People prone to boredom tend to adopt faster life history strategies

A set of studies found that individuals prone to boredom tend to choose faster life history strategies. Similarly, countries with higher boredom proneness scores showed more indicators of faster life history strategies. The research was published in Evolutionary Psychology.

Life history refers to the set of biological and behavioral strategies organisms use to allocate time and energy toward growth, reproduction, parenting, and survival across the lifespan. These strategies include when to mature, how many offspring to have, how much to invest in each offspring, and how long to live.

Life history speed describes where an individual or species falls on a continuum from “fast” to “slow” life strategies. A fast life history involves earlier reproduction, higher risk-taking, shorter planning horizons, and prioritizing immediate rewards. A slow life history involves later reproduction, greater parental investment, long-term planning, and stronger self-regulation.

Humans vary in life history speed depending on ecological conditions, stress, stability, and early-life environments. Unpredictable or harsh conditions tend to push individuals toward faster strategies, favoring earlier and more frequent reproduction. Stable and resource-rich environments tend to promote slower strategies characterized by delayed reproduction and long-term investment.

Study authors Garam Kim and Eunsoo Choi wanted to explore the relationship between boredom and life history strategies (life history speed) at both individual and country levels. They conducted three studies – a pilot study and two additional studies.

The pilot study examined the relationship between boredom proneness and life history strategies among undergraduate students. 97 students participated. 66 of them were women. Their average age was 21.4 years. 79% of them were Koreans.

Participating students completed assessments of boredom proneness (the Boredom Proneness Scale), life history strategies (the Mini-K and the High K Strategy Scale), and impulsive sensation seeking (the Impulsive Sensation-Seeking Scale). Students also reported their monthly household income and rated their perceived family resources.

Study 1 aimed to replicate the results of the pilot study. It was conducted on 298 adults (recruited from an initial pool of 592) through an online panel survey service. Participants completed a survey containing the same assessments of boredom proneness and life history strategies as the pilot study, but also assessments of risk-taking (the Risk-Taking Questionnaire) and future anxiety (the Future Anxiety Scale – Short Form). Future anxiety is the tendency to anticipate future disasters and view the future with dread and uncertainty.

Finally, Study 2 was an analysis of published data aiming to look into associations between boredom proneness and life history strategies on the country level. The study authors hypothesized that people living in boredom-prone countries will be more likely to adopt faster life history strategies.

More specifically, they hypothesized those people would be more open towards casual sex (greater sociosexual unrestrictedness), have shorter lifespans, have more children, give birth earlier in life, and invest less in their children.

Study authors created estimates of boredom proneness, life history strategies, and sexual restrictedness in different countries from published results in various scientific papers. Life expectancy and fertility data came from the UN World Population Prospects 2019. Adolescent birth rates and preprimary school gross enrollment (an indicator of parental investment in children) came from World Bank data and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics data, respectively.

Results of the pilot study confirmed that boredom proneness is associated with a faster life history strategy. Further analysis showed that faster life history strategies mediated the relationship between childhood resources and boredom. In other words, individuals with greater resources as children (whose parents invested more in them) were likely to adopt a slower life history strategy, which in turn made them less prone to boredom.

Results of Study 1 confirmed these results. Boredom proneness was again associated with faster life history strategy. Additionally, individuals with higher boredom proneness were more likely to experience higher future anxiety. Better family resources and socioeconomic status in childhood were associated with lower boredom proneness and slower life history strategies.

The study authors tested a statistical model proposing that worse socioeconomic status in childhood leads to faster life history strategy, which leads to more boredom proneness in adulthood. Results indicated that this chain of relationships is possible.

Finally, on the country level, countries with higher levels of boredom proneness tended to have people more prone to faster life history strategies, specifically regarding shorter lifespans, higher fertility rates, and earlier adolescent birth rates.

“These results suggest that trait boredom may be a functional characteristic of fast life history strategists. This study is the first empirical investigation of trait boredom within a life history framework, highlighting trait boredom’s functional role from evolutionary and ecological perspectives,” study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the links between boredom proneness and life history strategy. However, it should be noted that the study relied on significant data from self-report questionnaires, leaving room for reporting bias to affect those results. Also, childhood socioeconomic status assessment was based on participants’ recall, introducing the possibility of recall bias.

The paper, “Pace of Life Is Faster for a Bored Person: Exploring the Relationship Between Trait Boredom and Fast Life History Strategy,” was authored by Garam Kim and Eunsoo Choi.