On boredom: Lack of challenge and meaning as distinct boredom experiences

Abstract

Boredom is a common experience that affects people on multiple levels, including their thoughts, feelings, motivations, and actions. Not much research, however, has examined what makes the experience of boredom distinct from other affective experiences. Based on earlier research on boredom and our meaning-regulation framework, we conducted a series of four studies that demonstrate the distinct experiential content of boredom. More than other negative affective experiences (sadness, anger, and frustration), boredom makes people feel unchallenged while they think that the situation and their actions are meaningless (Study 1).The distinct experiential content of boredom is associated with boredom proneness (Study 2) and with state boredom experiences (Study 3). In addition, the distinct experiential content of boredom is affected by contextual features (Study 4). This series of studies provides a systematic understanding of what people feel, think, and want to do when bored, distinctive from other negative experiences.

Boredom begs to differ: Differentiation from other negative emotions.

“…Its prototypical psychological signature features low arousal (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985;cf. Goetz, Frenzel, Hall, Nett, Pekrun, & Lipnevich, 2014), a lack of perceived meaning and challenge in the activity at hand (Van Tilburg, Igou, & Sedikides, 2013), mind-wandering (Kane, Brown, McVay, Silvia, Myin-Germeys, & Kwapil, 2007), low attention (Eastwood et al, 2012), and the desire to change the current activity or to disengage from it (Van Tilburg & Igou, 2012).…”

“…For example, the lack of perceived challenge entailed in the boredom experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) facilitates the search for more challenging activity (Van Tilburg & Igou, 2012). Likewise, boredom "emotionally registers an absence of meaning and leads the actor in question towards meaning" (Barbalet, 1999, p. 631), which can produce behaviors aimed at restoring a sense of personal meaningfulness.…”

“…Despite the increased scientific interest in boredom and its wide scope of implications, the current understanding of boredom is unsatisfactory; an issue that many scholars have raised (see Eastwood et al, 2012;Leary, Rogers, Canfield, & Coe, 1986;Van Tilburg & Igou, 2012;Vodanovich, 2003). Particularly striking is the lack of knowledge about the differences of boredom in relation to other negative emotions, with only a handful of studies considering other emotions alongside boredom (e.g., Goldberg et al, 2011;Smith & Ellsworth, 1985;Van Tilburg & Igou, 2012).…”

“…Particularly striking is the lack of knowledge about the differences of boredom in relation to other negative emotions, with only a handful of studies considering other emotions alongside boredom (e.g., Goldberg et al, 2011;Smith & Ellsworth, 1985;Van Tilburg & Igou, 2012).…”

“…For example, boredom proneness predicts aggression (Dahlen et al, 2004), but so do frustration (e.g., Miller, 1941) and anger (Maiuro, Vitaliano, & Cahn, 1987). Furthermore, although empirical work has confirmed that boredom involves a sense of meaninglessness (Fahlman, Mercer, Gaskocski, Eastwood, & Eastwood, 2009;Van Tilburg & Igou, 2012), so do sadness and feelings of depression (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006). Likewise, boredom is linked to withdrawal behavior (Geiwitz, 1966), but so is disgust (Harlé, & Sanfey, 2010).…”