When one thinks of certain professions, an immediate association arises. Scientists are considered intelligent, construction workers are hardworking and strong, and stockbrokers are greedy. No matter what field it may be, most people have ideas about what the average person in it is like.
However, many consider some occupations to be rather dull, excruciatingly so. While it is surprisingly common for people to dislike their jobs nowadays, many still consider theirs worthwhile and exciting. However, these perceptions are not always shared by the general public.
Recently, researchers ventured to figure out the most boring jobs in the world, surveying 115 people from the United States. They asked them a variety of questions regarding typical features of a “boring” person, what people they thought were “boring,” and “boring” occupations. In this article, we’ll take a look at their findings and discuss the curious nature of labeling somebody “boring.”
Cut and Dry
In the survey, researchers found that people rated data analytics as the most “boring” job out of all the ones they were presented with. Interestingly, “scientist” was ranked as one of the most exciting professions, despite data analytics being a large portion of a scientist’s responsibility.
Hence, researchers argued not only were certain occupations thought of as dull, but the job title also made a difference. Accounting was another field that elicited high “boring” ratings from participants.
It seems that most people considered jobs that involved a lot of numbers to be more tedious. Of course, those within the field may beg to differ, but numbers and math seem to engender monotony for most. These findings were corroborated by other studies that found finance to be the most boring field by a long shot.
The researchers also investigated which hobbies are considered uninteresting by their participants. Here, “sleeping” and “watching TV” were ranked as the most boring, with the former coming in first. These pastimes likely score so high because they require little involvement on the person’s part.
Indeed, one can nap and watch television with barely any attention or participation needed. However, this is not true for all the hobbies listed as “boring.” For example, “Math” was rated the fifth most boring hobby in the same study, despite it being a heavily involved affair. Other pursuits such as “religion” and “watching animals” also received very high boring scores.
The “Boring” Epithet
Unfortunately, being labeled “boring” brought on many more prejudices than just being uninteresting. Researchers found that people who were considered dull were rated lower in competence and interpersonal warmth (how affable one is).
Furthermore, they found the epithet inspired significant social exclusion, a sort of catch-22 for those thought to be dull and uninteresting. Essentially, they think you are boring because they do not know you; they will not make an effort to know you because they think you are boring.
As such, people become stuck with this epithet, believed to be incompetent, rude, and hermits, all because they like to birdwatch and work in finance!
Of course, most of us believe that boredom is not too desirable of an experience. After all, one of the worst punishments in our legal system is solitary confinement, which is quite literally enforced tedium via isolation. We dislike boredom so much that Stephen King turned it into a horror concept in his fantastic short story, The Jaunt.
Despite conventional views on boredom, being bored from time to time might actually be a good thing. Perhaps, we should make more of an effort to befriend that one person we have always thought of as dull or uninteresting. Even if our perspectives do not change, occasional tedium might be just what you need to get the creative juices flowing.