Stop Boring Your Subjects: Tips to Spice Up Your Experiments

In the 1940s, the world witnessed what may well be the most boring experiment a subject has ever participated in. In this elaborate study, subjects performed a variety of mental tests before and after multiplying 4-digit numbers in their heads for 12 hours straight. As if this wasn’t bad enough, they were then expected to come back for the next three days to do exactly the same thing (Huxtable et. al, 1945).

While most modern studies don’t reach quite that level of lassitude, many remain anything but exciting. This presents a problem, as these boring experiments come riddled with troubles.

When Nederkoorn and colleagues asked subjects either to do nothing or to press a button and receive a painful shock, subjects shocked themselves over and over, preferring pain to boredom (2016). And it’s not just that subjects don’t enjoy being bored. As boredom levels increase, attention is also negatively affected. At the same time, a host of positive factors—including intrinsic motivation, effort and self-regulation—decrease (Pekrun et. al, 2010). When we bore subjects, they exhibit each of these effects, resulting in lower-quality data. Everyone loses.

If boredom works its way into psychological studies, we’re toast. How can we make our experiments more enjoyable — or at least less boring? Here are three techniques to consider as you develop your studies.

1. Don't be like that experiment from the introduction

 In other words, limit repetition where possible and engage your subjects through variety. Of course, some experiments will require repetition to garner meaningful results. If you’re performing one of these experiments, try running fewer repetitions on more subjects or splitting the repetitions up with creative tasks. In education there is a concept known as the 10:2 method, where for every 10 minutes of lecturing, teachers give two minutes for students to process and interact with one another in order to maintain engagement (Medina, 2014). Adding periodic breaks with creative exercises, different activities, or small rewards can make all of the difference for continued performance.

2. Provide interesting information

I’ve participated in many psychology experiments that led me and my fellow subjects through lengthy tasks and questionnaires only to keep the information gathered private. More recently, I took another that provided feedback about my performance after each section. This feedback made the experiment inherently enjoyable and increased my interest throughout the rest of the study. If there’s one thing that astrology, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Buzzfeed quizzes have taught us, it’s that we love learning about ourselves. Why not take advantage of this as you design your study? At the same time, try and place the study’s objective in context of the larger question you’re addressing. In a 2009 TED talk, British-American author and motivational speaker, Simon Sinek explained that people respond to shared missions that provide a “why.” By seeing the proximate task in the light of the ultimate aim, it becomes clearer to subjects why their performance matters.

3. Make it a game

If there’s any way to do this, you should. Adding a scoreboard or other forms of competition, even with an earlier performance, can go a long way to keep people excited: increasing their attention and sustained effort (DiMenichi & Tricomi 2015). People willingly spend several hours each day playing games others consider boring, like Monopoly. Still, these games are exciting because of the element of competition. Think about what this type of engagement might do for your ego depletion task.

Following these steps won’t kill boredom forever, but it has the ability to make science more interesting for subjects, for scientists, and for the world as word begins to spread that science experiments are fun to take part in.

Adams, S. (2011, June 11). Dilbert [Cartoon]. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from http://dilbert.com/strip/2011-06-11

DiMenichi, B. C. & Tricomi, E. (2015) The power of competition: Effects of social motivation on attention, sustained physical effort, and learning. Front Psychol, Vol 6, 1282.

Huxtable, Z. L., White, M. H., & McCartor, M. A. (1945) A re-performance and reinterpretation of the Arai experiment in mental fatigue with three subject. Psychological Monographs,Vol 59(5), i-52.

Medina, J. (2014). Brain rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school. Seattle: Pear Press.

Nederkoorn, C., Vancleef, L., Wilkenhöner, A., Claes, L., & Havermans, RC. (2016) Self-inflicted pain out of boredom. Psychiatry Res, 237, 127-132.

Newton, J. (Photographer). (2016, November). Monkey laying on wall [digital image], from https://unsplash.com/photos/qvrxPz7i72o

Pekrun, R., Goetz T., Daniels, L. M., Stupnisky, R. H., & Perry, R. P. (2010). Boredom in achievement settings: Exploring control–value antecedents and performance outcomes of a neglected emotion. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3), 531-549.

Sinek, S. (2009) How great leaders inspire action. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action