“People often ask me what the definition of boredom is,” says Dr James Danckert, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in Canada. “It’s settled in my mind, but that doesn’t mean it’s settled in the research field.”

James’s definition is that the state of boredom is desiring but failing to engage in the world in meaningful ways. “So when you’re bored, you’re motivated, you’re agitated, you’re restless because you’re not successfully engaging, and that’s what you want,” he adds. “It’s very different from apathy and laziness.

“Creative pursuits are great ways to get rid of boredom. Creativity is one of our most complex capacities and it’s a practice,” says James.

Visual environments can influence attentional engagement and thus contribute to boredom. Cognitive mechanisms actively seek novel information from the environment for a variety of purposes, including learning and creativity (Seiler et al, 2025). 

Boredom is independent of this curiosity and an “essential co-factor of information-seeking, driving individuals away from sources of monotony” (Seiler et al, 2025). 

“It is a state defined by a lack of interest or stimulation which can sometimes arise when prediction error (difference between expectation and reality) is very low (that is, when incoming sensory information is highly predictable and offers little novelty),” says Samantha Strong, Vision Scientist and Senior Lecturer in Optometry at Aston University.

“Reflective boredom, on the other hand, refers to a meta-cognitive evaluation of one’s own boredom state – that is, recognising and considering your disengagement. In this way, visual perception plays a key role. When visual environments are highly predictable (for example, expert pattern recognition) or low in saliency (for example, little importance to you or your context), they are less likely to stimulate arousal (interest), thereby increasing the likelihood of experiencing boredom.”