher levels of overall life satisfaction (Ferreira et al., 2020; T. Liu et al., 2019; Morales-García et al., 2024; Žnidaršič & Marič, 2021).
From work? How many jobs are there that offer a sense of full engagement, purpose, involvement, and enthusiasm? Really?
How many positions are not about increasing profits for rich people?
Because you know what? That’s why I got disillusioned and quit cancer research in academia – at a school, not at a drug company. Even that does not have a noble goal. It makes life feel pointless to put so much effort in.
But, the authors want us to know, working nonstop is actually better for us.
Research suggested that too much free time reduced life satisfaction, and there was an optimal number of working hours conducive to life satisfaction (Hsu et al., 2019; Shao, 2022).
… Correct, it isn’t 40 or more. For a job that is purposeless and doesn’t cover the bills.
I agree there IS such a thing as too much free time. But that’s only when you can’t afford to do constructive things to fill the time. If you have money, you have plans and hobbies. If you can’t get money, you end up like this:
Individuals who engage in “lying flat” (have no goals, do not work hard, and do not make progress), will have a lower income, which cannot meet basic needs; at the same time, it is difficult to experience a sense of purpose, sense of competence, and sense of fulfillment, and this makes individuals prone to falling into ruminative thinking, all of which will lead to a decline in life satisfaction.
It is hard not to ruminate about working one’s life away for no reward. And the only alternative being “just don’t move – if you don’t try, you can’t fail” is also going to get some repetitive thought.
Because, as we know, rumination tends to take place around the self.
And personal history. And projected future.
So altogether, being in a profitless culture that only wants you to work, and realizing your mind and body cannot handle constant work without reprieve anymore, so your BEST fate is to “lay down in the woods and wait for the moss to slowly reclaim your body” as I’ve put it before…
Is going to come with rumination.
In conclusion, though, the bias of these authors can be smelled from 10000 miles away. Despite being from the MARXISM COLLEGE – what the fuck!?! - they seem to believe work gives purpose and, it sounds like, human life value. Or at least they had to make those arguments for the paper to get published. Hard to say.
Anyways, that was just the introduction. Finally, to the findings:
One aspect of their method? They polled two different universities for this study. One, a “standard” college. One, an exemplary college.
Our study also found that the degree of “lying flat” was significantly higher in the youth from the ordinary college than from the key university. In China, individuals who were admitted to the key university needed to perform better academically, so they needed to expend more effort and had more resilience in the face of difficulties, compared with those who were admitted to the ordinary college.
MANY THOUGHTS about the validity of that statement. Because they earned a spot at Harvard, they had a harder time getting there than someone who went to a state school? Interesting. Quite a logical fallacy, and one that feels sold to us from the upper class.
Therefore, in the face of the ever-involving social environment, the youth from the key university were less likely to choose to engage in “lying flat” than those from the ordinary college.
Revealing. So the people who have a brighter future and probably have had a brighter past to get to that advanced university… are less likely to give up on moving and lie on the floor indefinitely? You’re fucking kidding? Who would have thought?
You know, it’s important that we have poverty representation in research. I’m just saying. These conclusions are wild.
They continue:
More importantly, we found temporal directionality between “lying flat” and life satisfaction; that is, “lying flat” significantly negatively predicted life satisfaction.
So they reiterate that as lying flat goes on, satisfaction goes down. Potentially because?
Individuals engaging in more “lying flat” behaviors (giving up pursuing their goals, not working hard, and not making progress) may have difficulty not only in obtaining opportunities for high pay but also in obtaining opportunities for personal growth and realizing achievement goals, all of which have a negative impact on life satisfaction (Deci & Ryan, 2000; FitzRoy & Nolan, 2022; Ryff, 1989; Sheldon & Houser-Marko, 2001; Waterman, 1993; Weigold et al., 2020).
On the other hand, this may also be related to the fact that all the participants in this study were Chinese, and that in Chinese culture, it has always been emphasized that “Heaven rewards the hard-working” and that happiness is achieved through struggle (Confucius, 2014), with those who do not work hard and do not make progress behaving contrarily to the traditional culture, making it difficult to gain social acceptance, which is not conducive to increasing life satisfaction.
