Do bored people do bad things?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-28 09:01

International

There could be something to the old saying, "idle hands are the devil's playthings" as international researchers have found people prone to boredom are more likely to engage in unhelpful or harmful behaviour when bored. Online surveys of 636 respondents assessed boredom proneness and responses, either avoidance, adaptive (‘I try to be productive’) or maladaptive (‘I do nonsense'). Those who were prone to boredom were more likely to report excessive media usage, more risky behaviour and more harmful behaviour. This kind of study cannot prove boredom causes risky behaviour, only that there is an association.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Boredom busters - Boredom is the root of all evil — or is it? A psychometric network approach to individual differences in behavioral responses to boredom

Current theorizing on boredom assumes that boredom serves as a signal to change something about one’s current situation – which could result in either adaptive behavior (e.g., doing sports) or maladaptive behavior (e.g., taking drugs). Supporting this assumption, higher levels of the urge to avoid and escape boredom were associated with more adaptive and more maladaptive behavior alike. In contrast, greater boredom proneness – the tendency to experience boredom frequently and intensely and to perceive life as boring – was linked to more maladaptive and less adaptive behavior. Our findings shed new light on boredom’s important function in steering human behavior.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Konstanz, Germany

Funder: We received no funding for this study.

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