Not All Boredom Is the Same

Boredom is a fact of everyday life. It may strike when we’re reading a dry philosophy text, watching a Disney movie with our kids for the millionth time, or filling out repetitive paperwork. Psychology researcher Erin C. Westgate argues that boredom, like pain, is a signal that something has gone wrong. But what we should do about it depends on what kind of boredom we’re talking about.

Westgate outlines the meaning-and-attentional components (MAC) model of boredom. As the name suggests, it presents boredom as having two kinds of sources. We can get bored when the thing we’re doing feels like it has no salient goal or meaning, or when we simply can’t pay attention.

If boredom is caused by meaninglessness, it may help to adjust our mental model of our goals.

That second type, attentional boredom, involves the alignment between our cognitive capacity and the task at hand. When these are well aligned, it could look like energetically tackling a tricky work assignment, or relaxing after a long day by watching a formulaic sitcom. In contrast, we might get bored either by watching the sitcom when we’re ready for a challenge or by trying to do the hard task when we’re already drained.

In experiments, Westgate and her colleagues have found that attention and meaning are independent predictors of boredom—we get bored if either is missing. Attentional boredom tends to cause mind wandering and sometimes agitation and frustration. Meaningless boredom is more likely to result in sadness, loneliness, a sense that time is dragging, and a desire to disengage. It’s also possible to experience mixed boredom, when both attention and meaning are lacking.

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Depending on what’s causing boredom, Westgate offers several types of action we might take to respond to the signal it’s sending us:

• Regulate cognitive demands: To improve our ability to pay attention, we might make a task easier—perhaps by breaking it into smaller pieces—or harder—for example, by setting a timer and working as fast as possible.
• Regulate cognitive resources: To improve the mental energy we bring to a task that’s a bit too demanding, we might get better sleep, drink caffeine, or, in the longer term, get more practice. Conversely, Westgate notes that a time-honored, if suboptimal, solution for understimulation is reducing one’s cognitive capacity by drinking on the job.
• Regulate goal value: If boredom is caused by meaninglessness, it may help to adjust our mental model of our goals. For example, students may be able to better focus on a task if they see how it contributes to their long-term educational objectives.
• Switch activities: In some cases, the best choice may be to find something different to do. If you’re understimulated or feeling a sense that your task has no meaning, it may help to seek more novelty and complexity. If you’re bored because a task is too hard, it may be more appealing to find something easy and enjoyable. However, doing that on a regular basis may mean engaging in less of the cognitive work that can help build more capacity, leading to greater boredom in the long run.

So when boredom strikes, the first question may not be how to get rid of it, but why it’s happening in the first place.

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