Five ways boredom could be changing your behaviour, for better or worse

By Wijnand Van Tilburg, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Many of us have probably felt bored at some point in the past year. Restrictions on social gatherings, travel and plenty of other activities may have been necessary to control the pandemic, but have left lots of us with little to do.

On the surface, boredom may seem rather trivial; an experience reserved for those of us who with the luxury of having too much time. But it turns out that boredom affects people in many ways. This begs the question: on balance, is boredom a vice or virtue? According to science, the answer might be a bit of both.

1. Impulsiveness

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