And here, they finally address not getting one’s needs met through laying on the floor.
Yes, it will impact your social life, which will further decrease life satisfaction.
And also, it will impact your self-esteem. And, same.
If your culture says you’re a piece of shit for resting or not working, then you will implicitly think the same thing about yourself. For long, drawn out periods. On the floor. With nothing else to think about.
Of course.
I’m not here to argue FOR lying flat as a lifestyle. As a hobby, as needed, fuck yeah.
But I’ll never say that refusing to live is the way to do things. I believe I’ve characterized this quite heavily in the show, also, as “trying to get as close to nonexistence as possible” because existence hurts so badly and feels so futile. It is not a way to go through life. It’s just pre-death death.
HOWEVER.
To refuse to take full account of the extenuating circumstances, external and internal conditions, that precede the refusal to engage with anyone or anything at all, forever…
Is completely insane.
….
Except it’s not.
It’s the logic of capitalism.
This paper tells us, whether they meant to or not:
If you can’t work, it’s because you’ve suddenly decided you don’t want to.
You are freeloading on the world.
You are now worthless to society and other people.
You are broken, internally. It’s not that the system is broken around you.
It’s not that you realized you’ll work, only work, until you die. While not even securing the necessities to survive through doing so.
It’s not that, faced with the immovable structure around you, you realized you are powerless, you are trapped, and no matter how much you thrash, the elevator isn’t going to start moving upwards.
It’s not that you are not coming to this defeated conclusion because you’ve thought outside the system, realized it doesn’t need to be there… but it is… and therefore, you’re the pawn in someone else’s story of success while you’re guaranteed none of your own.
It’s just that you decide, one day, spontaneously, to become inanimate. And from there, life satisfaction goes down.
This is the societal gaslighting I keep yelling about.
Where everything is worse all the time. And then we’re 1) accosted for responding to everything being worse all the time, and 2) blamed for the worsening.
Why won’t the slaves gladly accept what we’re offering them? The opportunity for life-satisfaction and esteem, earned through working 2-4 jobs for 70 years or until they drop dead of a disease that we viably can cure but they can’t receive treatment for?
So.
Anyways.
Fuck this paper. These people. Or whatever had to be done to get this published.
This one of the least psychologically informed set of conclusions that has ever existed.
Again, we don’t go from “life satisfied” to “atrophying on the floor.”
Life satisfaction isn’t stable.
REPORTED life satisfaction is not a reliable measure.
What we can allow ourselves to acknowledge isn’t stable. Let alone what we can safely say to others. Let alone in a culture where to be less than life satisfied comes with accusations of entitled ingratitude.
And surviving is always going to take precedent.
If we have to tell ourselves we’re satisfied to NOT lay on the floor until death consumes us, then we will. Until the moment we can’t anymore and you find us spread eagle.
…
That said.
The answer isn’t to give up.
In my mind, it’s to opt out.
Make money a different way. Work around the system.
And/or make less. Adjust life conditions, adjust needs, so that there is time to lie flat. And to do things that produce actual joy. Actual life-satisfaction.
It’s impossible to live outside the system while still IN THE SYSTEM as we all are…. But there are ways to rely less on it.
And I have found, since my days of quitting science because it was purposeless and I didn’t believe in the supposed security of a 9-5, that it’s a much more satisfying path.
It's 2026.
Let’s please stop shitting on each other. Especially the youth. Who are facing a lifetime so hopeless, they’d rather just skip ahead to being functionally dead.
And if you can, if they’re willing, try to help someone off the floor today.
Or, better yet, intervene before they hit it and don’t get back up.
If you need a hand, yourself… you know where to find about a thousand of them. Check the TMFR discord. And at least have the life satisfaction of new friends on your side.
That’s it. Thanks for this bonus entry.
Happy birthday to all of us.
And cheers y’all.