It’s The Boring Man Stereotype According To Science: An Accountant Who Loves To Watch TV Or Watch Animals

It’s The Boring Man Stereotype According To Science: An Accountant Who Loves To Watch TV Or Watch Animals

Boredom is often an unpleasant experience that humans want to avoid at all costs. Researchers from the University of Essex (United Kingdom) have taken an interest in this question and have chosen the stereotype of being boring as the subject of a new study, the results of which have been published Sage Journals, For this research, the scientists began by observing that some people considered boring. But the nature of this stereotype and its consequences have so far been overlooked in previous scientific studies: what constitutes a boring person stereotype, and what does it respond to?

boring people profession

To answer this question, the researchers first tried to define the stereotype of the boring person, studying the characteristics attributed to them and focusing on their profession, hobbies, and personal characteristics. The results of a survey of several volunteers who were asked to describe boring people paint the following picture: “Negative self-centeredness (such as lack of interest and persistent complaining) and restrictions (such as interest in one subject, bar) in conversation. -bar jokes); they speak less and share relatively little subjective information”. Another experiment allowed the scientists to assign occupations and hobbies commonly attributed to these boring people: They asked 115 participants to compile a list of stereotypical occupations, hobbies, and personal characteristics that they believed were the most common occupations and hobbies. That’s typical boring people. After many investigations and other experiments, scientists were able to say that people who have no hobbies, no sense of humor and no opinion are among the stereotypes of boring people. They are also professionally associated with data analysts, accountants and those involved in taxation. Among the hobbies participants rated as the most stereotypically boring people were sleeping, religious activities, watching TV, watching animals, and math. All these common beliefs create the stereotype of being boring.

“Increased social hatred towards others when they have characteristics that make them stereotypically boring”

It was then the consequences of this stereotype that interested the researchers, who recalled that the use of stereotypes “can have harmful effects (…) on behavior, for example in the form of prejudice and discrimination”. His hypothesis is that the boring man’s stereotypes lead to hatred and social avoidance towards him, leaving him unable to socialize and refute his stereotypes. One experiment even showed that endorsing the appearance of a boring person was psychologically costly. Voluntary participants in the experiment had to read it and respond: “Imagine being asked to spend time with this person. Below are the different time periods you may be asked to spend with them. How much should you be paid for each period you have agreed to spend this time with the person”. Participants demanded significantly higher compensation for spending time with a stereotypically very boring person compared to a less boring person. These results “show increased social hatred towards others when they have characteristics that make them stereotypically boring”.

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