Series 1, Episode 43: Why boredom is interesting, with Professor Erin Westgate, University of Florida

Boredom. Something we all experience, yet so rarely think about. In reality, boredom is a normal aspect of the human experience so it is vital to ask: What is boredom, why do we experience it, and what happens when we do? Dr. Erin Westgate is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida, where she studies boredom, interest, and why some thoughts are more engaging than others. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia in 2018, with intriguingly titled doctoral dissertation: “Why boredom is interesting”.Much of Erin’s research has been on the conditions under which people enjoy or do not enjoy their own thoughts. She has extended that work to the larger question of why people become bored, developing a new model of boredom that explains what boredom is, why we experience it, and what happens when we do. More information on Erin’s research is available on her website: https://www.erinwestgate.com/

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