New research claims to have found the perfect combination of career and hobby to make someone boring – you apparently have to cross an accountant with a birdwatcher!
Essex University’s Wijnand van Tilburg the author of this latest report claims that boredom is a growing field, but not enough research has been done on what makes people boring. That said, he claims over the course of five experiments he and his fellow researchers looked for boring professions, and they came up with a list that put accountants, data analysis and insurance at the top. These were then combined with boring hobbies, which put going to church, watching TV and ‘animal observation’ as ‘most boring’. Even stamp collecting was felt to be more interesting than birdwatching!
For the final humiliation the scientists asked how much people would want to be compensated for having to be with someone boring. For a birdwatching accountant it was a lot!
Read the full story in the latest issue of PQ magazine, out now: https://issuu.com/pqpublishing/docs/pq_may2022_multi