Boredom Tendencies, Political Orientation, and Adherence to Social Distance in Pandemics
Brosowsky, NP, Van Tilburg, W., Scholer, AA etal. Boredom Tendencies, Political Orientation, and Adherence to Social Distance in Pandemics. Motiv Emot (2021) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-021-09888-0
Commentary
In this study, a recent survey showed that boredom tendencies are associated with increased violations of social distance rules. The results led to a study that examined data collected early in the pandemic period to investigate factors that may be driving this relationship, and the researchers focused on political parties.
The hypothesis was that from a functional explanation of the call to action and boredom, this impulse to action may drive individuals towards exits filled with symbolic value. Then, given the politicization of some social distance rules (e.g., wearing masks) during a pandemic, it was investigated whether people who adhere to strong political ideologies, especially conservative ideologies, are more likely to break the rules.
A moderating analysis showed that boredom tendencies and social (not fiscal) conservatism do indeed predict rule breaking. These results underscore the need for both clear messages that emphasize the strength of communal identity and action (i.e., "we're all in this together") and interventions that emphasize shared collective values in contexts that appeal directly to social conservatives.
As it is,
the results showed that people's feelings and behaviors of "boredom" tend to be about breaking social norms, but what is boredom? Let's take a deeper look at what boredom is.
Moments of boredom are said to serve as a call to action for more satisfying behavior. The actions that best address this call may be tempered by other factors, and in this study the congruence of these actions with political beliefs explains why trait boredom tendencies are strongly associated with rule-breaking behavior. The explanation here is social conservatism, which was shown to actually increase the tendency to not comply with norms.
Therefore, the results of this study indicate that people who do not comply with infection control measures, such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance during a pandemic, tend to be bored and are socially conservative.
