Boredom proneness is associated with noisy decision-making, not risk-taking.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Yakobi, Ofir Danckert, James
Abstract	Previous research shows that individuals who tend to get bored frequently and intensely—the highly boredom prone—are more likely to engage in risky behaviors. However, these studies are based largely on self-reports. Here we address this gap and suggest that noisy decision-making (DM) is a potential driver for this relationship between boredom proneness and risk-taking. In Study 1, eighty-six participants completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) while EEG was recorded. We found blunted feedback processing with higher boredom proneness, as indexed by reduced feedback-P3 amplitudes. Risk taking, as indexed by the BART, was not higher in the highly boredom prone. In Study 2a (N = 404) we directly tested the noisy DM hypothesis in an online sample using a binary choice task, and found that with higher boredom proneness, participants were more likely to alternate between choices on a trial-to-trial basis, but were not more likely to choose the risky alternative. These findings were replicated in a new sample (Study 2b), and extended to the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Study 3). In the IGT we found increased choice switching and reduced feedback sensitivity with higher boredom proneness. Once again, higher risk taking as indexed by the IGT was not evident in the highly boredom prone. Overall, our findings suggest that boredom proneness is associated with noisy decision-making (i.e., a tendency to alternate more between choice options regardless of risk level), and not risk-seeking per se. That is, the highly boredom prone are not necessarily attracted to risks, but rather, may be insensitive to risks due to reduced feedback sensitivity.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC8026330&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	00144819
Journal	Experimental Brain Research [Exp Brain Res]
Volume Number	239
DOI	10.1007/s00221-021-06098-5
PubMed Central reference number	PMC8026330
Issue Number	6
PubMed reference number	33829298
e-ISSN	14321106
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2021-04-08
Publisher Place	Berlin/Heidelberg
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
Subject Keyword	Boredom Risk taking Decision making Feedback P3 Feedback related negativity
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Neuroscience