Andreas Elpidorou

We often picture boredom as a problem of plenty, as the outcome of too much time or too much choice; we imagine it, in other words, as the affliction of those with time to kill and nothing to do. Recent work on boredom, however, paints a different picture. Boredom takes hold of us not merely in moments of idleness or in the abundance of choice, but also in cognitively demanding, monotonous, or constraining situations – circumstances that allow no easy exit. More strikingly, studies find that boredom is felt most frequently and perhaps most intensely by the less affluent, the overworked, the marginalized. That is, boredom afflicts most those with the fewest resources either to use it to their own advantage or to escape it. This interdisciplinary project rethinks boredom and treats it not as a private irritation but as a public condition. Boredom is shaped by one’s social position – by where a person stands in relation to power, work, and resources. So shaped, it can quietly curtail one’s possibilities for a good life. The project clarifies what is at stake: how the frequent experience of boredom compromises agency and human flourishing. And it proposes and tests a specific mechanism: that opportunities for meaning, autonomy, and self-efficacy mediate the link between socioeconomic status and boredom.