Stressed employees are more likely to make typing errors.
Stressed employees make typing errors
Experts in Switzerland have found that frazzled workers type and move their mouse differently, and less accurately, than colleagues who are more relaxed.
The study was based on 90 people in a lab performing office tasks that mirrored reality. Some were allowed to work undisturbed but others had to take part in a job interview and were repeatedly interrupted with chat messages.
Participants' mouse and keyboard behaviour, as well as their heart rates, were monitored and they were asked numerous times how they felt during the experiment.
Analysis discovered that people who were more stressed moved the mouse more often and less precisely.
Psychologist Jasmine Kerr, from ETH Zurich University in Switzerland, explained that the connection between stress and typing behaviour can be explained by neuromotor noise theory.
She said: "Increased levels of stress negatively impact our brain's ability to process information. This also affects our motor skills."