Is there a psychological explanation why people get bored?

Answer 1

Boredom has been defined by Fisher in terms of its central psychological processes: “an unpleasant, transient affective state in which the individual feels a pervasive lack of interest in and difficulty concentrating on the current activity” . Leary and others define boredom similarly, and somewhat more succinctly, as “an affective experience associated with cognitive attentional processes” . These definitions make it clear that boredom arises not for a lack of things to do but the inability to latch onto any specific activity. Nothing engages us, despite an often profound desire for engagement.

There appear to be three general types of boredom, all of which involve problems of engagement of attention. These include times when we are prevented from engaging in something, when we are forced to engage in some unwanted activity or when we are simply unable, for no apparent reason, to maintain engagement in any activity or spectacle

An important psychological construct is that of boredom proneness; a tendency to experience boredom of all types. This is typically assessed by the Boredom Proneness Scale link Consistent with the definition provided above, recent research has found that boredom proneness is clearly and consistently associated with failures of attention. Boredom and boredom proneness are both theoretically and empirically linked to depression and depressive symptoms Nonetheless, boredom proneness has been found to be as strongly correlated with attentional lapses as with depression.

Although boredom is often viewed as a trivial and mild irritant, boredom, and especially boredom proneness has been linked to an amazingly diverse range of psychological, physical, educational, and social problems.

Answer 2

Only boring people get bored.

Answer 3

laziness