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Boredom

Boredom is experienced by everyone from production workers to philosophers - but is it only a negative emotion or is it necessary to motivating human behaviour?

The programme examines boredom and discovers the history of how it developed as an idea and consequently became a moral issue. Boredom is becoming a fashionable area of academic research where surprising conclusions have been reached about its effects and purpose. And even if today鈥檚 hi鈥搕ech workplace - or perhaps because of it - boredom is still to be found and presenting challenges as to how to deal with it.

Jo Fidgen discusses boredom with historian Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith from the University of London, Professor Missy Cummings, Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, North Carolina, USA and a former drone pilot Lt Col Bruce Black. She also submits herself to a boredom experiment with Dr Wijnand van Tilburg a psychologist at Southampton University. 大象传媒 archive recordings include Inside Job and Hancock鈥檚 Half Hour.

(Image of a lady yawning. Credit: Think Stock)

Available now

18 minutes

Last on

Mon 7 Apr 2014 08:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 5 Apr 2014 13:32GMT
  • Sat 5 Apr 2014 22:32GMT
  • Mon 7 Apr 2014 01:32GMT
  • Mon 7 Apr 2014 08:32GMT

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