A new Stanford University “Zoom Fatigue” study found that women were more affected than men

Following an influential analysis published in February, a team of researchers at Stanford University said:Zoom fatigue“A new study shows that women are more tired after video conferencing than men, and researchers believe they know why.

Last year, millions of people worked from home. Previously direct meetings suddenly moved to video conferencing platforms such as Zoom. And as 2020 progressed, at the end of a day full of video conferencing, more and more people began to notice a unique kind of fatigue.

This new phenomenon, called “zoom fatigue,” is currently the subject of new academic research.Jeremy Bayrenson, Founding Director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, recently laid out Some theoretical foundations that support zoom fatigue And now, a team of researchers at Stanford University has presented some of the first empirical data to investigate the condition.

The new study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in the journal, used the newly developed one to survey more than 10,000 subjects. Zoom wear and fatigue scale (ZEF scale). One in seven women reported feeling “very” or “very” tired after zooming compared to one in 20 men.

“I’ve heard stories about zoom fatigue and anecdotal evidence that women are more affected, but there is quantitative data that zoom fatigue is worse for women. More importantly, you can see why. “Co-author Jeffrey Hancock said. About new research.

Bailenson’s early work hypothesized 4 important methods of video conferencing It can be uniquely tiring. These reasons include constant gaze stress, increased cognitive load generated by video cue interpretation, and inability to move around during meetings.

The fourth way zoom calls can lead to fatigue is called “mirror anxiety.” This refers to the hypothesis that the self-view window for video conferencing calls can increase the level of self-focused attention.

“In a real workplace, during eight hours of working hours, an assistant chases you with your mirror, and for every task you do and every conversation you do, they give you your face. I made it visible. That mirror, “Bailenson explained in a February article.

The ZEF scale survey contains open-form questions that allow you to measure these four consumption factors. And these questions, which question the emotions associated with “mirror anxiety,” were answered by women at a significantly higher rate than men. Researchers suggest that it is most likely the main factor explaining the high level of fatigue women feel after video conferencing.

“In line with psychological studies of egocentric attention and negative effects, women experience more mirror anxiety related to self-view in video conferencing than men, and mirror anxiety is fatigue. It was a major mediator of gender effects on the study, “the researchers write.

Interestingly, the data also show that women are less likely to take breaks between meetings than men, and meetings are longer, even though both men and women report the same average number of meetings each day. He also revealed that there is a tendency.

The simplest solution to “mirror anxiety” is to shut down the self-view window during a zoom call, but this peculiar hypothesis may not be the only reason behind the gender mismatch. This study refers to a growing set of evidence showing that the COVID-19 pandemic affects women disproportionately, from increasing childcare burdens to increasing financial difficulties.

Emily Falk of the University of Pennsylvania suggests that there are many other confounding variables that make it difficult to briefly summarize why women are more susceptible to zoom fatigue than men.Talk to New York TimesFork, who is not working on this new study, says he found that the findings were in line with his experience over the past year.

“… Anecdotally, as a woman who zooms a lot, runs a large lab, and cares for her children, I feel that the findings are recognized. That’s important,” Fork said. I will. She also said: “This is correlation data and other potential variables may be working here. Our emotional or spiritual tank when we feel exhausted now. How full is it at first? “

The Stanford University team has clearly pointed out that research on this type of zoom fatigue is still in its infancy and that there are many unanswered questions that need further investigation. For example, to understand whether this condition accumulates over time or becomes insensitive to a unique type of fatigue, longitudinally track individuals who report zoom fatigue over weeks or months. Research is needed.

Going forward, the Stanford University team recommends that companies share the burden of zoom fatigue and enable them to implement policies to mitigate this fatigue.

“… These findings help businesses become aware of the extra zoom fatigue women experience and adapt their policies and cultures at the organizational level,” the new study concludes. “For example, a company can ban the use of video in a subset of meetings and provide 13 guidelines for meeting frequency and length, as well as recommendations for meeting intervals.”

New research published in Social Science Research Network..

Source: Stanford News