The author is a scientific critic
pin! A message from your boss pops up chasing the report you were supposed to turn in yesterday. There are many other distractions. Another interrupts the executive’s frantic typing of her summary to remind her that her seminar online starts five minutes after her.
You can feel your stress levels rising. Computers are similar. Swiss researchers found that people under stress use their keyboard and mouse differently than their carefree colleagues. The technology of automated stress detection is intended to help individuals personally manage their own well-being, but it’s not hard to imagine the unintended consequences. Tracking allows employers to pick those who thrive under pressure and those who struggle.
ETH Zurich Head of Technology Marketing at ETH Zurich and Mara Nägelin of the Mobiliar Analytics Institute and her colleagues placed about 90 volunteers in a simulated group office environment. Everyone was required to perform standard tasks such as scheduling appointments and analyzing data. Some were constantly interrupted by chat messages. Others had to take mock interviews. During the experiment, researchers tracked the stress hormone cortisol levels and heart rate variability. We also monitored the volunteers’ keyboard and mouse use via an app. Volunteers regularly self-reported their stress levels.
Stressed volunteers typed faster and had more erratic mouse movements than their less anxious peers, and typing and clicking patterns were a more accurate reflection of self-reported stress than heart rate variability. It turned out that there is “in general, [when you are stressed] You move faster, but the movements are less precise, which means you type faster and make more errors,” explains PhD student Nägelin. Typing was an awkward, stop-start affair in tenses. In contrast, those with less stress tended to tap longer while taking breaks. Volunteers who were stressed using the mouse were more likely to overshoot their targets and covered greater distances on the screen.
The result was last month Journal of Biomedical InformaticsThe researchers nod to the “neuromotor noise theory.” This is the idea that stress takes a toll on our athletic performance. They are now collecting data “in the field” to refine their machine learning stress measurement models. His 40 employees at insurance company Swiss Mobiliar volunteered to use the app at work. According to Naegelin, this reveals how stress varies between individuals and between different tasks. “There is a lot of potential in technology, but there are also many research gaps that need to be filled.”
One of the gaps is understanding how employees act on data. Mobiliar Lab director Erika Meins explains that the technology is currently only an academic project and aims to help individuals take control of their health. Users can choose to get a readout or prompt at a time that suits them. The main goal, she says, is to prevent acute stress, which can improve performance, from turning into chronic stress, which is detrimental to health. But the challenge is recruiting them at the right time. A recent study by her lab found that while the majority of workers would like to try the technology, many understandably have privacy concerns.
Doesn’t your business want to identify who is coping well in the office and who isn’t? Meins asserts that digital stress apps are about self-management, not surveillance. This is very important to us. Stress tracking data could also be used by disgruntled employees to increase unreasonable job demands. Meins said the lab is looking for ways to deploy this technology ethically and responsibly.
Sir Cary Cooper, professor of organizational psychology and health at the Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, points out that many workers already know they’re stressed. “If you’re tired and the app is telling you to take a break, it might help,” he says Cooper. “But often there are deeper roots, such as unrealistic deadlines, unmanageable workloads, and bullied bosses.” doing.
A relentless taskmaster might indeed salivate at the prospect of identifying the most resilient subordinates. I have. It is also used to eliminate bullying bosses.
