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Preprint: Accepted version April 22nd 2024.
The final version will appear in the
Routledge International Handbook of Boredom
. Please cite as:
Wolff, W., Weich, A., & Fischer, U. (2024). Boredom in Sports and Exercise. In
The Routledge
International Handbook of Boredom
. Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003271536-22
Boredom in Sports and Exercise
Wanja Wolff1,2, Christian Weich1, & Ursula Fischer1, 3
1 Department of Sport Science, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
2 Department of Educational Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
3 University of Teacher Education in Special Needs, Institute for Educational Support for Behaviour, Social-Emotional, and Psychomotor
Development, Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract
Getting more people to exercise on a regular basis and improving athletes' performance are key aspects
of sports and exercise psychology. In turn, researchers and practitioners undertake substantial efforts to
increase exercise motivation, or to help exercisers deal more adequately with aversive sensations that
are often associated with exercising (e.g., effort, pain). One sensation that appears to be particularly
important in this context is boredom: Exercisers frequently turn to online message boards to discuss
their exercise-induced boredom, and specialized sports media outlets repeatedly post advice on how to
make one’s training less boring. This is in stark contrast to the relative scarcity of boredom research in
sports and exercise contexts.
In this chapter, we draw on current definitions and theories of boredom to explain why boredom matters
for sports and exercise. We demonstrate how boredom can deter people from exercise – but also draw
them to it. Our overview of the literature covers three distinct sports and exercise contexts where
boredom might be relevant. First, we review boredom in the context of physical education, then we cover
boredom in recreational sports and exercise settings, and we close our review with a discussion of
boredom in performance-oriented sports. In these three different contexts, boredom appears to be a
powerful factor that affects sports participation and performance. To conclude, boredom matters for
sports and exercise, and further research is needed to better understand its relevance.
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Introduction
Sports and exercise are inherently linked to fatigue, and to the capability to push one’s body to the brink
of complete exhaustion. Using rowing as an example, this is vividly explained in a 1926 paper by Hudson
Davies 1: “At the end of a university boat race the two crews finish in a condition of fatigue (…). During
the race they have performed seven hundred repetitions of a movement that they have made probably
thousands of times before. Yet no one would imagine that these men have been conscious of the
monotony of their labour. They have had to preserve a determination to drive themselves up to the
threshold of complete exhaustion; (…) They are tired out, but they have not been bored (p.473).”
Typically, boredom is not associated with sports and exercise, and research on the matter is scarce 2.
However, boredom is likely to play an important role there as well, as Davies goes on to explain in his
1926 paper: “These same men in practice for the race, however, have certainly suffered from the
monotony of training. Besides physiological staleness there are periods in training where long spells of
practice are accompanied by intolerable boredom, even when, owing to long use, hardly any fatigue
accompanies the exercise (p.473).”
Given that – at the time of writing - this observation has been made almost one century ago, it is
surprising to see so little research on boredom in sports and exercise. Fortunately, this has recently
started to change 2, and with this chapter we now provide the first overview on the topic. In part one, we
will briefly define boredom and explicate why it matters in sports and exercise contexts. As can be inferred
from the quotes, sport can be boring but does not need to be boring. This is emphasized by the
observation that some people refrain from sports and exercise because to them, it is boring 3, whereas
others engage in sports and exercise because to them, it alleviates boredom 4. In the second part of the
chapter, we will review the literature on boredom in the context of sports and exercise. Specifically, we
review research on a) boredom in physical education settings, b) boredom in the context of recreational
sports and exercise, and c) boredom in the context of performance-oriented sports.
Why could boredom matter for sports and exercise?
Most people are bored sometimes 5,6. This simple statement already captures two core aspects of
boredom: Boredom is a universal human and non-human, 7 sensation, and boredom is a transient state
that occurs sometimes, but not always. The general ubiquity of this state among humans, along with its
coupling to specific person-situation configurations (e.g., person A gets bored by sports, whereas person
B uses sport to escape boredom) suggests that boredom is not a mere nuisance that one should try to
ignore, but that boredom might actually be trying to tell us something. This begs questions, such as
“what is boredom actually, and when do we get bored?” and “what is boredom trying to tell us?”
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What is boredom, and when do we get bored?
