The bright side of boredom.

Abstract

Boredom proneness is commonly assessed and measured using self-report scales and questionnaires. The only full-scale measure of boredom that has been extensively used to assess boredom proneness is the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS) (Farmer and Sundberg, 1986). BPS takes boredom proneness to be the tendency to experience boredom in a wide range of situations (Farmer and Sundberg, 1986). Although there is a close semantic relationship between the terms “tendency” and “disposition,” boredom proneness should not be understood as a dispositional state or property. A subject can possess the disposition to Φ even if the subject never actually Φ s. For that reason, I wish to suggest that one is prone to boredom not only if one possesses characteristics that make one susceptible to being bored, but also if one frequently experiences boredom1. Unlike a disposition that can remain hidden or non-actualized, boredom proneness, I hold, has visible and significant for the subject manifestations. Indeed, the frequent experience of boredom forms something akin to a pervasive lens through which the world is filtered. The boredom prone individual often and easily finds herself to be bored, even in situations that others, typically, find interesting and stimulating. Furthermore, she regularly becomes incapable of maintaining sustained attention, and interest in one's activities (Damrad-Frye and Laird, 1989; Eastwood et al., 2012; Malkovsky et al., 2012), she lacks excitement for, or can find no purpose in, what she is doing (Barbalet, 1999; Fahlman et al., 2009; van Tilburg and Igou, 2012), and she easily becomes frustrated, restless, or weary by either stimuli-poor or challenging situations (Farmer and Sundberg, 1986). Boredom proneness is associated with a plethora of significant bodily, psychological, and social harms (Vodanovich, 2003). Boredom proneness is positively correlated with depression and anxiety (Ahmed, 1990; Blaszczynski et al., 1990; Sommers and Vodanovich, 2000; Goldberg et al., 2011; LePera, 2011), anger and aggression (Gordon et al., 1997; Rupp and Vodanovich, 1997; Dahlen et al., 2004), a lower tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking (Watt and Blanchard, 1994; Seib and Vodanovich, 1998), a propensity to make mistakes in completing common tasks (Wallace et al., 2002), poor interpersonal and social relationships (Leong and Schneller, 1993; Watt and Vodanovich, 1999), lower job and life satisfaction (Farmer and Sundberg, 1986; Kass et al., 2001), problem gambling (Blaszczynski et al., 1990; Mercer and Eastwood, 2010), and drug and alcohol abuse (Lee et al., 2007; LePera, 2011).