TY - JOUR
T1 - Preventing boredom with gratitude
T2 - The role of meaning in life
AU - O’Dea, Muireann K.
AU - Igou, Eric R.
AU - van Tilburg, Wijnand A.P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2024/2
Y1 - 2024/2
N2 - Boredom signals a lack of meaning. Gratitude promotes feelings of meaning in life. We proposed accordingly that gratitude, by engendering meaning, shields against boredom. Specifically, we hypothesized that gratitude prevents boredom by increasing perceptions of meaning in life. We tested this hypothesis in five studies (N = 954). Study 1 revealed that grateful people are less prone to boredom. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrated that grateful people are less prone to boredom, and this relationship is statistically mediated by elevated meaning in life. Study 3 found that dispositional gratitude also predicted less state boredom in response to a behavioural task, via heightened perceptions of meaning in life. In Study 4, experimentally induced gratitude reduced boredom through increased perceptions of meaning in life. The findings demonstrate gratitude’s role in effectively reducing and preventing boredom by boosting the feeling that life is meaningful.
AB - Boredom signals a lack of meaning. Gratitude promotes feelings of meaning in life. We proposed accordingly that gratitude, by engendering meaning, shields against boredom. Specifically, we hypothesized that gratitude prevents boredom by increasing perceptions of meaning in life. We tested this hypothesis in five studies (N = 954). Study 1 revealed that grateful people are less prone to boredom. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrated that grateful people are less prone to boredom, and this relationship is statistically mediated by elevated meaning in life. Study 3 found that dispositional gratitude also predicted less state boredom in response to a behavioural task, via heightened perceptions of meaning in life. In Study 4, experimentally induced gratitude reduced boredom through increased perceptions of meaning in life. The findings demonstrate gratitude’s role in effectively reducing and preventing boredom by boosting the feeling that life is meaningful.
KW - Boredom
KW - Existential psychology
KW - Gratitude
KW - Meaning in life
KW - Well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179960610&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11031-023-10048-9
DO - 10.1007/s11031-023-10048-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85179960610
SN - 0146-7239
VL - 48
SP - 111
EP - 125
JO - Motivation and Emotion
JF - Motivation and Emotion
IS - 1
ER -