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VITAL SIGNS.......

Last Updated 05 February 2016, 18:42 IST

Is boredom only a state of mind?

Danckert James, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo in Canada, is one of a small but growing number of investigators engaged in a serious scientific study of boredom.

There is no universally accepted definition of boredom. But whatever it is, researchers argue, it is not simply another name for depression or apathy. It seems to be a specific mental state that people find unpleasant — a lack of stimulation that leaves them craving for relief, with a host of behavioural, medical and social consequences.

In studies of binge-eating, for example, boredom is one of the most frequent triggers, along with feelings of depression and anxiety. In a study of distractibility using a driving simulator, people prone to boredom typically drove at higher speeds than other participants, took longer to respond to unexpected hazards and drifted more frequently over the centreline. And in a 2003 survey, US teenagers who said that they were
often bored were 50 per cent more likely than their less frequently bored peers to later take up smoking, drinking and illegal drugs.

Boredom even accounts for about 25 per cent of variation in student achievement, says Jennifer Vogel-Walcutt, a developmental psychologist at the Cognitive Performance Group, a consulting firm in Orlando, Florida. That’s about the same percentage as is attributed to innate intelligence. Boredom is “something that requires significant consideration,” she says.

Researchers hope to turn such hints into a deep understanding of what boredom is, how it manifests in the brain and how it relates to factors such as self-control. Experts in fields from genetics to philosophy, psychology and history are starting to work together on boredom research, says John Eastwood, a psychologist at York University in Toronto, Canada. “A critical mass of people addressing similar issues creates more momentum.”

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(Published 05 February 2016, 16:09 IST)

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