Boredom and Power: How Power Relations Influence Feeling Boredom

Abstract

The paper advocates the claim that boredom is not only a psychological state or existential mood but a social emotion produced and reproduced in the process of interactions between people as individuals, people displaying specific social roles, or social groups. Moreover, as argued in the article, the feeling of boredom is particularly characteristic of power relations. Therefore, boredom is hypothesized to be a matter of interactional/social position – its experiencing is influenced by one’s social status. The power to produce boredom in others usually reflects a higher social position, and in some situations, causing others to be bored can constitute a deliberate or unintentional method of keeping others in a submissive position by limiting their sense of agency – thus a tool for gaining/maintaining power and social control.