Perhaps an annoyed parent or some teacher once said this to you when you were a kid: “Only boring people get bored.” First of all, harsh! And second, you likely suspected then — and I can confirm it for you now — that this statement is not only untrue, but an oversimplification of a rather complex topic.
As it turns out, boredom is actually a fascinating and misunderstood feeling that has been a recent subject of excitement among researchers who study emotion. (Quiet, measured excitement in the scientist and therapist sense, but excitement nonetheless!) Boredom studies began in earnest in the 1980s, when a pair of University of Oregon psychologists developed something they named the Boredom Proneness Scale, a set of 28 questions that is intended to measure how easily an individual becomes bored.
Research on the topic has advanced significantly since then, but before I bore you to death with statistics and theories, why don’t you take that very test yourself?
How Easily Bored Are You?
You don’t get bored easily. Read on for more about what that means.
Your tolerance for boredom is about average. Read on for more about what that means.
You get bored easily. Read on for more about what that means.
The research on boredom is still “in its infancy,” said John Eastwood, a psychologist at York University, one of the leading experts on the subject — and yet there are a few things that studies using this scale have found about the types of people who tend to be more, or less, prone to boredom.
Boredom and attention are closely related.
People who score high on the Boredom Proneness Scale also tend to have difficulty with executive functioning — they have not-great attention spans, in other words. “People who, for example, have been diagnosed with ADHD report more experiences of boredom,” Eastwood said. “But you don’t have to be clinically at the level of ADHD — if you just have a weak attention capacity or ability, that would seem to predispose you to be bored.”
If attention is, as Eastwood defines it, the ability to “regulate your engagement with the world,” then the link to boredom makes sense. “We select and focus on something, and we hold other things at bay, we keep them out of our mind,” Eastwood said. “And so if we can’t regulate our attention very well, then we’re going to have a hard time staying engaged in an activity.” You lose your focus, and the feeling that accompanies the distraction registers as boredom.
This is not necessarily a bad thing: There is some evidence that suggests a link between distractibility and creativity. Are easily bored people more creative? It’s a popular idea, anyway. “I was the most bored little kid you’ve ever seen,” Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda once told Broadway.com. (For evidence, consider this footage of a young Miranda dancing his little heart out to “Footloose.”) In 2016, he elaborated on that childhood boredom in an interview with GQ. “Time alone is the gift of self-entertainment — and that is the font of creativity,” he said. “Because there is nothing better to spur creativity than a blank page or an empty bedroom.”
Boredom may shed some light on what motivates you.
When it comes to motivation, academic psychologists theorize that there are two categories people tend to fall into: One force, known as the behavioral-activation system, drives you out into the world to discover new things. The other, called the behavioral-inhibition system, pulls you back home, where it’s safe. People who are on the extreme ends of either of these tend to be more boredom-prone.
Behavioral-activation types are high in sensation-seeking; these are the people who are jumping out of airplanes, traveling to exciting places, trying new foods. “For them, the world is just moving too slowly,” Eastwood said. “They’re looking for that next hit of adrenaline. So they’re more likely to feel bored — their motivation system is driving them into the world, and the world’s not meeting their need for stimulation.” On the other end of this continuum are the anxious, timid, stay-at-home types, those “that maybe end up avoiding life because of fear or anxiety,” Eastwood said. “And that withdrawal or avoidance means they’re going to be cut off from meaningful or satisfying activity in the world.”
Boredom also has a lot to do with the way you understand your own emotions.
There are some people who, when asked how they’re doing, will reply, “Good.” Or maybe, “Not so good.” In an extreme case, “they might say, ‘Oh, I have a stomachache’ — they somaticize their feelings, they talk about their body,” Eastwood said. “But they don’t really talk about their feelings.” These people are high in what’s known as alexithymia, psychologists’ term for someone who struggles to speak about their feelings.
Research suggests these individuals tend to be highly boredom-prone, which might have to do with the directionlessness tied up in the feeling. “Emotions are like compass points — they orient us toward meaningful and valued activities in the world,” Eastwood explained. “They help us stay on course and move toward things that are important and valuable to us. Emotions are guides, and if we lack our guides … then we’re wandering. ‘What do I want to do? What’s going to bring me pleasure or enjoyment? What’s meaningful to me?’ If we lack those compass points, then you’re going to struggle to stay engaged in satisfying or meaningful activities.”
But according to Dr. Jenna Vyas-Lee, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of the London-based mental-health clinic Kove, boredom impacts women and men differently due to “varying social expectations, roles, and coping mechanisms.” “For women, boredom often intersects with societal pressures to maintain certain roles, such as caregiving and household management, which can lead to feelings of isolation and a lack of fulfillment. This is further compounded by limited opportunities for leisure and personal development compared to men, who may have more freedom to pursue interests outside these responsibilities,” Dr. Vyas-Lee says. “Additionally, women often face societal expectations to prioritize others’ needs over their own, leading to less time for activities that might alleviate boredom. The mental load of juggling multiple roles can also make it harder for women to find the time and energy to engage in fulfilling activities.”
The solution? Dr. Vyas-Lee says women can combat boredom by “prioritizing self-care and carving out time for hobbies, social connections, and professional growth.” She also recommends engaging in community groups, pursuing creative outlets, and setting personal goals. Of course, many of these personal pursuits can only happen once household and caregiving responsibilities are shared equitably among partners. “By proactively seeking balance and prioritizing their own interests, women can better manage the impact of boredom in their lives,” she says.
But you could look at this link another way. Consider your own habits when boredom strikes. Do you reach for your phone to numb the feeling immediately? Or do you dwell in the boredom for a bit, letting it nudge you toward a change you may need to make, something that would add more meaning to whatever is currently boring you? The key here may be less about how easily bored you are and more about what you do with the boredom when it hits.
Laci James, an LMFT and the clinical director at the Mental Health Center of San Diego, acknowledges that “the activities we have to engage in are not always going to be interesting or entertaining; I know we have all done our taxes or had to fold laundry.” But, she notes, some of us weren’t taught to manage the emotions that came up when we were bored as kids. Instead, our caregivers handled the feeling for us by suggesting we watch TV, play with toys, give us food, or become upset with us. “Emotions exist for three reasons: to motivate us to action, to communicate to ourselves, or to communicate to others,” James says. “Learning to be okay with quietness — to be okay with not being constantly stimulated — is a skill and it is possible to master.”
Boredom could be thought of as a warning signal, your mind’s alert system telling you that you’re not finding purpose in what you’re currently doing and suggesting you switch things up. It’s like pain: No one likes to feel pain, and no one enjoys feeling bored. But both feelings can be useful. Pain pushes you away from harm. Boredom pushes you toward meaning. Every emotion serves a purpose, and this may be boredom’s.