Boredom has been defined as a state where a persons’ mental or physical functions are not utilized
adequately 8. Thus, we get bored when we feel that we are not putting our time and/or resources to
good use. While it is highly person- and situation-specific what one considers boring 5, boredom theories
such as the Control-Value Theory (CVT, Chapter ####), the Meaning and Attentional Components
model (MAC, Chapter ####), and the Boredom Feedback model (Chapter ####) have identified various
factors under which this state of inadequate function utilization is likely to occur.
For example, overchallenge or underchallenge can both lead to boredom 9. This implies that tasks that
are too easy or too hard for what one is momentarily capable of doing can make one’s efforts feel wasted.
In the context of sports and exercise, think for example about Markus, a high-level athlete who practices
thousands of Golf putts in order to perfect his stroke, so he is able to get it right when the pressure is
on and the tournament win is on the line. In order to optimize the motion, Markus needs to follow this
repetitive training protocol. However, it is very plausible that this task might feel underchallenging after
a while and might cause Markus to become bored. With respect to overchallenge, think about Ursula, a
novice golfer who plays a very challenging course, the demands of which greatly outweigh her skills. She
hits the ball into a sand bunker multiple times in a row with no real chance of getting closer to the green.
Again, after a while Ursula might get bored. In her case, this is because the activity is overchallenging,
and she is not feeling that she puts her resources to adequate use.
Lack of meaning or value are further factors that contribute to boredom 9,10. Importantly, tasks and
activities might lack in meaning or value in their own right, or they might be found wanting when
compared to other available alternatives. Again, a plethora of examples from sport and exercise lend
themselves very well to illustrate this ingredient to becoming bored: Think for example of school children
that have to do gymnastics in physical education class, a sedentary person whose physician has urged
him to go for a run once a week, or a soccer player who is asked to do ancillary weight training to become
stronger. In all these cases, boredom might occur because the task at hand feels rather low in value or
even meaningless, and one can think of plenty behavioral alternatives that feel more valuable.
These latter examples point toward another ingredient to getting bored: Agency. Or more specifically,
lack of agency. Research shows that a lack of perceived agency is a predictor of heightened boredom 11.
Such a perceived lack of agency is particularly likely in conditions where one does not autonomously
decide to engage in sports, but is compelled to do so by external forces. The most prototypical example
are probably physical education classes in school, which we will turn to in the first part of our literature
review.
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What is boredom trying to tell us?
Irrespective of its specific causes, boredom signifies that whatever one is currently doing is no adequate
use of one’s resources. In turn, boredom’s proposed function is to change this state and to stop being
bored. A functional account on boredom suggests that boredom’s function is to drive undirected
exploration behavior 8,12,13. Simply put, boredom motivates us to do
something else
. More specifically,
boredom is thought to trigger physical or mental motion that is geared towards increasing the likelihood
of finding something more rewarding to engage in 8. This is vividly illustrated by Sir Francis Galton’s
classic observation that members of an academic audience started fidgeting more when the topic got
boring 14, or by the restless stimulus-seeking movement patterns of caged animals 15. Importantly, failing
to alleviate boredom feels aversive and might cause frustration 9, other negative emotions 16, or even
self-harming behaviors 17. Thus, boredom is a state that people want to avoid and to escape 18. If one
chooses to (or has to) continue with a boring activity, this requires effortful self-control to keep behavior
on track, despite the boredom-induced urge to do something else 19. Consistent with this, boredom and
self-control are inversely related on the trait level (i.e., people that are frequently bored tend to display
low dispositional self-control; 20, and research shows that boring tasks are indeed self-control demanding
21. Taken together, boredom is a powerful motivator of human behavior that is highly relevant for the
self-regulation of goal-directed behaviors.
Summing up this first part, research has shown that boredom occurs when one’s resources do not feel
adequately utilized. This state feels aversive, and boredom is understood to act as a trigger that promotes
exploration behavior which is geared towards alleviating this state. Importantly, the conditions under
which boredom is most likely to occur can be present in many exercise settings. For example, boredom
could be triggered if the exercise is excessively challenging or monotonously easy, or if exercising feels
meaningless to the person. However, what one deems boring or not varies greatly between individuals
and across situations, and exercise might therefore also be an escape from boredom in some situations
and for some people. This highlights that boredom might be a factor that is worth considering in the
context of sports and exercise behavior. In the next part, we will review research that has done just that.
