Individual differences in experience after a control task: Boredom proneness, curiosity, and grit correlate with emotion

Figures & data

Table 1. Correlations among all variables

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
1. Age	−.09	−.21	−.21	−.18	.27	−.05	.20	−.11	−.12	−.11	.13	−.07	.13	−.08	.16	−.08	.05	.24
2. Sex		−.13	.05	.01	.00	−.07	−.06	−.15	−.11	−.08	.07	−.01	−.03	−.12	.02	−.09	.07	−.09
3. Pre‐boredom			.38	.43	−.40	−.14	−.21	.53	.38	.36	−.18	−.08	−.13	.40	−.29	−.04	−.20	−.29
4. Pre‐resignation				.77	−.37	−.20	−.22	.29	.64	.63	−.11	−.17	−.15	.24	−.30	.00	−.23	−.38
5. Pre‐sadness					−.33	−.33	−.26	.31	.55	.70	−.21	−.17	−.21	.26	−.31	.01	−.28	−.37
6. Pre‐interest						.47	.67	−.27	−.26	−.32	.60	.42	.52	−.20	.43	.19	.31	.40
7. Pre‐joy							.47	−.12	−.14	−.16	.49	.65	.42	−.17	.37	.20	.32	.33
8. Pre‐determination								−.17	−.17	−.24	.49	.40	.70	−.22	.47	.33	.40	.43
9. Post‐boredom									.38	.32	−.42	−.31	−.24	.35	−.24	.01	−.20	−.26
10. Post‐resignation										.65	−.18	−.16	−.09	.34	−.21	.00	−.15	−.29
11. Post‐sadness											−.30	−.25	−.22	.31	−.31	−.03	−.26	−.30
12. Post‐interest												.58	.61	−.25	.31	.09	.22	.37
13. Post‐joy													.53	−.19	.34	.06	.29	.29
14. Post‐determination														−.23	.44	.19	.40	.37
15. External boredom															−.39	−.02	−.15	−.47
16. Internal boredom																.32	.51	.58
17. Curiosity (deprivation)																	.46	.21
18. Curiosity (interest)																		.27
19. Grit

Note: Bolded text indicate significance at the Bonferroni threshold of p = .00029, rather than including exact p values for each correlation.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for personality variables

	Mean (SD)	Minimum	Maximum
External boredom proneness	3.59 (0.98)	1.00	6.17
Internal boredom proneness	5.16 (0.97)	2.00	7.00
Curiosity (deprivation)	2.51 (0.65)	1.00	4.00
Curiosity (interest)	3.08 (0.66)	1.00	4.00
Grit	3.34 (0.70)	1.42	5.00

Table 3. Mean, mean difference, and effect size (d) of emotions pre‐ and post‐task³

	Mean
Variable	Pre‐task (SD)	Post‐task (SD)	Mean difference [95% CI]	t(DF)	d
Boredom	3.39 (2.09)	3.07 (2.09)	0.32 [0.02, 0.61]	2.08 (177)^**	0.15
Sadness	2.54 (2.06)	1.87 (1.44)	0.67 [0.45, 0.89]	6.04 (177)^**	0.38
Resignation	2.26 (1.85)	1.80 (1.51)	0.46 [0.25, 0.68]	4.24 (177)^**	0.27
Determination	5.48 (2.20)	5.48 (2.20)	0.01 [−0.25, 0.26]	0.04 (177)	0.00
Interest	5.94 (1.94)	5.47 (2.18)	0.48 [0.20, 0.75]	3.42 (177)^**	0.23
Joy	4.84 (2.30)	4.65 (2.24)	0.19 [−0.10, 0.47]	1.30 (177)	0.08

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; DF, degrees of freedom; SD, standard deviation.

N = 178.

