Lost by definition: Why boredom matters for psychology and society
Erin Corwin Westgate, Brianna Steidle
Abstract
Abstract Long overlooked, boredom has drawn increasing attention across multiple subfields of psychology (including clinical, developmental, educational, cognitive, and industrial/organizational psychology), as well as economics, philosophy, neuroscience, and animal cognition. In this article, we review and integrate this work by providing a social psychological perspective on boredom as an emotion and its role in signaling the need for change to restore successful attention in meaningful activity. In doing so, we discuss the implications of that approach for understanding boredom cross‐culturally and cross‐species, and identify opportunities for targeted interventions to reduce boredom and improve well‐being.