Coronavirus: Lockdown could be mother of invention

Scientists say chronic boredom makes people more imaginative and this lockdown could see our most creative period ever.

It may feel tedious, but the coronavirus lockdown could unleash our most creative period since the Second World War as people find new ways to keep alive their leisure, careers and relationships.

“Boredom is one of our most creative forces,” said Dr Sandi Mann, a researcher at the University of Central Lancashire, who specialises in understanding the benefits of doing nothing.

“If you ask people to do nothing, to the point where they get really bored, they then become creative and start thinking in novel and productive ways. The lockdown could turn out to be one of the world’s most creative times ever.”

Mann was speaking as Australia entered our second week of what some might see as pure tedium, with millions confined to their homes for most of the time.

The new restrictions mean that people can leave home only to work, shop for food and medicine, exercise, seek medical assistance or help a vulnerable person.

Mann, however, believes the country will emerge from lockdown with a new set of rules for living, working and getting on with each other better than before – all induced by boredom.

“Every emotion has an adaptive evolutionary purpose. It exists because it helps us survive,” she said.

“Boredom’s purpose is to force us to think differently and come up with creative solutions. We must get bored; if we don’t, then everything is stimulating.

“Imagine our ancestors scanning the horizon for predators. If they didn’t get bored of the trees that stood there every day, they would be distracted by them and miss the lions approaching. We get bored of things for a good reason.”

When Mann compared the creativity of bored people with those in a normal, “stimulated” state of mind, her main challenge was to make people bored – which she did by asking them to copy numbers from a telephone book. But when she gave a creative task to those who had been thoroughly bored first, they did far better than a control group of non-bored people.

Boredom has long been ignored by psychologists, but Mann’s research and recent book, The Science of Boredom, has helped create a surge of attention. John Eastwood, of York University in Toronto, Canada, has founded a Boredom Lab to investigate. One study that he cited found that people prone to boredom were more creative than average.

There are downsides to boredom, though, especially if people have a sense that it might never end. Trait boredom, the propensity to become bored often, is associated with depression, anxiety, gambling, alcohol abuse and anger. “Boredom is not a trivial malady and can cause significant psychological impairment,” Eastwood writes.

“Boredom makes you emotionally aroused,” said Dr Jessamy Hibberd, a London psychologist, listing some of the emotions as frustration, irritability, listlessness, anger and loneliness. Such feelings “generally occur when you have little control over your current situation”.

Hibberd says the lockdown could trigger these downsides because it is so long-lasting. “It mimics many of the symptoms of depression: withdrawal, lack of structure, disconnect from others – these can lead to loss of pleasure/motivation and leave you feeling sluggish and lacking in energy. It’s also difficult to feel hopeful in the face of all the uncertainty.”

The good news is that boredom has a positive impact if experienced in short doses and the lockdown offers a golden opportunity for researchers. Professor Erin Westgate of Florida University – whose research, Why Boredom is Interesting, appears in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Research – says being bored “may not be pleasant” but what determines if it is good or bad is “how we respond”. She is designing a survey for people affected in the US lockdown to learn how they are spending their time.

For some it might seem like a chance to gorge on box sets. But psychologists warn that passive pursuits, while fun at first, create boredom and dissatisfaction later.

That could be a problem for teenagers, says Elizabeth Weybright, a researcher in human development at Washington State University. “Boredom has been increasing among adolescents, with greater increases among girls,” she wrote in a paper just published by the Journal of Adolescent Health.

She believes boredom can be good if parents teach youngsters how to deal with it, especially during the lockdown: “Adolescence is a prime time to promote healthy ways of dealing with boredom. If we can instil these skills in adolescence, that’s something they can carry [for] life.”

Scientists are not alone in seeking creative responses to boredom. The lockdown is proving good for comedy, with social media platforms packed with comical memes and video clips.

One of the most popular is a tweet saying: “Some day once humans are extinct from Covid-19, I hope whatever species rules the Earth makes chicken nuggets in the shape of us like we did for dinosaurs.”

Mann believes that as global boredom strikes, humanity will get ever more creative: “We’re already doing things differently – socialising, doing business and even exercising using online platforms. And the surge in creativity over the next few months is going to be as big as any other period in history. It’s the same level as you might see in a war – but this is a war where we’re all on the same side.”

The Times