Does boredom matter for sports and exercise?
Regular physical exercise is crucial for maintaining, improving and restoring health and quality of life in
general (see Box 1 for a glossary of key terms in sports and exercise). In addition, displays of sporting
excellence have captured human imagination for centuries. To account for the breadth of domains
where physical exercise matters, we will break down our review of the literature into three parts. In part
one, by discussing boredom in the context of physical education (PE) classes, we look at physical
exercise and sports that children have to engage with. In part two, by discussing boredom in the
context of recreational and health-oriented physical activity and sports, we look at physical activity and
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exercise that people freely choose to do. In the last part, we focus on boredom in competitive settings
and its relevance for sports performance. Thus, here we focus on sports and exercise where
performance is the key outcome of interest.
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Box 1: Glossary of key terms in sports and exercise
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Physical education: Physical Education (PE) is an academic subject taught in schools that focuses on
the practical and theoretical foundations of physical activity and health topics. It involves the
evaluation and grading of students' skills in areas such as fitness, coordination, and teamwork, and
aims to promote physical fitness and healthy lifestyle habits.
Physical activity: Physical activity refers to any bodily movement that increases energy expenditure
above the basal level, including activities ranging from low to high intensity. It can include exercise, as
well as other everyday activities such as walking, cycling, or climbing stairs. Regular physical activity is
important for maintaining health and preventing chronic diseases.
Physical exercise: Physical exercise refers to a specific type of physical activity that is more structured
and often involves following a specific routine or plan, such as training. It is carried out with the goal
of improving physical fitness, health, and well-being. Physical exercise is an important component of a
healthy lifestyle and is recommended for individuals of all ages.
Sports: Sports refer to organized, competitive physical activities that are typically played according to
specific rules and regulations. Sports may involve individuals or teams competing against each other,
and they may require specialized equipment, facilities, and coaching. The primary goal of sports is
often to win, although they can also provide opportunities for physical activity, socialization, and
personal growth.
When exercise is mandatory: Boredom in physical education
Throughout the school years, PE classes are mandatory in most countries. That is, PE is an ubiquitous
part of the school system and therefore, children and adolescents typically engage in sports or moderate
to intense physical exercise for several hours per week. Because of this, PE provides a unique and
important opportunity to reach almost the entire population, and lay the foundation for long term
exercise behavior. But what if children’s and adolescents’ experiences in PE drive them away from sports
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Due to the structural differences between these three parts and the lens through which they have been investigated, they will not be
organized in the same way because the respective bodies of literature have focused on different aspects of the boredom-sports relationship.
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All key terms were defined with the help of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, based on the knowledge cutoff from 2021. This approach was chosen as it
represents an aggregate of the way these concepts are defined and used. All definitions were vetted and edited for precision by the authors.
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instead of towards it? Research has shown that this is a real risk and that when a child does not develop
a healthy relationship with physical exercise during these formative years, they are going to be less active
in adulthood 22,23. Indeed, childhood physical activity is a predictor of physical and mental health later in
adulthood. Importantly, the negative consequences of a lack of physical activity do not start in adulthood.
Already at a young age, children’s fitness level and the amount of physical activity they engage in can
impact their physical and cognitive development. Although the World Health Organization (WHO)
suggests that children and adolescents should engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-
intensity physical activity each day and should perform vigorous-intensity aerobic activities on three days
per week 24, many do not meet these recommendations 25. Negative consequences of too little physical
activity have been frequently reported and include childhood obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, as well as
general health risks 26–28. Highlighting the pertinence of sufficient exercise, Faigenbaum and Myer 29, even
refer to this as an “exercise deficit disorder”. To combat this, motivating children towards engaging in
physical activity in whatever shape or form is a paramount goal of PE classes. However, research suggests
that not all students are motivated to participate in PE, and some of them are outright bored by it 30.
Regarding the experience of boredom in PE, most research is conducted with children aged 11 years or
older. At this age, children can verbalize boredom in interviews and complete standardized questionnaires.
