Pullman, Wash. - Zoom fatigue can be a real condition, but for some people, the "constant mirror" effect of looking at their own face didn't appear to make virtual meetings more unpleasant, a Washington State University study found Is.
The study surveyed two groups that participated in regular virtual meetings as a result of the pandemic: employees and college students. Participants' attitudes toward the self-visible trait depended on an individual trait—public self-consciousness. Fewer people in this trait had a more positive attitude toward their virtual meetings, the more often their own faces were visible to them.
Christine Kuhn, associate professor at WSU's Carson College of Business and author of the study published in Computers, said, "Most people believe that looking at yourself during a virtual meeting spoils the overall experience, but in my data that's the case." Did not see." human behavior. "It depends on the person."
In the summer and fall of 2020, near the start of the pandemic, Kuhn surveyed two groups of people: more than 80 workers from different parts of the US who were transferred to remote work and about 350 business college students whose classes were transferred. Online. All participants answered a variety of questions about the nature of their work or class meetings and their feelings towards them. He also completed an assessment of his public self-consciousness.
For both groups, the study showed that there was no simple correlation between how often people saw their faces during their virtual meetings and their overall attitude toward them. Rather, for people highly self-conscious, more frequent self-attitudes were associated with worse attitudes, and the opposite was true for those low in self-consciousness.
Kuhn noted that there are many other factors that affect how satisfied people are with their virtual meetings, including their perceived control over when to turn on their camera. She cautioned that the study only focused on people's emotional reactions to their experience of virtual meetings and did not assess factors such as completion effectiveness or learning outcomes.
He added that further research is needed on how to effectively use virtual meeting platforms, as they are likely not going away as many people transition to hybrid work schedules, and universities may focus on maintaining some virtual educational components. pay attention. The study results suggest that managers and educators should be careful when making broad rules about camera use.
"It's really not one size fits all," Kuhn said. "The manager running a team meeting would probably prefer everyone to keep their camera on. Also, you should understand that there's probably a cost to this, so understanding that just because it's what you love, It's not necessarily ideal for everyone."