Okay, you're probably wondering where this video is going.
I'll give you another chance to watch again.
The truth is, it's going...
nowhere.
This video is meant to elicit an emotional response, but it’s not a very fun or exciting
one—you're meant to feel bored.
It's pretty effective.
From a psychological perspective, boredom is defined as “the aversive experience of
wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity,” and it requires three different
factors.
First, you have trouble paying attention, second, you become aware that you’re having
difficulty paying attention, and third, you blame your inability to pay attention on your
environment.
This definition makes boredom seem pretty similar to other emotional states.
For example, if you’re having trouble paying attention, and you know you’re having trouble,
but you blame an important phone call you’re expecting, we call that emotion anxiety, or
excitement.
On the surface, emotions like anxiety and excitement feel more powerful than boredom,
but physiologically they’re actually quite similar.
When scientists looked at how your body responds to boredom, they found two major things happened.
First, your body’s skin conductance level decreased: that’s how well your skin conducts
electricity.
Studies have shown that when you’re engaged, aroused, or interested in your environment,
your skin conductance increases, so it’s no surprise that experiencing boredom causes
it to decrease.
And second, boredom causes an increase in your heart rate and levels of the stress hormone
cortisol.
In addition to increasing when you’re bored, cortisol is also part of the body’s fight
or flight response.
An increase in heart rate and cortisol could be your body’s way of telling you to find
something more interesting, so you’ll stop being bored.
And there are lots of reasons for you to want to stop being bored.
It sucks!
In fact, boredom sucks so much, that even pain may be preferable, so long as it’s
engaging.
One study had participants rank the pain of a mild electric shock, and even had them state
a dollar value they would pay to avoid receiving that shock.
But when the participants were placed in a blank room for 15 minutes with nothing but
their own thoughts and the shock button, over 40% of them, mostly men, voluntarily shocked
themselves at least once.
One man pushed the shock button 190 times!
Only 15 minutes was enough to drive people to do something they would previous pay to
avoid, just so they would stop feeling bored.
So how do we avoid feeling bored with things we have to do, without giving ourselves painful
shocks?
Several studies have linked boredom to the brain’s reward system, suggesting chronic
boredom may be a lack of activation in that part of the brain.
To re-engage that part of your brain when you’re getting bored with something, try
turning it into a game.
This may be why flashcards are such an effective studying tool, even for really dry material.
Pairing the otherwise boring activity with chewing gum or walking may also help you focus.
Or you could try working in a group, with a friend or coworker, just make sure you’re
keeping each other on task.
Boredom sucks, but it’s also a part of life.
People all over the world, from all different cultures experience boredom at some point.
Luckily, we live in a world where fun things are just a mouse click or pokeball away.
But, maybe avoid videos of men folding laundry.
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