Original version

BBC World Service Online

The Why Factor

Documentaries

Factual

The extraordinary and hidden histories behind everyday objects and actions

The Why Factor: Boredom

Boredom

04/04/2014

BBC World Service - The Why Factor, Boredom

Why do we get bored and what does it say about how we engage with the world around us?

Boredom is experienced by everyone from production workers to philosophers - but is it only a negative emotion or is it necessary to motivating human behaviour?

The programme examines boredom and discovers the history of how it developed as an idea and consequently became a moral issue. Boredom is becoming a fashionable area of academic research where surprising conclusions have been reached about its effects and purpose. And even if today’s hi–tech workplace - or perhaps because of it - boredom is still to be found and presenting challenges as to how to deal with it.

Jo Fidgen discusses boredom with historian Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith from the University of London, Professor Missy Cummings, Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, North Carolina, USA and a former drone pilot Lt Col Bruce Black. She also submits herself to a boredom experiment with Dr Wijnand van Tilburg a psychologist at Southampton University. BBC archive recordings include Inside Job and Hancock’s Half Hour.

(Image of a lady yawning. Credit: Think Stock)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Why Factor

Boredom

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service