I LOVE back-to-back Zoom meetings! Said no one…EVER.
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Melanie Brucks of Columbia University and Jonathan Levav at Stanford randomly paired up six hundred-plus people. Each pair worked together – either in person or virtually – to come up with creative uses for a product. Then each team was rated, based on their number of NOVEL ideas.
AND? Sorry remote workers! Virtual pairs had way fewer creative ideas than the in-person teams. Why? Through eye tracking, researchers saw that participants’ visual field was reduced mostly to the screen. This narrow field of vision might be a reason for narrower thinking?
This research suggests that some meetings SHOULD be at the office!
Next growth industry: business pajamas! Earn your stripes
Reference: Brucks, M. S., & Levav, J. (2022). Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation. Nature, 605(7908), 108-112.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04643-y