*Very* excited to finally share these results! Across 15 studies and over 7000 participants, we find boredom causes sadistic behavior. Now in press at JPSP.

https://psyarxiv.com/r67xg/ 

Many thanks to Stefan, @Lili_Lazarevic, & Simon for including me in this project! 1/n

Across 7 studies & 1780 participants, individual differences in boredom & sadism correlate, r = .37. Effect persists controlling for personality (Big 5 & HEXACO) and Dark Triad. Oh yeah, machiavellenism (r = .33) & psychopathy (r = .35) also correlate with trait boredom! 2/n

Incidentally, folks high in trait boredom also reported more online trolling, r = .34 (r = .17, controlling for personality). They were more likely to send people to shock websites and troll folks' in forums and comment sections. So don't @ me folks. 3/n

But trait boredom measures are messy (is boredom really a trait??). So, we looked at boredom in *specific* contexts. And uh, it's not good. Bored soldiers behaved more sadistically towards coworkers, and bored PARENTS said they behaved sadistically towards their kids. 4/n

Finally, trait boredom correlates esp well with fantasies of shooting people, robbing banks, and revenge.

(Caveat: I have some hesitations about what "trait boredom" measures; it predicts state boredom only weakly, at best, in experimental lab studies I've run) 5/n

All the above is correlational. To claim boredom *causes* sadistic behavior, we need experiments. So we manipulated "prototypical" boredom by randomly assigning folks to watch fun vs boring videos. Meanwhile we gave them a chance to engage in some questionable life choices. 6/n

People randomly assigned to watch a 20-min video of a waterfall (vs Alps documentary) were more bored, and killed* more helpless worms by grinding them up in a coffee grinder. Worm murder rates: 2% control vs 18% boredom. 7/n

* unbeknownst to participants, no worms were harmed

Next up: Imagine you're in a study. And you get a 50 cent bonus! Now, I tell you that @JinXunGoh is ALSO a participant. And while you watch this video, you can press one of these five buttons; each deducts 10 cents from Jin's bonus. You can press one, none or all 5! Do you do it?

We gave people that choice by pairing them with a 2nd random (but real) participant. People randomly assigned to watch a 5-min video of a rock [vs magic tricks/no video] were more bored, and sadistically docked more bonus pay; 15-22% of control participants vs 36% in boredom cond

But does it replicate? It does! We conducted a high-powered (n = 2002) preregistered replication. Boredom increased sadistic destruction of payment, at no personal gain, from 31 to 40%. No moderation by dispositional sadism (although sadistic people did destroy more $)

We also added a new experimental condition to our preregistered replication, to see if effects extend to 3rd party punishment. They do. People monetarily punished wrongdoers more in the boredom (77%) vs control (66%) condition. But - is punishing wrondoers BAD? Maybe (prob) not.

Which brings me to a point: boredom isn't bad. But our responses to it can be. And how we respond depends on our options available. We ran another version of the "pay deduction" studies - but this time you could *dock* the other person's pay OR *boost* their pay. Guess what.

When given the CHOICE to dock other participants’ pay OR boost their pay, people are decent. Almost 90% choose to boost others’ pay, and with that option available, the effect of boredom on sadism largely goes away (except for folks already sadistic to begin with).

To close: boredom isn't good or bad. It's a healthy signal that we can't meaningfully engage with the world. But our RESPONSES to that signal can be more or less adaptive... good choices require good options. We didn't manipulate that in these studies - and that's the next step.

Many thanks again to lead author Stefan Pfattheicher, @Lili_Lazarevic, & Simon Schindler for letting me play a (very) small role in this amazing (and at times disturbing!) project. If you have questions, please shoot them Stefan's way! https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/stefan-pfattheicher(b33ce2c5-1eef-4047-be31-72628867cbf0).html

Article is in press at JPSP; we just got page proofs, so hopefully should be available online soon. In the meantime, you can check out our preprint at this link: https://psyarxiv.com/r67xg/ 

Supplemental material, data, and preregistration available on the OSF https://osf.io/k2swy/