A study conducted by researchers at the ETH Zurich showed that people who are stressed out at work behave differently than those who are more relaxed
Tell me how you type on the keyboard and how you move the mouse and I’ll tell you how stressed you are. To argue that these two actions, apparently trivial and now daily, can be an indicator of stress (even better than heart rate) for one person was a team of researchers from ETH Zurich, who conducted a study published in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics
. Observing 90 laboratory subjects performing real office tasks, such as scheduling appointments and recording or analyzing data, then recording their heart rate and taking into account that some of them had been allowed to work undisturbed, while half of the group was repeatedly interrupted by chat messages and even had to participate in a job interview, the scholars came to the conclusion that those who are stressed type on the keys and move the mouse differently from those who are relaxed.
Typing errors
Stressed people move the mouse pointer more often and less accurately and cover greater distances on the screen, explained the study’s author, mathematician Mara Ngelin, noting that people who feel stressed in the office also tend to make more mistakes while typing and to write in fits and starts, making many short breaks. On the contrary, those who are relaxed, when typing on the keyboard, take fewer but longer breaks. According to the researchers, the link between stress and keyboard or mouse behavior can be explained by the so-called neuromotor noise theory.
Stress detectors
What is it about? Increased stress levels have a negative impact on our brain’s ability to process information and affects our motor skills explains psychologist Jasmine Kerr, co-author of the research, reiterating how urgent it has become find reliable models to detect increased stress, given that one in three employees in Switzerland suffers from it at work. That’s why the scientists are testing their stress detector model on Swiss office workers, who have agreed to have their keyboard and mouse behaviors, as well as their heart rate, recorded as they work: the results are expected by the end of 2017. year.
April 14, 2023 (change April 14, 2023 | 09:28)
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