Well, sorta. Researchers acknowledged that there are other factors, but that boredom contributed it's fair share.
Anyways, that's the headline on the magazine that got me to pick it up and read on. This month's Scientific American Mind has an interesting article discussing boredom.
"We had people watch either a scene from a tear-jerk movie or a film of two men hanging laundry-a scintillating viewing experience if ever there was one- while measuring their heart rate and levels of cortisol, the hormone most commonly used to assess stress response. We found that the participants who had watched the boring laundry scene had a higher heart rate and higher cortisol levels. Clearly, boredom is not good for your health." -James Danckert, Descent of the Doldrums
I encourage you to read the article (hopefully it will come out next month on Scientific American Mind's website) if you get a chance. I would further encourage you to think about your own boredum- how often you get bored, and then think about how you can fix that in your life.
After reading the article, I know that I fall into the category of someone that seeks external stimulation, and therefore find myself in a state of agitated boredom when I do get bored. Over the years, I've developed a means of providing my own motivation to find something exciting, even if it just means going for a drive to find something interesting to do, or I'll run to Wal-Mart to find something interesting to read in the magazine area.
Gather at the River,
Setanaoko Oceana
Topic Author
