Meeting, studying or socializing online: it is now very normal. But it’s not the same, according to research from Yale University. Our brain responds very differently to online and offline social interactions.
“Shall we meet at the office or via Zoom?” Since the corona pandemic, it has been very common to organize appointments online. It has many advantages: it saves travel time, it can be done quickly and if someone cannot leave home due to circumstances, they do not have to miss anything. Yet many people are now working (partly) at the office again, because online is not quite the same as seeing each other in real life. Researchers from the Yale University have investigated why this is the case.
To do this, the researchers had fifteen test subjects have a short, neutral conversation of about ten minutes, both via Zoom and in person. While the participants talked, the scientists monitored blood flow and electrical activity in the brain. They pay particular attention to the brain areas that process social information, such as facial expressions, eye contact and body language.
Live contact
During face-to-face conversations, brain areas that are important for social cognition lit up. These parts of the brain help us understand the thoughts, feelings and intentions of others. The participants also made more and longer eye contact, their pupils became larger and their brain waves were more in sync with those of their conversation partner. This means they exchanged and coordinated more social signals, and showed more attention and engagement.
Online contact
The participants of the Zoom calls showed a very different picture. Activity in the social brain areas was much lower. “During face-to-face conversations there are usually some spontaneous interactions that arise and proceed very naturally. While in the online conversations they were much less clear, or even absent,” says Joy Hirsch, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Yale University. The participants also made less and shorter eye contact, their pupils became smaller and their brain waves were less synchronized with those of their conversation partner. This suggests that online faces are less active in the brain than real faces.
Less connection
The researchers suspect that this is partly due to the lower quality and resolution of the video images. For example, there are sometimes delays in sound transmission that disrupt the timing and intonation of speech. It is difficult for you to make real eye contact through a camera, which means you feel less connection and trust, and you only see a small part of the other person through a screen. As a result, you miss all kinds of other visual information and context. Body language such as a relaxed posture, for example, which you unconsciously pay attention to.
Online social interactions therefore do less to our brain than offline social interactions, the researchers conclude. “We do not have the same social experience online as we do in real life,” says Hirsch. Which, she believes, indicates how important face-to-face contact is for our natural social behavior. This does not mean that online communication is pointless or harmful, the researchers emphasize, but it does mean that it is important to look at the limitations and differences. Hirsch: “We have to be aware of it and try – if circumstances allow – to have more personal interactions.”
Tired faster because of zoom
There are even more negatives to online contact. It makes you tired more quickly, according to recent research from Aalto University. This is not due to the high workload or because you need coffee. Online meetings really make you more tired than when you are in a real meeting room with your team. That’s because you are understimulated. “If the camera is turned off during a meeting, the understimulation increases. As a result, the participants’ attention shifts to other things (multitasking), in an attempt to experience more mental stimulation and boost their energy levels,” Niina Nurmi previously explained to Scientias.nl
2023-11-11 08:04:48
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