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The Negative Social Impact of Dealing with AI in the Workplace

The Negative Social Impact of Dealing with AI in the Workplace

by | 2023 Sep 29 | Business Brains, Organisational Leadership, Personal Performance, Public, Quick Hits, Senior Leadership, Team Leadership

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

AI is a very hot topic at the moment. It is considered a tool that will be able to do everything and essentially replace human beings in the workplace. Not to mention the existential threat that some see. But at a more pragmatic level just working with AI seems like it can have some unintended consequences. Read on:

So what is negative about dealing with AI? Feeling stupid, maybe?

I suppose it could be, but I think most people see it as a tool to get more of what they want at the moment. This research looked at the psychological impacts of dealing with AI in the workplace in four locations (U.S., Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia).

Ok, I’m intrigued, what did they find?

Tang et al. conducted studies in four countries that explored the impacts of interaction with AI. This included working as often as possible with AI systems for a three-week period and tracking psychological impacts with surveys. In another study half of the cohort wer instructed to avoid working with AI systems for three days and the other half to maximise their work with AI systems. They also included surveys of family members to report on other factors at home.

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Oh wow, I like that idea? But you still haven’t told my what they found…

I’m getting there. The findings across all the studies and groups was consistent, it is important to note, suggesting that this is not cultural. So what did they find? They found that interactions with AI:

  • Increased feelings of loneliness

  • Increased insomnia

  • Increased after-work drinking

But there are some positive effects too…

Oh, that is fascinating – so it seems that interacting with “machines” actually does impact our social system. But why sleep and drinking?

Yes, fascinating. The loneliness could be intuited – after all if you’re interacting less with human beings, or less than usual, loneliness could be a logical consequence. We do know that social interaction is also rewarding and can calm anxiety – so maybe the increased anxiety is causing sleep disruptions and desire for rewards such as in drinking. That is all supposition though.

But there were some positive knock-on effects.

Oh, what were they?

They found that those who interacted a lot with AI were more willing to help others in the workplace!

Oh wow – lack of social interactions make people more helpful?!

Yes, it seems like the lack of social interaction makes people want to be more social and therefore more helpful. What is also interesting is the effect of personal social anxiety on this which was also measured.

And what was that?

Those who were more socially anxious, i.e. more worried or nervous about their social connections, responded stronger. On both sides. So they became more lonely than those who were less social anxious, but they also become more helpful!

That is surprising!

Kind of. Their high anxiety would make them more responsive.

Ok so what does this mean?

The researchers were quick to point out that this is correlational data and doesn’t prove causation, though one study did compare different scenarios. However, it would make sense that lowering interactions with human beings in favour of AI has an impact. Whether this is short- or long-term, or could be naturally compensated by other mechanisms, such as those helping behaviours, remains something for future studies to tease out.

For now we know that there are more than likely consequences, and unintended consequences, of working with AI that are very human.

Well, that makes me happy that I’ve got you to talk to!

Are you sure I’m not an AI programme…

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Pok Man Tang, Joel Koopman, Ke Michael Mai, David De Cremer, Jack H. Zhang, Philipp Reynders, Chin Tung Stewart Ng, I-Heng Chen.
No person is an island: Unpacking the work and after-work consequences of interacting with artificial intelligence.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 2023
DOI: 10.1037/apl0001103

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Work in the Presence of Others Lowers Stress

Work in the Presence of Others Lowers Stress

by | 2023 Aug 16 | Business Brains, Healthy Brains, Organisational Leadership, Personal Performance, Public, Quick Hits

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

 

workplace brain stress

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?

In this case it was a craft activity – something called netcraft common in Japan where the study was performed which involves threading coloured yarn through holes to create pattens and objects.

So not work really?

Well, not unless you make things for a living – which many people do. In this case a previous study had looked at crafts as a form of occupational therapy so that was the focus. But it involves concentrating on an activity – and that is what we all do at work.

And I’m intrigued then, what was the result?

First off, it is important to understand that all participants rotated though the different conditions so it was not based on individual responses or preferences and all were healthy young adults.

What they found was that the parallel condition – working with others but individually focused on one’s own task – showed the lower stress in physiological and brain wave patterns.

So just the presence of others seems to lower stress!

This is what it suggests that collectively working in the same room, simply in the presence of others lowers stress.

Wow, that would have implications for work from home and office work!

Indeed, it could be an additional benefit that we haven’t thought of for office work. I have previously reported on other factors like the slow erosion of trust if you don’t regularly see people. This points to another benefit and that human beings seem to operate well in the presence of others when focused on their own tasks.

On the other hand there is the additional stress of getting to work in the first place – so it might be a balancing act.

I just also thought that this could be important for families as well?

Yes, I presume many of us have experienced that relaxing feeling when a family are all siting in a room and engaged in a task not media related such as reading, knitting, doing a a jigsaw puzzle, etc. So do things together even if they’re not together – if you know what I mean.

