Boredom isn’t so bad
Posted May 24, 2011 12:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Are you bored?
New research by a University of Calgary Greek and Roman Studies professor examines the benefits of the unappreciated emotion.
Dr. Peter Toohey is the author of “Boredom: a Lively History” and tells 660News it’s not so bad to be bored.
“There’s a lot of benefit to it,” he says. “Boredom’s an emotion, much like any other emotion. Emotions are designed, as people with an interest in evolution would say to make organisms prosper.
Toohey says boredom forces people to get up and do something and it has even inspired some of the most important ideas and creative works in history.
Andy Warhol famously said he liked being bored, and Toohey says it’s what could have led to some of his most famous works.
But Toohey adds, chronic boredom is not necessarily good.
“Chronic boredom produces all sorts of chaos in individuals,” he says. “It can encourage risk-taking behaviour, such as substance abuse, violence.”
He adds, that’s most likely to happen in people who are incarcerated for long periods of time.