One interview study asked adolescents to define boredom, and found most definitions centered on the
situation that was causing boredom (e.g., “when there is nothing to do”), while some also mentioned
some form of constraint in the situation (e.g., “when you don’t like what you’re doing”) and some
associated boredom with tiredness 31. In contrast, boredom questionnaires are more focused on whether
boredom is experienced at all rather than what it is associated with (e.g., Sport Satisfaction Instrument:
“When playing sports, I am usually bored.”, 32). While these studies show that, compared to other
sensations, boredom appears to be experienced less frequently in PE classes, around 20% of students
report to be bored during PE 30,31. Importantly, being bored during PE class matters greatly. For example,
high boredom during PE class was linked to worse PE grades 33, and predicted less physical activity in
students’ free time 34.
Given its prevalence and relevance, it is crucial to understand the correlates of boredom in PE classes.
There are numerous factors that could explain why students experience boredom in PE classes. In the
following, some of these factors that have received research attention will be described.
Correlates of boredom in physical education
With respect to demographics, boredom in PE seems to increase with age. While many studies
investigate age spans that are too narrow to draw robust conclusions about the age-driven progression
of boredom, two studies highlighted these effects. One study found that students between age 15 and
16 reported higher levels of boredom (coupled with less enjoyment) during PE classes compared to 12-
14 year old students 35. Similarly, another study found that boredom increased with age in 12-15 year
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old students 36. With respect to gender, mixed results have been reported for differences in students’
experience of boredom in PE. Most studies report no gender differences in boredom during PE 36–38.
However, one study found that girls report more boredom during PE compared to boys 35, whereas
another study found no difference in boredom during PE, but a higher general level of boredom for girls
compared to boys 30. The possibility that girls are more bored during PE classes is particularly interesting,
since research tends to find that males are generally more prone to experience boredom than females 39.
Clearly, more research is needed to better understand the existence and robustness of such gender
differences.
With respect to situational factors, parental and teacher support can help alleviate boredom that is
experienced during PE (or sports in general). Specifically, in the above-mentioned study by Moral-García
et al. 35, it was found that higher parental support was linked to lower boredom in students. Such parental
support could take the form of encouraging their child to engage in physical activities or driving their
child to sporting events outside the school context 40. Regarding teacher influence, teaching styles play
an important role in the prevention of boredom in PE. For example, an autonomy-supportive teaching
style has been shown to counteract the increase of boredom over time in 11 to 12 year old students’ PE
classes 41.
Beyond demographic and situational factors, researchers have also investigated psychological factors
that might affect boredom in PE. Here, self-regulation is ascribed an important role: self-regulation
matters because it influences whether students engage in physically active behavior outside of school
(i.e., when doing sports is not mandated). Indeed, self-regulation has been found to be negatively
associated with boredom 20, and in the context of PE, better self-regulation was associated with less
boredom in school children 42.
Another important psychological determinant of boredom in PE is how students perceive themselves:
What is their physical self-concept, and how do they perceive their motor self-efficacy? Physical self-
concept can be described as a mental representation concerning one’s physical characteristics, whereas
motor self-efficacy is defined by the confidence one has in his/her own motor capabilities 43. According
to Morales-Sánchez and colleagues 43, boredom is negatively associated with students’ motor self-
efficacy, as well as some but not all aspects of students’ physical self-concept. What these results
highlight is that not only students’ objective performance, but their subjective impression of their abilities
and characteristics determines whether they get bored during PE.
Probably the most research on boredom in PE has been conducted within the framework of achievement
goal theory 32: When participating in any form of educational activities, achievement goal theory suggests
that students’ goal orientations fall into two categories: task orientation and ego orientation e.g., 44. Task-
oriented students aim to improve themselves and their performance in an area of interest by putting in
a lot of work. In contrast, students who are mostly ego-oriented strive toward being better than others.
Ego-oriented people tend to believe that success comes down to superior abilities, whereas task-oriented
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people tend to believe in the instrumentality of effort for being successful. There is strong empirical
support for the idea that task-orientation is negatively associated with boredom 32,,45,46. With respect to
ego-orientation, some studies report no association with boredom in PE, whereas some report a small
positive correlation with boredom 46. Interestingly, an intervention study showed that by changing the
motivational climate in a PE classroom, students’ goal orientation can be altered 47: After participating in
a mastery climate intervention, students’ task-orientation increased, while their reported boredom
decreased (for a meta-analysis, see 48). Thus, fostering a task-oriented environment where effort is
valued can make boredom less likely. Indeed, recent evidence indicates that students who value physical
effort rate PE classes as less boring and also report better PE grades when compared to students who
do not value physical effort 33.
