Meetings don't just eat up time in the workplace, they actually make groups of people stupider, says new research. |
Meetings don't just eat up time in the workplace, they actually make groups of people stupider, says new research. Working in a group makes people perform worse on intelligence tests, as some group members are so anxious about doing well that they 'divert' their brain power towards maintaining their social status in the group. 'You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well,' said Read Montague the study leader at Virginia Tech. Groups of volunteers showed measurable drops in IQ when asked to perform intelligence tests socially, with the results broadcast to the group. Some people performed well in the 'social' tests, but others were affected badly - and overall, performance dropped. Women appear to feel this pressure more than men - only three out of 13 female volunteers performed well in a social environment, with 10 out of 13 finding that their peformance dropped. The researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to monitor how people's brains responded - and found that bad peformers tended to show activity in parts of their brain that dealt with emotions and anxiety. 'We started with individuals who were matched for their IQ,' said Montague. 'Yet when we placed them in small groups, ranked their performance on tasks against their peers, and broadcast the rankings, we saw dramatic drops in the ability of some study subjects to solve problems.' 'Our study highlights the unexpected and dramatic consequences even subtle social signals in group settings may have on the individual,' said lead author Kenneth Kishida. 'We don't know how much these effects are present in real-world settings. By placing an emphasis on competition, for example, are we missing a large segment of the talent pool?' (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
新研究發(fā)現(xiàn),會議不單會耗費(fèi)大量工作時間,實(shí)際上還會使團(tuán)隊(duì)成員都變蠢。 團(tuán)隊(duì)工作使人們在智力測試中表現(xiàn)更糟糕,因?yàn)橛行﹫F(tuán)隊(duì)成員太急于表現(xiàn),花太多心思去維護(hù)自己在團(tuán)隊(duì)中的地位,分散了腦力。 該研究的領(lǐng)頭人、弗吉尼亞理工大學(xué)的瑞德?蒙塔古說,“你也許會開玩笑說委員會會議讓你有腦死亡的感覺,但是我們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn),它還會讓你表現(xiàn)得像個腦殘。” 志愿者們被邀請一起做智力測試,并在團(tuán)隊(duì)中公布結(jié)果。結(jié)果顯示,多組志愿者的智力水平顯著下降。 有些人在群體測試中表現(xiàn)得很好,但其他人則嚴(yán)重受影響——總體上成績下降了。 女性感受到的壓力似乎比男性更大——13個女性志愿者中,只有3個人在群體環(huán)境中表現(xiàn)良好,其他的10個人發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的成績下降了。 研究者使用磁共振成像掃描儀來監(jiān)控人們的大腦做出的反應(yīng),結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)得分偏低者大腦中處理情緒和焦慮的區(qū)域有活動跡象。 蒙塔古說:“我們從智力相當(dāng)?shù)膫€人著手,把他們分到不同小組,然后按照完成任務(wù)的表現(xiàn)排名并公布。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)其中一些人解決問題的能力大大下降?!?/p> 該研究的主要作者肯尼斯?岸田說:“我們的研究明確指出,在團(tuán)體背景下,即使細(xì)微的社會信號也會對個人產(chǎn)生意料之外的重大影響?!?/p> “我們不知道真實(shí)世界中這些影響有多少。例如過分強(qiáng)調(diào)競爭是否會讓我們因此失去很大一部分人才資源?” 相關(guān)閱讀 調(diào)查:團(tuán)隊(duì)活動不會提升員工士氣 (中國日報網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯:Julie) |
Vocabulary: measurable: 重大的,重要的 subject: 接受實(shí)驗(yàn)者,實(shí)驗(yàn)品,實(shí)驗(yàn)對象 talent pool: 人才庫 |