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At present, I am writing this article at a cafe surrounded by the furious typing of other cafe patrons who I assume have similar petty distractions awaiting them in the dysfunctional solitude of their apartments. And, according to a recent study by Belgian psychologist Kobe Desender, there's a reason for my sneaking suspicion: Mental effort is contagious. So contagious that, when Desender and his team tested the human hive mind with a simple computer game that required varying levels of partner participation and difficulty, participants naturally gravitated toward matching the perceived effort of their harder-working partners — not the difficulty level of the task.
Desender and his team determined that partners were not "mimicking" each other, but the reasons why aren't clear. "Swarm theory" has fascinated scientists for decades: Mainly, why do humans work harder, better, faster when we are tapped into the energy of a group? In fact, brain scans of control groups of children show more activity in regions that recognize facial expressions, faces, and social signals versus groups of autistic children who have trouble interpreting basic human social cues. Even monkeys who are popular have bigger brains.
So is understanding group behavior really the way to understanding how to improve human efficiency and motivation? Working together could be hardwired in our DNA. We are descended from fish, after all.
Steven Kotler explains the neurochemical changes during flow states that strengthen motivation, creativity, and learning.
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Interesting. Some sort or psychic connection perhaps? Where people are working separately, but together somehow, they just need to be in some sort of proximity or connection with each other - providing that psychic energy is of the right 'type'. Otherwise people might find it more conducive to work alone where there isn't any 'interference'.