Boredom Opens the Door to Isolation and, Depression–and Terrorism

When governments talk about how to reduce the risk of terrorism, the most oft-voiced policies are security-based: detecting and cracking down on extremist cells and targeting online propaganda. But the reality is that a more effective way of reducing society’s exposure to criminal groups seeking to achieve political ends through violence and fear is simply to make regular life more interesting.

“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop” is a phrase often paraphrased from the Christian Bible, and this is true. Busy people with emotionally and intellectually fulfilled lives are much less likely to be recruited by terrorist groups than bored, restless youths with nothing to do. So yes, maybe the best way to reduce terrorism in the modern world is to make it less boring on a day-to-day basis.

Such strategies are backed by scientific research, old and new. Experiments conducted on psychologically and mentally healthy people by physiologists in the 1950s, including Canadian Nobel Prize candidate Sir Donald O. Hebb, demonstrated how sensory deprivation such as extreme boredom can cause subjects to lose perspective. Their thinking became more distracted and illogical, including an increased belief in the fantastic and supernatural.

Research from the UK’s King’s College London and Ireland’s University of Limerick in 2016 concluded that boredom led to more extreme political positions being developed Researchers measured the political positions of a group of subjects, logging them on the spectrum from extreme liberal left through moderate to extreme conservative right.

Some were then told to copy a book about mixing concrete, surely a dull topic for anyone outside construction management. Afterwards, the researchers found that the new concrete experts had more statistically measurable extreme political opinions than the control group that had remained mentally stimulated.

The report’s conclusions were that “experimentally induced boredom leads to more extreme political orientations” and that “people who become easily bored with their environment adhere to more extreme ends of a political spectrum compared with their less easily bored counterparts.” The researchers concluded that “the relatively extreme political orientations among those who are easily bored can be attributed to their enhanced search for meaning.”

In relatively developed societies that guarantee shelter and nutrition for most people, this kind of extreme sensory deprivation is not experienced, though life can be dull for those without initiative or energy. There is enough drip-fed online entertainment to keep indolent emotionally immature youths indoors, away from face-to-face social interactions, so that they age slowly, often at home with their parents. Such distractions will never cure boredom in a sustainable way, just as an aged grandfather may vegetate in a residential home staring at the television.

And while a weak, aged person may not have other options, especially if they are immobile or suffering from dementia, a frustrated and bored young person certainly might choose to turn their lives upside down and join a radical group. This is especially true if they have been consuming a diet of warped Internet-supplied messages with no real-life counterpoint to balance their life experience.

These people with empty lives are perfect vessels for manipulative political figures looking to fill minds with hate and anger. With so little life experience, they are prey to messages that perceived enemies are sub-human and worthy of death.

Terror group recruiters know this. They target emotionally vulnerable youths and feed them fantasies about conspiracies, which, in turn, make their targets feel even more isolated, alienated and angry.

They then introduce them online to other youths who feel the same way. Peer pressure then kicks in and an us-against-the-world zeitgeist takes over, forging bonds between bored distracted youths who are then invited to participate in a radical and oftentimes violent group.

Such techniques were used again and again, with worldwide success, as evidenced by ISIS, for example.  This danger is worse in some regions than others. Sadly, the Arab world is particularly prone to this problem, with cultures riven with conservatism and masculine aggression while failing to offer dynamic work, social and cultural opportunities that could channel the resulting energy effectively.

Approximately 63% of the Middle East population is under 30 years old and unemployment rates among this age group are almost double the global average. With some societies being authoritarian and not fully democratic, young people are often excluded from power and decision making, even at the local level. Hence, Arab youths often feel unable to take practical action to deal with the challenges they face.

Such frustrations boiled over into the Arab Spring. With these protests either being quashed or even wasted—resulting, for example, in the recent demonstrations in Tunisia over a weak economy— the risk of radicalization is all too clear.

Obviously, these young people have free will and thus bear a significant responsibility for pulling themselves from a pit of boredom into a sustainably interesting and thrilling life. But governments could do a lot more. More popular participation in governance would help. And states should work much harder to eliminate youth unemployment.

Arab country governments should also work harder to foster a vibrant social and cultural scene that stimulates young people through creativity and innovation. Simply put, governments should better to empower the younger generation.

Furthermore, the Arab world business community should create more training, apprenticeship programs, and mentorship and entrepreneurship opportunities for younger employees rather than relying on established staff, contacts and outdated models. Arab youths have potential, talent and determination; businesses can thrive by tapping into this energy. 

Therefore, Arab governments need to act and not waste their gift of young populations when so many other societies are ageing. By promoting a dynamic and inclusive society and economy, they can create opportunities for young people to realize their potential in a positive way.

The alternative is a growing population of disaffected and disconnected youths, exposed to boredom and the risk of isolation and alienation that make them prey to malicious online actors who seek to recruit foot soldiers for their own extremist goals.