Dogs And Pigs Get Bored, Too
Being miserably bored is no fun. It's a feeling animals can develop, too, including in zoos, labs and our own homes, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.
Think about the last time you were bored — seriously and persistently bored.
Maybe you had to carry out some mind-numbing repetitive task for hours on end, or maybe you were just trapped at the airport or train station, waiting out a lengthy delay without a good conversational partner, book, or movie. You look at a clock and it seems to move at a surreal, glacial pace.
Charlotte C. Burn, a biologist at The Royal Veterinary College of the University of London, captures that feeling in her definition of boredom:
"Boredom is an unpleasant emotion including suboptimal arousal
