According to Time Magazine, the journal Academy of Management Discoveries recently published a study titled Why boredom might not be a bad thing after all that focuses on boredom and its relationship to creativity (Park). Despite being an extremely common emotion, boredom and its effects remain somewhat unclear. Prior knowledge on boredom predominantly surrounds boredom and its effects on increasing the prevalence of negative/risky behaviors. The researchers in this study, Park, Lim, and Oh, sought to study less obvious correlations to boredom, specifically the correlation of boredom and creativity.
Researchers used three different experiments to study the consequences of boredom. Study 1 found that being bored can increase the incidence of creative ideas. Researchers had the experimental group perform a boredom-inducing task (sorting beans by color) while the control group did not perform this task. Next, the researchers had all participants perform a task that required idea generation. Participants were asked to generate an excuse for being late that would not make someone look bad. The experimental group, who had previously completed the boring task, performed better in idea-generation both qualitatively and quantitatively. The creativity of the answers was ranked by random participants not connected to the study. Study 2 found that manipulations of boredom do not have effect on other negative behaviors associated with boredom. This is important in that boredom and creativity have a unique and positive relationship. Study 3, however, had interesting results. Park found that this higher individual increase in creativity was not found in everyone, only specific people that demonstrate “a high learning goal orientation, high need for cognition, high openness to experience, and high internal locus of control” (Park). Researchers believe that boredom induces a new, atypical way of thinking which leads to creativity in certain individuals.
The article from Time quotes Sandi Mann, a psychologist at University of Lancashire UK. Mann argues that we should embrace boredom because without the constant stimulation of the world, we will go inside our own head to recieve the stimulation we are so desperate for (Durchame). Right before insight, we undergo an active suppression of input by blinking slower and more frequently or avoid directly looking at the problem we are trying to solve (Salvi). We go into sort of an “offline mode” which is exactly what Mann describes.
This study is similar to the work done by Carola Salvi on insight. In her presentation, Salvi defined insight as an all at once problem solving phenomenon. Insight involves an unawareness of the steps taken to reach it. Another key characteristic of insight is people experience an insight have a high level of confidence in their answer (Salvi). When faced with a problem, insight and analysis are the two ways of solving the problem. Creativity falls into a similar category as insight in the scheme of problem solving. Salvi notes that insight comes to us when we are relaxed which means our visual cortex is lowered and our brain is in an alpha wave state just before insight occurs. These conditions are met right before falling asleep, in the bath, or even just lounging and relaxing. The stories of many famous insights met these conditions, for example, the insights of Isaac Newton and Archimedes. Mann suggests that “to tap into true boredom, pick an activity like walking a familiar route, swimming laps or even just sitting with your eyes closed” (Ducharme). All of these activities were ones similar to those mentioned in Salvi’s presentation. Salvi did not specifically speak on boredom in her talk, however, perhaps boredom is correlated with insight in addition to creativity.
References
Ducharme, Jamie. “Being Bored Can Be Good for You-If You Do It Right. Here's How.” Time,
Time, 4 Jan. 2019, time.com/5480002/benefits-of-boredom/
Park, G., Lim, BC., Oh, HS. (2018, July 26). Why boredom might not be a bad thing after all.
Academy of Management, Vol 0. https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2017.0033
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