Mind wandering is an elusive yet ubiquitous phenomenon in everyday life, which is largely social. The aim of the study was to investigate the frequency and the first-person experience of social mind wandering in everyday life in terms of its fundamental experiential characteristics, processes, and functions. By combining the methods of descriptive experience sampling, micro-phenomenology, and sampling reflectively observed experience, we collected 261 in-depth descriptions of the experience of social mind wandering in everyday life, provided by seven participants trained in observing and reporting on their experience according to the guidelines of empirical phenomenology. In the second phase of the study, 15 descriptions were further elaborated within expositional interviews aimed at clarifying the experience in the moment just before the signal. Using qualitative data analysis, we developed a grounded theory to explain the experiential categories and the dynamic unfolding of mind wandering. The key experiential category is the fundamental background sense of the other, formed on the basis of previous interactions and enabling the unfolding of foreground experience. The subject positions themselves in relation to the other by turning inward, toward interaction or observation. In each of these relational positions, the other is placed into different roles, enabling the subject to experience diverse content. The sense of the other is also interwoven into the overall experiential atmosphere, reciprocally influencing how the individual will experience all other aspects of mind wandering. All these dynamic processes within social mind wandering enable numerous social (e.g., fulfilling relational needs, planning future and reliving past interactions, reflection on relationships) and emotional-motivational functions (processing personally significant content, emotion regulation, self-exploration). The complex experience of others in mind wandering can therefore co-shape the individual’s broader experience of self, the world, and others, and is inextricably intertwined with experiences of everyday life.
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