Time in suspense: investigating boredom and related states in a virtual waiting room

ABSTRACT

We studied the role of time in the experience of boredom and its relationship with various psychological states using virtual reality. Sixty-six participants visited nine virtual waiting rooms and evaluated their perception of time and psychological experiences, including boredom, exhaustion, restlessness, amotivation, frustration, anger, unhappiness, spontaneous and deliberate mind-wandering, fantasy, and absorption. Results confirmed the relationship between boredom and time perception, showing that the higher the levels of boredom, the slower time seems to pass. However, manipulating time-related information via a slower/faster ticking clock did not affect boredom. We also found that boredom increased as participants progressed through the nine virtual rooms, and its affective characterisation over time remained stable, while its cognitive characterisation fluctuated. While boredom was consistently associated with exhaustion, restlessness, amotivation, and frustration, its relationship with fantasy, absorption, spontaneous mind-wandering and deliberate mind-wandering, evolved over time. These findings provide novel insights into the intricate and differentiated cognitive and affective consequences of being bored.

KEYWORDS:

• Boredom
• time information
• time perception
• virtual reality

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Melanie Meister and Lia Langenegger for their help in the project, including data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Here, we follow the prominent distinction between affective/emotional and cognitive states. However, it has to be acknowledged that this distinction is probably less clear cut as previously assumed (Pessoa, 2008). This is also indicated by boredom, as a sensation that evades straightforward classification.

2 Although longer tasks structurally allow for more units of time to feel wasted. Therefore, one would expect to see boredom rise over the course of a prolonged waiting session, which is the case in our study.