In search of boredom: beyond a functional account

Trends in Cognitive Sciences 27 (5):494-507 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Boredom has been characterized as a crisis of meaning, a failure of attention, and a call to action. Yet as a self-regulatory signal writ-large, we are still left with the question of what makes any given boredom episode meaningless, disengaging, or a prompt to act. We propose that boredom is an affective signal that we have deviated from an optimal (‘Goldilocks’) zone of cognitive engagement. Such deviations may be due to a perceived lack of meaning, arise as a consequence of struggles we are experiencing in attending to a task, or be interpreted as a blunt call to find something different to engage with. Thus, the key to understanding boredom lies in its role in keeping us cognitively engaged.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Boredom and Cognitive Engagement: A Functional Theory of Boredom.Andreas Elpidorou - 2022 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 14 (3):959-988.
The Moral Psychology of Boredom.Andreas Elpidorou (ed.) - 2022 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
The bored mind is a guiding mind: toward a regulatory theory of boredom.Andreas Elpidorou - 2018 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 17 (3):455-484.
The Moral Dimensions of Boredom: A call for research.Andreas Elpidorou - 2017 - Review of General Psychology 21 (1):30-48.
Living with Boredom.Cheshire Calhoun - 2011 - Sophia 50 (2):269-279.
Is Profound Boredom Boredom?Andreas Elpidorou & Lauren Freeman - 2019 - In Christos Hadjioannou (ed.), Heidegger on Affect. Palgrave. pp. 177-203.
Boredom, Human Psychology, and Immortality.Andreas Elpidorou - 2021 - American Philosophical Quarterly 58 (4):259-372.
The Bright Side of Boredom.Andreas Elpidorou - 2014 - Frontiers in Psychology 5.
The good of boredom.Andreas Elpidorou - 2018 - Philosophical Psychology 31 (3):323-351.

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-04-20

Downloads
29 (#474,441)

6 months
10 (#135,615)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references