Eastwood and his colleagues observed that people believe boredom relates to their environment: We think if a lecture or a conversation is boring, we can simply change topics to avoid the dullness.
“We attribute [boredom] with problems in the environment rather than the problems with ourselves,” explains co-researcher Mark Fenske, associate professor of neuroscience and applied cognitive science at the University of Guelph and co-author of the book, “The Winner’s Brain.”
But boredom might have more to do with us than uninspired surroundings.
Framing ennui in terms of attention is significant because psychologists know how treat attention problems, meaning experts can help people experiencing chronic boredom.
Fenske and Eastwood agree that most people think of boredom as trivial and commonplace, perhaps it’s why researchers haven’t studied it. But boredom can be a sign of more serious problems.
“Boredom can have some horrible effects and we see it associated with pathological states.
“I have no data to support this, but I speculate that people might experience a lot of boredom in modern times because we are experiencing intense entertainment. We’re used to being passively entertained and that constant stimulation puts us at risk for [more] boredom in the future,” Eastwood says.