Diva Plavalaguna / PexelsStudy suggests online meetings are less creativeDiva Plavalaguna / Pexels
Participating in meetings using video apps such as Zoom and Google Meet is a practical approach. You do not need to leave the house or even get fully dressed in formal attire. This means of communication, however, can reduce group creativity, according to researchers from Columbia and Stanford universities in the USA, who studied in-person and remote interactions between 602 people in a lab setting and another 1,490 in real-life situations during a business workshop (Nature, April 27). Participants collaborating remotely came up with fewer creative ideas than those who were working face-to-face. The authors of the study concluded that online meetings hamper inspiration because the focus of attention is on the screen. Physical proximity, meanwhile, fosters trust, which in turn frees the imagination, as other studies have already suggested. In the new study, videoconferencing groups proved just as effective as those working face-to-face when it came to selecting which idea to pursue.
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