Interim conclusion: Boredom in physical education (PE)
What becomes apparent from the above summary of the literature is that boredom is present in PE
classes, and that it becomes more prevalent as students get older. It is therefore paramount to apply
what is known about the antecedents and consequences of boredom, and to create a motivational climate
in PE classes that is not conducive to boredom. In our review of the literature, we were surprised to find
that research on boredom in PE seems to be focused on children aged 11 years and older. Therefore, it
is currently hard to determine when boredom first occurs and what could be done to prevent it.
Interestingly, research on enhancing motivation in PE has shown that certain teaching styles and
classroom climates (for example, towards mastery orientation) can be used to foster motivation already
in early childhood e.g., 49,50. Therefore, future research should determine when boredom first takes effect,
and should strive to incorporate its assessment in intervention studies. If we understand how to prevent
boredom in PE early in life, we can foster lifelong engagement in physical activities. As stated by Kirk 51:
“We can conclude that the early years are critical years for the development of the kinds of physical
competences that place individuals in a position to access and engage actively in the physical culture of
society (p. 242).”
When exercise is voluntary: Boredom in recreational sports and exercise
After reviewing research on boredom in settings where sports participation is mandatory, we will now
turn to the role of boredom with respect to exercise that is performed primarily of one’s own volition:
recreational sports and exercise. Recreational sports and exercise induce tremendous personal and public
health benefits, and physical fitness is even linked to reduced mortality 52,53. In turn, policy makers
undertake substantial efforts to increase sports and exercise behavior in the general public. However,
despite large intervention efforts, inactivity rates in Western countries have remained largely unchanged
over the last 20 years 25, and physical inactivity remains a substantial public health issue 54. Clearly,
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physical inactivity is a multi-causal phenomenon and many barriers to exercising regularly have been
investigated 55. Yet, surprisingly little research has investigated the role of boredom in this context. In
this section, we review the extant literature on boredom in the context of recreational sports and exercise.
Consistent with our conceptual considerations, researchers have investigated boredom as a barrier that
prevents people from engaging in physical activity, and also the role of physical activity as a means to
alleviate boredom in everyday life. In addition, some research has looked at boredom as either a
situationally defined transient state or a stable general disposition or trait, which is most frequently
conceptualized as boredom proneness.
Boredom as a barrier to physical activity
People often make plans to engage in more sports (for example for their New Year's resolutions) or are
urged by their physician to exercise more. However, many aspiring exercisers fail to translate this
intention into actual exercise behavior 56. Explaining this, people cite a plethora of different reasons that
keep them from exercising regularly, such as aversive sensations, time-pressure, or situational constraints
57,58. Crucially, boredom is also frequently stated as a barrier to exercise. For example, patients report
boredom as a reason for why they stopped doing important physical therapy work at home 3,59,60.
One mechanism that could potentially trigger boredom among aspiring exercisers could be that
exercising is perceived to be of low value to some people 2. Research outside the sporting context shows
that tasks that do not feel valuable are more likely to trigger boredom 9. But why would exercise – a
powerful factor for the improvement and prolongation of life – be not perceived as valuable? To people
who do not inherently enjoy exercise but primarily use exercise as a means to an end (e.g., to live longer,
to lose weight), the rather slow accumulation of exercise-induced rewards might be critical: Desired
effects, such as weight loss or improved physical fitness takes time to materialize 61; and the positive
effects exercise has on healthy ageing take even longer to be noticed (e.g., you train now to reap the
health benefits many years later). The long timeframe across which exercise-induced health benefits
accrue is at odds with the observation that humans temporally discount rewards 62. Simply put, the value
ascribed to a future outcome is weighted against the time it would take to attain this outcome. Crucially,
boredom is assumed to play a key role in reducing the valuation of long term rewards in contrast to more
short term rewards (see Chapter ####; 12). Thus, if one exercises solely for the reward of healthy ageing,
the process of exercising might feel less valuable than other short-term alternatives and one might get
bored. Indeed, the oft-cited time constraints that stand in the way of exercise are at odds with the ever
increasing screen time for media consumption among the general population 63. Thus, while many feel
they do not have the time to exercise, much time is devoted to non-sporting recreational activities. From
a boredom perspective, it is likely that the more immediate rewards that accompany screen use (e.g.,
browsing social media, watching videos) render exercise the more boring alternative, and – simply put –
people generally try to avoid boredom. This reasoning is consistent with the popularity of exercise
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methods that promise to yield the expected rewards with less time spent exercising e.g., High Intensity
Interval Training 64,65, or to make the time spent exercising less boring (e.g., virtual bike riding). If the act
of exercising itself were to be perceived as intrinsically valuable, then boredom should be much less of a
barrier. Indeed, research shows that ascribing high value to one’s training is associated with less boredom
in athletes 66.
