Understanding and Combating Boredom

"Bored to death."  You probably have heard that phrase many, many times.  And you undoubtedly would agree that boredom certainly is a negative emotion.  But how deadly or negative an emotion is it?  Since Wijnand A. P. van Tilburg and Eric R. Igou (2017) carefully investigated boredom, it is fitting that we start with their research,

van Tilburg and Igou sought to determine how boredom compared to the negative emotions of sadness, anger, frustration, fear, disgust, depression, guilt, shame, regret, and disappointment.  They specifically looked at the extent to which boredom differed from the others conceptually and experientially, and  how the experience of boredom differed from person to person.  Their general conclusions made sense.  The investigators reported that boredom is in fact conceptually different from the other negative emotions.  When bored, individuals experience mildly negativity, low arousal, inattention, and a sense of meaninglessness.

As describe thus far, the emotional profile of boredom does not seem to be especially worrisome.  However, boredom is found to correlate positively with other more distressing conditions such as anxiety, anger, risk seeking, gambling, depression, and loneliness.  The positive correlation of course does not mean that boredom necessarily causes the other problems, but it certainly might increase one’s vulnerability to them.

The picture is not totally bleak, however.  Investigators other than van Tilburg and Igou have suggested that boredom sometimes can confer benefits.   First and foremost, like all emotions, boredom has a signal function.  It is obvious to all that anger, for instance, signals that the angry person perceives a significant threat to their person.  Even children know boredom's signal function; they unwittingly express that knowledge when they complain, "I'm bored.  I don't have anything to do."  So, if we recognize that we are bored, we can follow mother's advice and find something satisfying to do.

The experience of "flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) is the ideal antidote to boredom.  Flow occurs when we engage in activities that are moderately challenging and engrossing.  Passive experiences rarely produce flow.  Most often, flow activities involve a clear goal and method by which we can determine success toward that goal.  Typical flow-inducing pursuits are playing complex games, such as chess, or executing complex behaviors, such as playing a musical instrument or fabricating an object.  Watching television or mindless random Internet surfing are unlikely to confer flow.

When bored then, recognize the signal.  Find some engrossing activity that can elicit flow.  If you currently have no such flow-inducing activity, do yourself a favor and find one.  Don’t permit yourself to be bored to death.  Find a way to be animated and activated with life.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M.  (1997).  Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday Life.  New York: Harper Collins.

van Tilburg, W. A. T., and iIgou, E., R. (2017).  Boredom begs to differ: Differentiation from other negative emotions.  Emotion,  17, 2, 309-322.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000233.