Ep. 11: Your Mind on Boredom
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Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa bring you a Minds Matter episode on a very exciting topic: boredom. We promise it's more interesting than it seems! Boredom has been linked to creativity and imagination, but also to depression and self-destructive behaviors. In this episode, we examine what boredom is, and whether we should lean into it or run from it.
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Academic Articles & Books
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Boredom & Creativity: Mann, S. and Cadman, R., 2014. Does Being Bored Make Us More Creative?. Creativity Research Journal, 26(2), pp.165-173.
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Boredom in brain waves: Perone, S., Weybright, E. and Anderson, A., 2019. Over and over again: Changes in frontal EEG asymmetry across a boring task. Psychophysiology, 56(10).
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Positive aspects of boredom: Park, G., Lim, B. and Oh, H., 2019. Why Being Bored Might Not Be a Bad Thing after All. Academy of Management Discoveries, 5(1), pp.78-92.
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Electric shocks when alone with your thoughts: Wilson, T. D. et al. Science 345, 75-77 (2014).
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Destructive behaviours when bored: Havermans, R. C., Vancleef, L., Kalamatianos, A., & Nederkoorn, C. (2015). Eating and inflicting pain out of boredom. Appetite, 85, 52-57.
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Boredom and meaning, social groups: van Tilburg, W. and Igou, E., 2011. On Boredom and Social Identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(12), pp.1679-1691.
Lighter Reading & Other Resources
Videos:
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TEDTalk - Manoush Zomorodi: How Boredom Can Lead to Your Most Brilliant Ideas
Articles:
Books:
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Danckert, J., & Eastwood, J. D. (2020). Out of my skull: The psychology of Boredom. Harvard University Press
Participate!
Participate in Dr. Erin Westgate’s COVID boredom study: https://www.erinwestgate.com/participate.html