Working from home during Covid has helped us switch between social identities better – seamlessly transitioning from workaholic to parental mode to even football fanatic.
- Research shows that people can easily switch between different social identities
- These include an employee, parent, friend, or even a fan of a particular sports team.
- Past research has shown that frequent switching results in performance degradation.
- Experts thought that Covid would make matters worse due to working from home.
- This is due to the fact that people could not switch to a slower mode of daily commuting.
- But they found that people can switch quickly “without apparent difficulty.”
A new study suggests that working from home due to the Covid pandemic has helped us better switch between different social identities.
Each person has several social identities, including an employee, parent, youth, friend, or even a fan of a particular sports team.
It was believed that frequent switching between these identities resulted in performance degradation in each, but new research is challenging this theory.
During the various Covid lockdowns, many people have been forced to work from home for extended periods of time, meaning they no longer have to travel to work.
Researchers at the University of Exeter suggested that this would negatively impact people’s ability to switch between different social identities because it would save them from the slow transition between worker and parent on their way home.
But instead, they found that people could switch quickly and smoothly “with no apparent difficulty.”
A new study suggests that working from home due to the Covid pandemic has helped us better switch between different social identities. Each person has several social identities, including an employee, parent, youth, friend, or even a fan of a particular sports team.
Between what social identities do people switch?
- Worker
- Parent
- Young man
- Friend
- sports team fan
“Our lives have accelerated a lot in recent years and decades, so we have to switch between different identities more often,” said Anna Zinn from the University of Exeter.
“Due to the pandemic, many more people are now working from home, so they no longer have the slow transition to work that separates home from work.
“Our research aimed to find out whether it is costly to quickly activate different identities.
“We were surprised to find that these switches are extremely efficient – people can switch fairly quickly without any apparent difficulty.”
However, the researchers said that this ability may have a downside.
“We may have little control over these switches,” Zinn said.
“For those who work from home, it can be important to stay in a professional identity, but our results show that you can easily get distracted from it.
“The next step in our research is to explore these potential disadvantages and whether steps such as having a dedicated workspace at home can limit them.”
The researchers conducted several studies using the “Implicit Association Test,” in which participants had to quickly sort words and images into categories (pictured).
The researchers conducted several studies using the “Implicit Association Test,” in which participants were asked to quickly sort words and images into categories.
Using this method, participants were made to think of a particular identity—for example, the researchers encouraged them to think of themselves as “young people” by asking them to sort images of faces by age.
It was then possible to get people to switch to a different personality—or stay in the same personality at another time—to observe the effects.
One study also created a new “minimal group” identity by asking participants to remember images of people’s faces as members of a newly formed group.
The switch between this new identity and the existing identity was also smooth.
The study was published in the journal Experimental Social Psychology.
BIG FIVE PERSONALITIES
The Big Five personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
The “Big Five” personality structure theory uses these descriptors to describe broad aspects of people’s personality and psyche.
Beneath each broad category are a number of interrelated and specific factors.
Here are five main points:
Openness is the ability to appreciate emotions, adventures and unusual ideas.
People who are generally open have a higher degree of intellectual curiosity and creativity.
They are also more unpredictable and prone to risky behavior such as drug use.
Conscientiousness – conscientious people are more organized and reliable.
These people are self-disciplined and act dutifully, preferring planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
Sometimes they can be stubborn and obsessive.
Extraversion – These people tend to seek stimulation in the company of others, they are energetic, positive and assertive.
At times, they can be attention seeking and bossy.
People with lower extraversion are introverted and can be seen as aloof or self-centered.
Benevolent – These people tend to be compassionate and cooperative rather than hostile towards other people.
Sometimes very nice people seem naive or submissive.
People with lower levels of agreeableness tend to be competitive or challenging.
Neuroticisim – People with a high level of neuroticism are prone to psychological stress and easily fall into anger, anxiety and depression.
More stable people are more laid back, but can sometimes be seen as boring and indifferent.
People with higher neuroticism tend to have worse psychological well-being.