Experienced entropy drives choice behavior in a boring decision-making task.

ABSTRACT: Boredom has been defined as an aversive mental state that is induced by the disability to engage in satisfying activity, most often experienced in monotonous environments. However, current understanding of the situational factors inducing boredom and driving subsequent behavior remains incomplete. Here, we introduce a two-alternative forced-choice task coupled with sensory stimulation of different degrees of monotony. We find that human subjects develop a bias in decision-making, avoiding the more monotonous alternative that is correlated with self-reported state boredom. This finding was replicated in independent laboratory and online experiments and proved to be specific for the induction of boredom rather than curiosity. Furthermore, using theoretical modeling we show that the entropy i

SUBMITTER: Seiler JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8873446 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature