Work in the Presence of Others Lowers Stress

The electrophysiological benefits of engaging in tasks independently but with others

I would have thought that working with others increases stress?!

We could assume that. In the world of working from home we would assume that working alone in your comfortable home environment would be much less stressful. That’s certainly how I have experienced it — but my partner is also often home working also so strictly I’m not always working alone.

So what was this study about?

Well, first off it wasn’t focused on workplace activities but would be interesting to see if this would transfer and there is no reason to think it wouldn’t.

They investigated three working conditions and measured brain wave activity and stress responses during these three conditions. The three conditions were:

Alone: an individual performed the activity alone
Parallel: two individuals performed an activity separately but in the same room
Non-Parallel: one individual performed an activity and the other observed

And what was the “work” — the activity?