A self-regulatory approach to understanding boredom proneness

Danckert & Isacescu fMRI of boredom replication

“…Participants' mean score on the deliberate mind-wandering scale was 21.00 (SD=1.95, range=7-17), while spontaneous mind-wandering scores were somewhat lower (M= 15.08, SD = 4.81, range [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. These scores are comparable to the larger sample size tested in our prior work [18].…”

“…What we are suggesting here is that the insular cortex plays a critical role in maintaining engagement with the world around us. We have looked to theoretical accounts of goal pursuit from social psychology to further inform this model of boredom [17]. One key difference discussed in this work refers to regulatory modes labelled Locomotion (i.e., just getting on with things) and Assessment (i.e., surveying options to ensure doing the right thing [43].…”

“…The bored individual wants to be engaged with their environment in some meaningful and satisfying way [15], but all attempts to do so fail [1]. That failure, which in turn leads to the cognitive and affective consequences of boredom, may result from impoverished self-regulatory skills [13,16,17]. Indeed, recent research from our lab demonstrates a strong negative relationship between boredom proneness and individual levels of self-control [17].…”

“…That failure, which in turn leads to the cognitive and affective consequences of boredom, may result from impoverished self-regulatory skills [13,16,17]. Indeed, recent research from our lab demonstrates a strong negative relationship between boredom proneness and individual levels of self-control [17]. In other words, the more adept one is at controlling one's own thoughts, emotions, and actions, the more effective they will be in goal pursuit and the less likely they are to be boredom prone.…”

Why boredom is anything but boring

“…For instance, many real-world problems that are highly correlated with boredom are connected to the idea of self-control, including addiction, gambling and binge-eating 10 . "I characterize boredom as a deficiency in self-regulation, " Danckert says.…”