^*p < .05;

** p < .01.

Table 4. Unstandardised (B) and standardised (β) regression coefficients, and squared semi‐partial correlations (sr²) for post‐task boredom⁶

Variable	B [95% CI]	β	sr^2
Post‐boredom
Boredom (external)	.68 [0.20, 1.16]^**	.34	.08
Boredom (internal)	.16 [−0.42, 0.73]	.07	.00
Curiosity (deprivation)	.30 [−0.39, 0.10]	.09	.01
Curiosity (interest)	−.62 [−1.40, 0.15]	−.19	.33
Grit	−.21 [−1.02, 0.60]	−.06	.11

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.

N = 85.

^*p < .05;

** p < .01.

Table 5. Unstandardised (B) and standardised (β) regression coefficients, and squared semi‐partial correlations (sr²) for post‐task sadness⁹

Variable	B [95% CI]	β	sr^2
Post‐sadness
Boredom (external)	.53 [0.19, 0.87]^**	.35	.09
Boredom (internal)	.04 [−0.36, 0.45]	.03	.00
Curiosity (deprivation)	.43 [−0.07, 0.92]	.18	.03
Curiosity (interest)	−.48 [−1.03, 0.07]	−.20	.34
Grit	−.39 [−0.97, 0.19]	−.15	.26

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.

N = 85.

^*p < .05;

** p < .01.

Table 6. Unstandardised (B) and standardised (β) regression coefficients, and squared semi‐partial correlations (sr²) for post‐task resignation¹²

Variable	B [95% CI]	β	sr^2
Post‐resignation
Boredom (external)	.49 [0.14, 0.83]^**	.32	.08
Boredom (internal)	.39 [−0.02, 0.80]	.23	.03
Curiosity (deprivation)	.25 [−0.25, 0.74]	.10	.01
Curiosity (interest)	−.14 [−0.70, 0.41]	−.06	.10
Grit	−.72 [−1.30, −0.14]^*	−.28	.49

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.

N = 85.

* p < .05;

** p < .01.

Table 7. Unstandardised (B) and standardised (β) regression coefficients, and squared semi‐partial correlations (sr²) for post‐task determination¹⁵

Variable	B [95% CI]	β	sr^2
Post‐determination
Boredom (external)	−.17 [−0.62, 0.28]	−.09	.15
Boredom (internal)	.39 [−0.14, 0.93]	.18	.02
Curiosity (deprivation)	−.66 [−1.31, −0.02]^*	−.21	.40
Curiosity (interest)	.50 [−0.22, 1.23]	.16	.02
Grit	.90 [0.14, 1.65]^*	.26	.05

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.

N = 85.

* p < .05;

^**p < .01.

Table 8. Unstandardised (B) and standardised (β) regression coefficients, and squared semi‐partial correlations (sr²) for post‐task interest¹⁸

Variable	B [95% CI]	β	sr^2
Post‐interest
Boredom (external)	−.50 [−1.02, 0.01]	−.24	.41
Boredom (internal)	−.02 [−0.62, 0.59]	−.01	.01
Curiosity (deprivation)	−.12 [−0.84, 0.63]	−.03	.06
Curiosity (interest)	−.09 [−0.92, 0.72]	−.03	.05
Grit	.75 [−0.11, 1.61]	.20	.03

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.

N = 85.

^*p < .05;

^**p < .01.

Table 9. Unstandardised (B) and standardised (β) regression coefficients, and squared semi‐partial correlations (sr²) for post‐task joy²¹

Variable	B [95% CI]	β	sr^2
Post‐joy
Boredom (external)	−.45 [−0.93, 0.03]	−.21	.36
Boredom (internal)	.28 [−0.29, 0.85]	.12	.01
Curiosity (deprivation)	−.71 [−1.40, −0.02]^*	−.21	.40
Curiosity (interest)	.43 [−0.35, 1.20]	.13	.01
Grit	.82 [0.01, 1.62]^*	.22	.04

Abbreviation: CI, confidence interval.

N = 85.

* p < .05;

^**p < .01.