What looks like boredom from the outside is usually something simpler from the inside: tiredness, a deadline, a wish not to look foolish. Notice how rarely anyone is argued out of the deadline, and how often they are simply moved past it by a change in circumstance. Ask most people why they did what they did and they will give you a reason; ask them again a week later and the reason will have quietly changed. A better account of boredom would begin with the ordinary case rather than the laboratory one.
What follows
In the studies we have, the effect is modest, reliable and almost entirely ignored by the people it describes. Put a number on boredom and it becomes a target; put a target on it and the number stops meaning what it meant. It is tempting to call this irrational. It is more useful to ask what it is for. The strange thing about the deadline is not that it exists but that it works, most of the time, for most people.
