Boredom: a comprehensive study of the state of affairs

Abstract

Resumen: La escasez de literatura es una de las principales quejas hechas por los investigadores del aburrimiento en todos los campos de estudio. Esta afirmación pasa de un estudio a otro sin ser cuestionada, dificultando así la comprensión del verdadero estado de la cuestión. En respuesta, este trabajo demuestra que, de hecho, no es el caso que haya una escasez de literatura sobre aburrimiento; por el contrario, existe una falta de variedad temática y problemas de accesibilidad lingüística. El artículo también refuta la afirmación de que, hasta principios del 2000, había solo unos pocos estudios en aburrimiento publicados cada año. Los resultados se basan en una amplia base de datos que incluye la población total de estudios sobre el aburrimiento y los clasifica según criterios lingüísticos, temáticos y cronológicos.Palabras clave: lenguaje, ocio, literatura, aburrimiento, patología Abstract: A literature shortage is one of the major complaints made by boredom researchers in all fields of study. This claim passes from one study to ano- Josefa Ros VelascoThémata. Revista de Filosofía Nº56 (2017) pp.: 171-198. 172 ther without being questioned, thus hampering the understanding of the true state of the issue. In response, this paper demonstrates that it is, in fact, not the case that there is a shortage of literature on boredom; rather, there exists a lack of thematic variety and issues of linguistic accessibility. The paper also falsifies the claim that, up until the beginning of the 2000, there were only a few studies on boredom published each year. The results are based on a comprehensive database which includes the total population of studies on boredom and classifies them according to linguistic, thematic and chronological criteria.

Contemporary myths on boredom

“…I am not surprised that those who are not engaged in researching this phenomenon think that boredom has not aroused our curiosity as a subject of scientific analysis until a relatively short time ago. What I do find surprising is that these claims are made by some “boredom scholars” (Ros Velasco, 2017 ).…”

“…Nearly 100 years have elapsed since Russell ( 1930 ) denounced, in The Conquest of Happiness , that the study of boredom was being ignored; 100 years in which this “study of boredom” has become an exceptional subject of interest. Aside from everything that the philosophers, theologians, authors and physiologists have said in centuries gone by—if we brought it all together, the calculation would amount, without exaggerating, to several thousand pages (Ros Velasco, 2017 )—during the first half of the 20 th Century, more than ten works were published about boredom; while in the second half, the number of publications stretched into the hundreds (Ros Velasco, 2017 ). With the dawn of this new century, the number of studies about boredom easily exceeds anything written before.…”

“…With the dawn of this new century, the number of studies about boredom easily exceeds anything written before. By way of example, in 2013 alone, a total of 119 papers were published (Ros Velasco, 2017 ).…”

“…As well as myself, some colleagues like Goodstein ( 2020 ) and Finkielsztein ( 2021 ) call for this false belief to be banished once and for all—without much success, it should be said. It is true that the study of boredom has been very disperse in terms of disciplines (Ros Velasco, 2017 ). It is also true that its institutionalization and academization is only just beginning now (for example, with the launching of the International Society of Boredom Studies in 2021 and the opening of labs such as the Danckert Lab or the Boredom Lab).…”

Boredom is the root of all evil—or is it? A psychometric network approach to individual differences in behavioural responses to boredom

“…This notion of a functional signal has been expanded by some authors who propose that boredom is an inherently adaptive sensation (e.g. [ 17 – 19 ]). Corroborating this line of thinking, neuroscientific research shows that boredom increases the sensitivity for rewards [ 7 ], which in turn leads to a devaluation of the current activity relative to other, potentially more rewarding activities [ 8 ].…”