Boredom and Sadistic Behavior

B2 – Upper Intermediate

What brings about sadism? A study made by a team of researchers at Aarhus University has found evidence that people who are bored behave more sadistically to reduce the effects of being indifferent.

Read the article below about how boredom leads to setting off sadistic behavior and be ready to answer the questions that follow.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01-boredom-factor-sadistic-behavior.html#:~:text=A%20team%20of%20researchers%20at,in%20setting%20off%20sadistic%20behavior.&text=A%20closer%20look%20showed%20that,others%20more%20often%20when%20bored.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on the results of this study?
  2. What do you think of trolling behavior of people online because they are bored?
  3. What bores you? How does boredom make you feel? What do you do when you get bored?
  4. What was the strangest thing you did out of boredom?
  5. How would you help someone who says they are bored?
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2 replies on “Boredom and Sadistic Behavior”

The article seems rather complete since the research has been conducted over a wide average of the population in different situations. However, I think that other factors should have been taken into account to get those conclusions. I mean, has the researcher looked into the background of these participants? Not only the boredom is the cause of sadism but also genetics or psychological aspects, play an important role in the behavior of the people. Some research have reached to the conclusion that people treating badly other people, come from a traumatic childhood, and they are behaving the same as others previously did with them.
As I previously mentioned, boredom is not the only cause for the trolling behavior online. On the Internet, any person can use a different account so that nobody recognizes them. This makes them feel braver and get benefit from this position just to hurt other people or simply, laugh at them, knowing that nobody will be able to ask for them any explanations by their acts.
I usually get bored when I have to do repetitive activities. In these cases, I try to change into another task or take a break, but I have never thought in hurting other people because of my boredom.
I do not think that I have done any strong thing just to alleviate my boredom. There are many things to do in order to avoid the boredom, without having to do harm anybody.
There is no need to get bored. Life is plenty of activities to enjoy them. Even, a person does not need to spend much money to distract oneself, such as reading a book, watching a movie, doing handcrafts, knitting, walking by the mountain or beach…

It’s clear that you put in a lot of thoughts in your responses. Well done!

Look at the proper construction of this sentence:

Not only the boredom is the cause of sadism but also genetics or psychological aspects, play an important role in the behavior of the people.

Boredom is not the only cause of sadism but it could also be genetic and other psychological factors. They also play an important role in people’s behaviors.

Enjoy writing!

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