Boredom and creativity: possible influence of boredom on creative potential

Pernar, Dino. (2018). Boredom and creativity: possible influence of boredom on creative potential. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Bratko, Denis].

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Abstract

The phenomenon of boredom is gaining a lot of traction. While historically, boredom has been connected with various negative outcomes (such as lowered productivity, absenteeism, anxiety, depression, risky behaviors and others), recent research focuses on boredom as an affective state, that is, on situational boredom. Such “reversal” opens a completely different perspective – with boredom starting to show up in relation with self-regulation, increased desires for prosocial activity, as well as with increased effectiveness on tests of creative potential. The goal of this empirical research, conducted on a sample of students at the Faculty of humanities and social sciences students in Zagreb, was to explore possible influences boredom may have on creativity, that is on divergent production. The participants in both the control and experimental group were given the alternative uses task in two phases – the first phase was equally structured for both groups and contained no manipulation, while the participants in the experimental group watched a boring video in the second phase. Besides the alternative uses task, participants also filled the Boredom proneness scale (BPS). Although the experimental hypotheses have not been confirmed, the nature of the results suggests the connection between situational boredom and creative potential may require further research.

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