Why people are bored and what does it threaten?
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Imagine that you have been waiting in line for a long time to see a doctor, and your turn still does not fit. It seems that even a second hand specially slows down the passage of time. The wait drags on painfully long, all the pictures on the walls near the medical office are examined to the smallest detail, just like the people sitting next to them waiting for their turn. Increases irritation from the fact that there is nothing to occupy himself and a phrase comes to mind: "I'm bored!".
Despite the fact that boredom is usually perceived as a temporary inconvenience that can easily be solved by changing circumstances or activities, it can also be a dangerous stress factor that can lead to serious health problems.
Boredom in the workplace can lead to accidents, if, for example, a person engages in activities that require attention (drivers, health workers).
At the behavioral level, boredom is associated with problems of impulsive management, which provoke overeating, abuse of alcohol and drugs, as well as addiction to gambling.
No wonder there is the expression "Until death bored." It very well characterizes the consequences of a seemingly innocuous condition.
Despite the fact that boredom can cause many problems, until the scientific justification for this process is far away. Boredom still remains something mysterious and unexplored.
Psychologist John Eastwood of York University, Canada, together with his fellow scientists, tried to understand the mental processes underlying the sense of boredom.
The article of experts, published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, unites several studies conducted earlier.
Proceeding from the studied material with which specialists worked, in their opinion, boredom is a state of disgust, when a person wants, but can not change activities. This condition occurs because of disruptions in the brain regions that regulate attention.
A person is bored when he does not pay attention to internal information (thoughts and feelings), external stimuli (when he becomes indifferent to what is happening around). Researchers hope that the development of new strategies to combat boredom will help alleviate the condition of patients, and can also distinguish between failures in cognitive processes, which are often confused with boredom.