Work

Whatever will bore, will bore: The mere anticipation of boredom exacerbates its occurrence in lectures

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Academic boredom is ubiquitous, and it leads to a range of adverse learning outcomes. Given that students often make estimates of how boring lectures are, does anticipating a lecture to be boring shape their actual experience of boredom? AIMS: The current research investigated whether anticipated boredom intensifies subsequent boredom felt in lectures. SAMPLES: We recruited undergraduate students to participate in three studies. METHODS: Study 1 (N = 121) and study 2 (N = 130) were conducted in natural university lecture environments. We found that students who anticipated a lecture to bore them more subsequently felt more bored by it. In study 3 (N = 92), we experimentally manipulated anticipated boredom before participants watched a lecture video. We found that those who were led to anticipate higher levels of boredom felt more bored by the video. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results converged to indicate that the mere expectation that a lecture will be boring may be sufficient to exacerbate its subsequent occurrence. We discuss these findings in the contexts of affective forecasting and education.

Source: British Journal of Educational Psychology

DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12549

Authors: Katy Y. Y. Tam, Wijnand A. P. Van Tilburg, Christian S. Chan

Institutions: King's College London, University of Hong Kong, University of Essex

Language: English

Topic: Mind wandering and attention

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W4296798900