Here’s why you really must befriend a bore

A new study on what we consider boring, what else we draw from that inference about a person, and what determines how we befriend and avoid one another, has thrown up some interesting results. For one thing, it has found that, in the US and UK, the kind of person most likely to be perceived as boring is a data entry worker who is deeply religious and considers sleeping or watching TV a hobby.

People who are viewed as boring are also assumed to be less competent, less warm and less befriendable, the researchers found.

“The study of boredom, ironically, is very interesting. It can give us insights into some of the more basic motivations and causes of behaviour that people display,” says Wijnand Van Tilburg, an experimental social psychologist at the University of Essex and lead researcher on the study, which was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin in March. Van Tilburg, incidentally, has been studying the science of boredom for 15 years.

This study, which he conducted with researchers at the University of Limerick and London School of Economics, was based on surveys conducted with over 700 participants across the US and UK.

A first set of 115 was asked to list the traits that they associated with boring people. The top 100 traits were grouped into personal characteristics, occupations and hobbies. A different group of 348 was then asked to rate which of these they considered most stereotypically boring.

The dullest occupations listed by participants, incidentally, were data entry worker, accountant, tax consultant, cleaner and banker; the dullest type of place to live in was listed as “small town” (as opposed to city or rural area).

In the final phase of the study, researchers used these lists to create fictional profiles. They then tested these profiles to see what lengths people would go to, to avoid spending time with those they considered boring. “I would be willing to lie that I don’t have the time,” was a frequent response. When 110 fresh respondents were asked how much money it would take to get them to spend time with the “boring” people, it emerged that it would take three times more than with those they did not find boring.

“The implication of the ‘boring’ stereotype isn’t trivial because people may find it more difficult to establish friendships and for their talents to be recognised,” Van Tilburg says. “Additionally, it may be challenging for them to change the stereotype, because of how they are avoided.”