The Moral Psychology of Boredom

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction
1. Acedia as a Moral Precursor
2. Varieties of Boredom
3. Boredom as a Personality Trait
4. Boredom as an Affective State
5. The Morality of Boredom
6. Summaries of Chapters
Notes
References
Chapter 1: From Electric Shocks to the Electoral College: How Boredom Steers Moral Behavior
	1. How Emotions Steer Morality
	2. How Boredom Steers Moral Decision-Making
	3. Charting a Better Course
	References
Chapter 2: The Existential Sting of Boredom: Implications for Moral Judgments and Behavior
	1. Introduction
	2. Meaning-Regulation Hypotheses of Boredom
	3. Enhancement via Search for Meaning: Aggression and Helping
	4. Protection via Existential Escapes: Food, Sex, and Impulsivity
	5. Meaning as a Resource: Preventing Boredom
	6. Conclusions: Boredom, Meaning-Regulation, and Morality
	References
Chapter 3: Boredom and the Lost Self
	1. How Do We Learn about Ourselves?
	2. What Does Boredom Tell Us about Our Goals?
	3. What Does It Mean When We Are Constantly Bored?
	4. Trait Boredom as Existential Crisis and Moral Conundrum
	5. Conclusion
	References
Chapter 4: “Rage Spread Thin”: Boredom and Aggression
	Notes
	References
Chapter 5: Losing and Finding Agency: The Crisis of Boredom
	1. The Best Way Out Is Always Through
	2. A Boring Experiment
	3. Resolving Boredom Is No Easy Feat
	4. Boredom at the Margins
	5. Oppressed Agency
	6. Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Chapter 6: Boredom Mismanagement and Attributions of Social and Moral Costs
	1. What Is Boredom?
	2. Individual Moral Decision-Making vs. Social Justice and Equity
	3. Coping, Tolerance, and Mismanagement
	4. Boredom and School Environments
	5. Conclusion
	References
Chapter 7: Boredom and Poverty: A Theoretical Model
	1. Social Class
	2. Boredom and Poverty: An Interactionist Model
	3. From Poverty to Boredom
	4. Poverty and the Experience of Boredom
	5. Responses to Boredom in Poverty
	6. Conclusion
	References
Chapter 8: The Epistemic Benefits of Irrational Boredom
	1. Introduction
	2. Emotions as Epistemically Rationally Assessable
	3. Situational Boredom as Epistemically Irrational
	4. Epistemic Functionality
	5. The Epistemic Benefits of Situational Boredom
	6. Conclusions and Implications
	Note
	References
Chapter 9: Boredom as Cognitive Appetite
	1. Emotion and Appetite
	2. Boredom as Cognitive Appetite
	3. The Ethical Significance of Boredom
	4. Conclusion
	Notes
	References
Chapter 10: Boredom, Interest, and Meaning in Life
	1. Boredom
	2. Meaning in Life
	3. Dismissal of Conceptions of Meaning in Life on Grounds of Boredom
	4. Meaning in Life as Interest or Absence of Boredom
	5. Interest
	6. More on Meaningfulness as Interest
	7. Boredom, Interest, Meaninglessness, and Meaning
	8. Life with Interest but No Meaning?
	References
Chapter 11: Parallels to Boredom in Nonhuman Animals
	1. Animal vs. Human Literature
	2. A Cross-Species Approach to the Study of Boredom
	3. Animal Boredom and Morality
	4. Conclusions
	References
Chapter 12: The Long Hard Road Out of Boredom
	Notes
	References
Index