12 Boring Traits That Make People Think Someone Has No Personality, According To Research
The dullards we've all been trapped in conversations with likely have one or more of these attributes.
Prostock-studio | Canva Pro Some people are just downright, outright boring, and there's no two ways about it. They're kind of people who fade into the wallpaper or, even worse, suck the energy right out of the room. But what is it about them that makes them so boring? A scientific study has some answers.
According to research, there are 12 boring traits of people with no personality.
Now, to be fair, the study, conducted in 2022 by researchers at the University of Essex, Colchester, the University of Limerick, and the London School of Economics, says "boring" is more of a stereotype than an actual identity.
None of us is ACTUALLY boring, as we all have the same set of emotions and struggles, right? But some of us are just really bad, it seems, at integrating them into our personalities and connecting with others on common ground. And we've all had the experience, of course, of being cornered by these people.
A wildly popular series of TikToks from Australian comedian Nick White gives a perfectly relatable example of this: His "dull coworker" character is perfectly nice and there's nothing she does WRONG per se, but by the end of the conversation, you're nonetheless ready to open a vein just to feel something. She's just… well, DULL.
Whether it's that we're hiding our true selves, too afraid to take the kind of risks required to have an interesting life and personality, or simply too arrogant to engage with others, some of us just seem a bit blank. The study asked participants to name key traits that contribute to this perceived blankness, and the top 12 are very revealing as to why these people drive us nuts.
1. Dull or uninteresting.
This goes without saying, of course, but research subjects tapped into something specific with these answers. As the study authors wrote, "boredom is often conceptualized as the adverse experience of wanting but being unable to pursue satisfactory activity," which is a pretty perfect summation of interacting with a boring person. You're trapped in what subjects called the "bland" and "dry" droning of these blank people.
2. No interests or hobbies.
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We've all known these people: You ask them what they do with their weekends and they say something like "watch TV" and you're like ohhhkay, that's it? Are they withholding, or are they genuinely this blank? There's no way to know, of course, but it makes it awfully hard to connect when they have nothing to talk about.
3. No sense of humor.
Subjects classified this category as containing those who are simply "not funny," those who don't "get" jokes, or those who just can't take them. Psychological studies have found that our sense of humor is a sort of "social radar" we use to find people we can connect with. When that give-and-take is totally one-sided, it's awkward and tedious at best. No wonder, then, that subjects in this study said those who lack a sense of humor are not just boring, but seem cold and less trustworthy.
4. No opinions.
Those who never seem to have anything to say about any topic whatsoever were rated very highly on the research subjects' list of "boring" traits. Whether they're hiding their opinions or truly have no real inner world to speak of is anyone's guess, but when someone has nothing to say, there's no real way to connect, and that's just dull.
5. Negative.
Then there is the opposite extreme: The person who's full of opinions, but all of them are negative. When a person has nothing to share but complaints and doom-and-gloom, it's every bit as dull as someone with nothing to say, except with the added bonus of also being tedious and annoying.
6. Bad conversationalist.
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We've all been trapped by one of these people: One-word answers to complex questions, abruptly changing topics without warning, or simply clamming up. Psychological studies have found that, ironically, it's often the fear of being boring that makes people so bad at conversation, especially if the person is self-conscious in general. But that doesn't make talking to them any less mind-numbing!
7. Narrow-minded.
Speaking of conversation, it's hard to have a good one when your interlocutor has no interest in entertaining views besides their own. That changes a conversation into a chore at best, and can even feel threatening sometimes. More importantly, studies have shown that deeper conversations with people in our lives are key to our well-being. It's pretty much impossible to have those with a narrow-minded person.
8. Lacking creativity.
This doesn't mean you have to be a great painter or musician to be interesting. Rather, subjects cited people who "lack imagination" as being dullards. We've all been stuck in a conversation with a person who can't just enjoy a movie because it's "unrealistic," for example, or, again, people who can't answer basic questions because there's just not much going on in that brain of theirs.
9. Ordinary.
This is probably most like the "dull coworker" character referenced above in Nick White's comedy work. These are people whose lives are just so stultifyingly beige that listening to them talk is downright sleep-inducing. Research subjects called people like this "mundane" and said they rarely say "anything original," and that is definitely a snoozefest.
10. Inactive.
People who tend toward laziness and lethargy were rated as highly boring by research subjects as well. This really speaks for itself — it's hard to have anything interesting to say when you're just lying on the couch in all your free time. This is often an indicator of mental health difficulties, of course, so if this is you, it might not be that you're boring, but rather struggling emotionally, and it might be time to ask for help.
11. Arrogant.
This creates a different kind of boring, of course, the type that's more annoying than sleep-inducing. Nevertheless, what's usually behind arrogance is an eyeroll-inducing sort of narcissism used to deflect vulnerability, which is tedious to say the least. Perhaps more important, arrogance is also related to what scientists have called a lack of "intellectual humility," which has been found to inhibit personal growth — and, of course, makes a person really boring!
12. Lacking motivation.
Nobody's saying people have to be a Type A go-getter to be interesting, but a complete lack of ambition or engagement in your life and its path can make for a pretty dull person. We've all known the type who has just resigned themselves to the circumstances making them unhappy, which probably leads to a lot of other traits on this list, and can certainly make for an uninteresting person.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
