Jan 29, 2022 20:00:00

Research results on how 'boringom' causes sadistic behavior

Scenes that are sloppy by rough or mean people are often depicted in comics. Nine studies investigating the effects of spare time on human behavior and psychology have shown that boredom is a factor in human behavioral behavior.

PsyArXiv Preprints | On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression

https://psyarxiv.com/r67xg/

The Dark Side of Boredom | Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-asymmetric-brain/202009/the-dark-side-boredom

Boredom found to be a factor in sadistic behavior
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01-boredom-factor-sadistic-behavior.html

It is well known that some people do harm to others for their own pleasure, that is, they tend to behave sadistically, but the psychological factors are not well understood. So, a research team led by Stefan Pfattheicher, a psychologist at Aarhus University in Denmark, analyzed nine studies on sadistic behavior and tested the hypothesis that 'boring is the cause of sadistic behavior.' ..

◆ Study 1: Study on sadistic personality and boredom
The first study conducted a personality diagnosis by conducting a questionnaire to volunteers in six groups. Although this study was not a study with boredom as the main theme, an analysis of the accidental boredom questions and the personality of the respondents revealed that all six groups were 'chronic boredom in daily life.' People who feel it tend to be sadistic than those who don't. '

◆ Research 2: Research on Internet trolls and boredom
The second study was about online harassment and offensive trolls, where 196 volunteers 'have sent

people the URL of a shock site to tell the story.' Ask questions such as 'I like to harass the comments section of online forums and bulletin boards.' This study also found that people who are experiencing routine and chronic boredom are more likely to engage in vandalism on the Internet.

◆ Study 3: Study on military personnel and boredom
The third is a study of sadistic behavior between soldiers in the army. This study was chosen because it is prone to cruelty in battlefields, and many military missions require long waits, often exposing soldiers to boredom. And that. We asked 289 active soldiers or veterans to answer questions such as 'Did you often feel bored during your term?' Or 'Have you ever made a joke that hurt your peers?' However, this study also found that bored soldiers were more likely to be sadistic with their peers.

◆ Study 4: Study on parents with children and boredom
The fourth is the results of a survey on the sadistic behavior of parents towards their children, that is, child abuse. The study, which conducted an online survey of 300 parents of children, found that the average parent was generally less bored and less likely to be sadistic. However, parents who are bored in their daily lives and childcare 'sometimes enjoy jokes at the expense of their child' and 'it is interesting for others to make fun of or make fun of their child.' It also turned out that it tends to be easier to answer when it applies to questions such as 'I have something to think about.'

◆ Study 5: Study on sadistic delusions and boredom
Fifth is research on fantasy rather than actual behavior, and whether it is easy for people who are bored to have sadistic fantasies such as 'imagination of robbing a bank' and 'imagination of shooting someone with a gun for pleasure'. Is to find out. This online survey of 500 volunteers also found a strong link between feeling bored in everyday life and sadistic fantasies.

These five studies strongly highlighted the relationship between boredom and sadistic behavior, but all relied on self-reports from the individual. Therefore, the research team also analyzed four studies that conducted experiments based on psychological methods.

◆ Study 6: A study of cruel behavior and boredom
The sixth study divided 129 subjects into two groups, then watched a boring video of a waterfall on one side and a 20-minute documentary film on the theme of the Alps on the other. To get it. Each subject was shown a fly larva, a container containing maggots and a coffee grinder, and was informed that 'if the footage is boring, you can grind and kill the maggots on your stomach.'

The following is the state of the experimental equipment. The cups containing maggots are named 'Toto', 'Tifi', and 'Kiki' to make them more cruel, and the subject can put up to three maggots in the coffee grinder if he wants to. It was possible to throw in insects.

As a result of this experiment, a total of 13 subjects had at least one maggot in a coffee grinder, 12 of whom saw boring footage. This result shows that boredom leads to the behavior of brutally killing insects. In addition, the subjects after the experiment were told that the coffee grinder was specially crafted so that it would not die even if maggots were added.

◆ Study 7: Study on meanness and boredom
The seventh study is an experiment in which 634 subjects are given $ 1 (about 114 yen) as a participation fee, and then they are asked to choose whether to increase or decrease their stakes in other subjects. The specific procedure is to show the subject a 5-minute video after showing the subject 'a button to increase and decrease the reward of other subjects'. Of the two groups of subjects, one increases or decreases the rewards of the other paired subjects while watching the boring footage of the stones and the funny footage of the magician performing. I chose.

As a result of this experiment, the probability that a subject who saw an interesting video reduced the rewards of other subjects and became mean was 5.1%, while when he saw a boring video, it doubled to 11%. In addition, when the results of the personality diagnosis performed in advance were compared with the behavior of the subjects, those with a sadistic personality were bored and reduced the rewards of others, while those who were not sadistic were likely to be bored. He didn't mean anything to other people.

◆ Studies 8 and 9: Application of studies on meanness and boredom
The eighth study is to eliminate the 'button to increase other people's rewards' from the experiment in Study 7. In other words, the subject had only the option of being mean to others or doing nothing. In this experiment, subjects who saw interesting footage had a 21.7% chance of reducing other people's rewards, compared to 36.1% for those who watched boring footage. In other words, if there was no option to increase other people's rewards, they tended to be more mean to others, but that tendency was also influenced by boredom.

The ninth study is to have a situation similar to that of Study 8 seen from the perspective of a third party. Specifically, he said to the subject, 'I gave a pair of participants in a money-sharing game $ 1, but only Participant A could decide how to divide the $ 1. As a result, Participants A has made his share 70 cents and his opponent's share 30 cents. You can press a button to reduce Participant A's reward. '

Then, when the subject was shown a boring or funny video and asked the participant A of the game who made an unequal decision to decide whether to be mean or not, 65.6% of the subjects who saw the funny video showed the boring video. It is said that 76.5% of the subjects who saw it pressed the button to reduce the reward. This shows that if you witness fraud, you tend to try to punish those who commit fraud, and that judgment is also affected by boredom.

From the results of these nine studies combined, the research team found that 'boredom is a motivation to hurt people for pleasure, but do they actually take sadistic actions such as killing creatures? It's also influenced by that person's personality, which means that when a person with a sadistic personality gets bored, he or she will behave sadistically, but most people don't seem to be so sadistic immediately because they are bored. ' I concluded.