Another potential trigger for boredom in sports and exercise is when task demands do not align with
one’s preferences, capabilities or momentary energy levels 8. This can be vividly illustrated with the
example of a bike ride during a holiday summer camp: Think of a talented junior cyclist who is asked to
participate in a flat, very low-intensity bike ride with her classmates. To the child who frequently rides,
the situation will quickly become under-challenging, and she will likely try to do something about this,
such as going faster. How will the other children do? Those who rarely exercise might struggle to even
complete the ride. They are over-challenged. For them, task demands clearly exceed their capabilities,
their available energy levels, and cycling probably does not align with their preferences. Both groups, the
non-cycling children and the junior cyclist, will be bored during the bike ride because task demands are
misaligned (over-challenging or under-challenging). The degree of boredom one feels with respect to
exercising is also subject to intra-individual variation. Recent work from our lab shows that the temporal
dynamics of boredom during a recreational run at moderate intensity seem to follow a quadratic pattern:
Initially, runners report low boredom. Boredom then rises until it starts to drop when the end of the run
is near. This indicates that even when external task demands stay the same (runners were asked to keep
running at a consistent heartrate), changes in perceived energy levels or the preferred way to spend
one’s time seem to trigger changes in boredom (yet unpublished work from our lab).
Physical activity to alleviate boredom
Exercise is not boring to everyone and can even be used as an escape from boredom. For instance, cancer
patients reported reduced boredom through physical activity 67. Also, 10-11 year old children engage in
physically active play to prevent boredom, as reported by Brockman, Jago, and Fox 68. Exercise might be
a particularly effective boredom prevention when it can replace more boring alternative activities that
one would otherwise have to engage in. This can be illustrated with how people commute to work: In one
study, commuters rated commuting to work with public transport as stressful and boring, especially due
to delays and waiting time, whereas a physically active commute (cycling or walking) was perceived as
affectively positive 69. The authors highlight the need for further research on the role of boredom during
work commutes and on the effectiveness of active commutes as a means to prevent boredom. Crucially,
the instrumentality of physical activity and exercise in alleviating boredom extends beyond the commute
to work and into actual on-the-job behavior: Research has shown that active walking or cycling
workstations reduced boredom compared to working in a passive sitting condition 70. Outside the work
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setting, research shows that people are drawn to adventure sports like mountain biking or rock climbing
because these sports provide an escape from boredom 71.
The role of individual differences: Boredom proneness and exercise participation
Boredom is generally understood as a situationally dependent transient state. However, people also
display relatively stable differences in their disposition to be frequently and intensely bored (Chapter
####). This boredom proneness is associated with a host of negative outcomes in domains that rely on
effective self-regulation. For example, high boredom proneness has been linked to increased flaunting of
COVID-19 social distancing guidelines 72, gambling 73, or substance abuse 74. More generally speaking,
boredom prone people report to engage more frequently in maladaptive behaviors and less frequently in
adaptive behaviors 18. Consistent with this, high boredom proneness was linked to less sports and
exercise, but to more unhealthy behaviors such as binge drinking or excessive media use in a sample of
nearly 500 Italian adolescents 75. Research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic provides further
evidence for the link between boredom proneness, physical activity, and exercise behavior. During the
pandemic, reductions in physical activity and increases in boredom were observed 76–78. One research
group tested the hypothesis that maintaining or increasing physical activity during the pandemic would
reduce boredom proneness, and that this reduction in boredom proneness would account for improved
wellbeing among exercisers 77. Indeed, high boredom proneness did not only correlate with less physical
activity and impaired wellbeing, but also partially mediated the relationship between physical activity and
wellbeing. This provides first insights into the promise of using physical activity as a means to reduce
dispositional boredom proneness.
