無聊對你有好處還是致命呢?大綱

Is it good to be bored (or will it be the death of you)?

無聊對你有好處還是致命呢？

Boredom traditionally has a bad reputation. In 2009, a study of 7,524 civil servants found that those with the highest levels of boredom were nearly 40% more likely to have died by the end of the 25-year trial, compared with those who weren’t bored. The bored civil servants were also more prone to rate their health worse and to be less active and have more menial jobs. The authors speculated that boredom and inactivity might drive people to drink more heavily and smoke – activities not related to longevity.

傳統意義上，無聊是個不好的詞。在2009年，一項針對7524個行政人員的研究發現，那些有最高無聊程度的人，跟不無聊的人相比，有超過接近40%的可能在25年後死去。那些無聊的行政人員還更容易輕視自己的健康狀況，變得更不積極並從事更多腦力勞動。作者推測，無聊和不活躍或許會驅使人加重酗酒和吸菸，即一些違背長壽的活動。

Boredom is often defined as a state of dissatisfaction with the dullness of a situation – usually with a bit of restlessness and fatigue. So it may seem counterintuitive that researchers are suggesting boredom might have benefits, and, indeed, be an evolutionary insurance scheme for making us seek new experiences. A series of studies from the University of Virginia, published in the journal Science in 2014 found that 18 out of 42 students who were left in a room with nothing to do for 15 minutes gave themselves at least one mild shock on the ankle to alleviate the boredom. The authors concluded that people would rather do something unpleasant than nothing.

無聊通常被定義爲對某種單調情況感到不開心的狀態，常帶有些許的不安和疲憊。因此這件事或許看起來是違反直覺的：研究者認爲無聊也許有好處而且事實上可以成爲一種改進的保障策略，讓我們尋求新的經歷。2014年發佈在科學家雜誌上，弗吉尼亞大學一系列的研究發現，被留在房間裏15分鐘沒有事情做的42個學生有18個爲了消除無聊至少輕敲過自己的踝關節。作者總結，相比較於什麼都不做，人們寧願做一些不開心的事。

So whatever happened to daydreaming? A study from the University of Central Lancashire links a period of boredom with heightened creativity immediately afterwards. It is not the most robust study: 40 people copied numbers from a telephone directory for 15 minutes and then had to come up with different uses for a pair of polystyrene cups. Their ideas were rated more creative than those of 40 people who didn’t do the boring task first. Another group, who read the numbers, were even more creative with the cups than those who wrote them out. Dr Sandi Mann, one of the authors, concluded that we should embrace boredom “to enhance our creativity”.

因此做白日夢會發生什麼呢？一項中央蘭開夏大學的的研究認爲一段時間的無聊過後將會馬上增加創造力。40個人先從一個電話號碼簿中摘抄一些數字，然後需要想出一對聚苯乙烯杯子的不同用處。根據評價，他們的想法比40個沒有先做這些無聊任務的人更加有創造力。另一組的讀數字的人甚至比那些摘抄的更有創造力。作爲作者之一的Sandi Mann醫生總結，我們應當接受無聊以“加強我們的創造力”。

譯文屬原創，未經允許，不得轉載。