Right, so in summary: human beings just need the presence of other human beings

Yes, we are social creatures even when we’re not being social!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Junya Orui; Keigo Shiraiwa; Fumie Tazaki; Takao Inoue; Masaya Ueda; Keita Ueno; Yasuo Naito; Ryouhei Ishii.
Social Buffering Effects during Craft Activities in Parallel Group Session Revealed by EEG Analysis and Parasympathetic Activity.
Neuropsychobiology, 2023
DOI: 10.1159/000531005/854272

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Newly Discovered Ebb and Flow of Brain Chemicals that Drive Learning – Continuously

Newly Discovered Ebb and Flow of Brain Chemicals that Drive Learning – Continuously

by | 2023 Aug 11 | Learning Brains, Personal Performance, Public, Quick Hits

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

brain wave consciousness

So according to the title we are constantly learning?

Well, of course. We learn small things day by day in our daily interactions but the interesting bit about this research is how they discovered this mechanism in the brain.

So what ebb and flow are we talking about?

Well you may have heard of the dopamine hit. This has become a topic with social media with the little hits of excitement at each new click stimulating dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is known for its involvement in reward. Dopamine has also been known to be strongly involved in learning mechanisms in the brain stimulating attention and neuroplasticity also.

So far so good but is it just dopamine?

As I always say, everything in the brain is much more complicated than you can imagine – so no it never is just dopamine and in this research Dr Anne Krok and colleagues of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine looked at dopamine and acetylcholine and how they interacted in the learning process in the mouse brain.

And?

First off, they looked at the learning process and hit is highest when dopamine is high and acetylcholine is low – so it is not just dopamine but an interaction with acetylcholine (which itself is involved in multiple processes). After a small reward was given dopamine levels rose and acetylcholine dropped – this stimulated learning.

But what they also noticed is that this ebb and flow is not only stimulated by reward – in the case of mice in this research, drinking, but that there seems to be this natural ebb and flow and these two transmitters seem to be constantly interacting with surges of dopamine and drops in acetylcholine.

So the brain is basically a pulsing learning mechanism?

Indeed, this suggests this is how it is – the brain primes itself for learning and does not necessarily need external rewards – there is a natural pulsing ebb and flow of transmitters that naturally stimulate learning mechanism – which could also be signatures of the brain rehearsing past events (see my post here on short bursts of learning and brain activity).

Good news then?

Good to know this and not to be just focused on rewards – it can also help us explain other learning processes in daily life but also how some disorders can impact learning and rewiring of the brain ranging from Parkinson’s to Schizophrenia.

And how to stimulate this ebb and flow

The million dollar question! Probably hard to influence but thinking about it, it would likely be highest in lower stress levels because this would allow a more natural ebb and flow – the old advice holds true!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Anne C. Krok, Marta Maltese, Pratik Mistry, Xiaolei Miao, Yulong Li, Nicolas X. Tritsch.
Intrinsic dopamine and acetylcholine dynamics in the striatum of mice.
Nature, 2023
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05995-9

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Everyday Pleasures Improve Brain Performance

Everyday Pleasures Improve Brain Performance

by | 2023 Aug 9 | Business Brains, Healthy Brains, Personal Performance, Public, Quick Hits, Team Leadership

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

 

brain workplace cognitive performance

That sounds a good thing but what is an everyday pleasure?

In this study the researchers investigated the relationship between simple pleasures and brain activity. Specifically drinking coffee, listening to music, and smelling perfume.

Coffee and music for me – not so sure about the perfume though

Participants could choose what they wanted according to their preferences – that’s important – it needs to be a personalised pleasure…of course. I’m with you on coffee and music also – but then again remember my article on the positive impacts of aroma exposure during sleep a few days ago?

How did they measure this?

Well, this is actually very innovative but we also need to be careful of marketing hype here as this was sponsored by MINDWATCH. They have developed algorithms over the years that can measure brain states based on skin conductance. That is your skin responds very quickly to your current state and this can me measured using a sensor. This is much less invasive than measuring brain wave activity. In this experiment they used skin conductance bands and a device to measure some brain activity also.

And so what was the outcome?

Participants conducted memory tests shortly after being exposed to these stimulants and their performance increase and this could be measured in the brain – an increase in beta band brain waves (associated with concentration and cognitive performance) – and skin conductance results. Music seems to be the most potent followed by coffee and then the perfume.

Don’t we know this already?

Actually yes. We know music can positively stimulate brain activity and is also considered a performance enhancing tool by World Athletics (and as such is not allowed directly before competition!). Similarly, there is a lot of research on coffee and its positive benefits. But participants in this could choose their preferred option.

Also of interest is that there were three types of music to choose from and unsurprisingly the energetic was more effective than the relaxing one – but, and here is the surprise, they included an AI generated piece of music and this was the most effective!

And what now?

Well, this shows that those small pleasures can positively impact brain performance – this is why they are a small pleasure – a little bit of what you fancy does you good as they say – and this is not all in the mind. Your brain and cognitive performance will thank you.

And what about all three simultaneously?

That’s what I’m doing as I write this – feels good enough to me!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

References

Hamid Fekri Azgomi, Luciano R. F. Branco, Md. Rafiul Amin, Saman Khazaei, Rose T. Faghih.
Regulation of brain cognitive states through auditory, gustatory, and olfactory stimulation with wearable monitoring.
Scientific Reports, 2023; 13 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37829-z

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