Attesting to its link to poor self-regulation, high boredom proneness correlates strongly and negatively
with self-control, implying that boredom prone people – who are in need of good self-control – score
low on measures of self-control 2. This is particularly relevant in the context of sports and exercise
behavior, where the importance of self-control is very well established 79,80. In one study, we investigated
whether dispositional measures of boredom and self-control would covary with sports and exercise
behavior in a sample of paid online workers 81. Bivariate analyses highlighted that high boredom
proneness, high sport-specific boredom and low self-control were all linked to less sports and exercise
behavior. Supporting the notion of the strong link between boredom proneness and self-control, latent
profile analyses showed that people could be categorized into two discrete latent personality profiles:
Those in the adaptive profile were characterized by high self-control and low boredom proneness,
whereas in the less adaptive profile, boredom proneness was higher and self-control was lower.
Consistent with expectations, people displaying the adaptive profile reported more vigorous physical
activity behavior than those who displayed the less adaptive profile.
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Interim conclusion: Boredom in recreational sports and exercise
Taken together, boredom matters greatly for recreational sports and exercise behavior. Evidently,
boredom can be a reason why people do not exercise. Monotony, low value, lack of agency and autonomy,
as well as over- or underchallenge of the sporting task can deter people from exercising. Interestingly, all
these factors have been identified by current boredom theories as causes of boredom. In addition, plenty
of evidence suggests that exercise can be a viable means to prevent boredom. Here, exercise can be an
escape from activities that bores some people: The commuter, who gets bored when she feels she is
wasting her time (e.g., being stuck in traffic); the worker, who utilizes physical activity to escape the
monotony of highly structured and restricted working conditions (e.g., sitting in front of a computer
screen for eight hours a day); and the child or the athlete who actively searches for stimulation that
matches their preferences (e.g., the thrill of descending a technical mountain bike trail). Being unwilling
to not put one’s time to good use, the urge to increase sensory input and to align one’s actions with
current preferences and energy levels fits very well with current definitions of boredom and how it exerts
its effect 8. Lastly, an emerging body of literature shows that stable individual differences in boredom
proneness covary with the amount of sports and exercise people engage in, thus further highlighting the
relevance of boredom in recreational sports and exercise contexts.
When it’s not only about participation: Boredom in performance-oriented sports
In addition to recreational sports and exercise, which promote well-being and health, many athletes
perform sports with a focus on performance. Performance-oriented sports differ markedly from purely
recreational sports and exercise. Athletes have to train very long hours (up to 800 hours per year, 82),
sustain fatigue and pain, and practice specific routines and movements at nauseum in order to achieve
the required performance level. The quote by Hudson Davies at the beginning of the chapter highlights
these properties vividly by emphasizing monotony, repetition, and extreme levels of fatigue. Interestingly,
research that has investigated boredom in performance-oriented sports is scarce. Consequently, this last
part of our review of the literature is the shortest of the three.
Through the lens of boredom theories, competitive training is likely to be accompanied by some degree
of boredom. This is because training often consists of highly specific elements and drills that do not
directly resemble the athletes’ primary sports (e.g., a soccer player who has to go for a run to improve
endurance), nor do they offer the excitement a competition might give. Consistent with this, it has been
shown that ancillary training (i.e., running as a soccer player) is perceived as more boring than training
that resembles one’s primary sport (i.e., playing soccer as a soccer player; 2). Digging deeper into the
mechanism by which boredom occurs during athletic training, a recent study investigated whether
boredom depended on an athlete’s difficulty to devote themselves to the training, and the value an
athlete ascribed to the training session 66. Consistent with theoretical expectations, athletes reported
13
more boredom if they found it hard to fully engage with their training. This effect was exacerbated if the
training sessions were not perceived as valuable for reaching their goals.
Beyond training, one study investigated the prevalence and relevance of experiencing boredom during
ultra-endurance competitions. Interestingly, boredom was reported less frequently than more
prototypical exercise-induced sensations such as fatigue or pain; but only boredom emerged as a
statistically significant correlate of having had a crisis during competition 83. This highlights that a
sensation does not need to be experienced very intensely or frequently to alter performance. On the
contrary, it appeared that ultra-endurance competitors were very well prepared to deal with high levels
of sensations that are typically associated with endurance sports (e.g., pain and fatigue), but were less
well prepared to effectively deal with boredom. From an applied perspective this suggests that athletes
might benefit from proactively preparing themselves for the challenges of getting bored during
competition. Consistent with this, anecdotal evidence from ultra-endurance sports shows that some
athletes deliberately expose themselves to boring training conditions, such as indoor cycling in an empty
room, in order to prepare themselves for the challenges of boredom during competition. Further,
evidence for the detrimental effect boredom can have on performance comes from a study with a
heterogenous sample of elite athletes (soccer, volleyball, basketball, taekwondo, among others) 84. In that
study, excessive repetitions of the same movements, teammates that were not serious enough, or long
waiting times were identified as causes for athletes’ boredom, and boredom was linked to impaired
performance.
To our knowledge, only one study investigated the mechanisms by which boredom might affect sports
performance 85. Athletes who were boredom prone reported more decision failures in their sport.
Importantly, such self-reported decision failures were associated with increased risk taking but also with
increased passivity in their sports. This finding has been interpreted in the light of theoretical and
empirical work suggesting that boredom prone people’s decision making is
noisier
(i.e., reflecting a sub-
optimal response to boring situations; 8,86).
Lastly, we are aware of two studies that have investigated differences in boredom proneness in samples
of competitive athletes. In one study, extreme sport athletes (snowboarders, climbers) displayed lower
boredom proneness than e-sport athletes 85. In the second study, ultra-endurance runners scored lower
on a measure of sport-specific trait boredom than less extreme runners 83. These studies indicate that
athletes’ boredom proneness differs across sports and across athletic levels. It will be a fascinating
avenue for future research to investigate whether these differences reflect self-selection by the athletes
(i.e., choosing a sport that is aligned with their ability to deal with boredom) or are the result of sport-
specific socialization effects.
14
Interim conclusion: Boredom in performance-oriented sports
Taken together, the emerging body of research on the link between boredom and sports performance
indicates that boredom matters in competitive sports as well. In short, athletes can experience boredom
in their sport and this can affect their performance. Compared to research on boredom in PE and on
boredom in recreational contexts, boredom in competitive sports appears to be the least investigated.
Especially the boredom-performance relationship warrants further investigation. Not least because the
precise, high-resolution quantifiability of sports performance (e.g., assessing produced force and changes
in physiological states continuously during a cycling effort) holds promise for also advancing our
understanding of the effects boredom can have on behavior outside the sporting domain.
General Conclusion: Yes, boredom matters for sports and exercise
In this chapter, we have provided the conceptual background for the relevance of boredom in sports and
exercise contexts. We have then provided an overview of the literature on boredom in the context of PE,
recreational sports and exercise, as well as competitive sports. Clearly, research on boredom in sports
and exercise is still in its infancy and many open questions remain for each context. For example, in the
PE context, research with children under the age of 11 years is needed to better understand the
developmental aspects of the boredom-sports relationship. Exploring gamified exercise in a recreational
setting may offer insights into ways to engage people who find traditional exercise boring and potentially
even turn it into a solution for avoiding boredom. Lastly, a plethora of open questions remain regarding
competitive sports. Beyond performance, it might be worthwhile to follow up on evidence for a link
between boredom and the use of recreational drugs among athletes 87, the use of which is discussed in
the context of being a precursor for the use of performance-enhancing drugs 88. These are but three
examples for interesting and important avenues for further research on boredom in sports and exercise.
Clearly, boredom matters in sports. As researchers have started to address the role of boredom in these
contexts, we hope to see the field grow further in the coming years.
Funding: This chapter was supported in part by the Young Scholar Fund of the University of Konstanz.
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