People who are under stress at work are more likely to make typos

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Sorry about the tpyos! People under stress at work are more likely to make typing mistakes — and how they move the mouse is a better judge of stress than heart rate, researchers say

  • People who were more stressed moved the mouse more often and less accurately
  • Meanwhile, relaxed people took shorter, more direct routes to reach their destination

Employees who are stressed are more likely to make typos, a study shows.

Swiss researchers found that employees type and move their mouse differently – and less accurately – than more relaxed colleagues.

The study was based on 90 people in a laboratory performing office tasks as close to reality as possible, such as scheduling appointments or analyzing data.

The participants’ mouse and keyboard behavior and their heart rate were monitored, and they were asked several times during the experiment how stressed they felt.

While some people were allowed to work undisturbed, others also had to participate in a job interview. Half of this group was also repeatedly interrupted with chat messages.

Employees who are stressed are more likely to make typos, a study shows. (file image)

Analysis showed that people who were more stressed moved the mouse pointer more often, with less precision, and traveled longer distances on the screen.

Meanwhile, relaxed people took shorter, more direct routes to reach their destination and took longer.

People who were stressed also made more typing mistakes and wrote in fits and starts with many short pauses.

Relaxed people took fewer but longer breaks while typing on a keyboard.

Psychologist Jasmine Kerr, from ETH Zurich, said the link between stress and our typing and mouse behavior could be explained by what’s known as neuromotor noise theory.

“Elevated levels of stress negatively impact our brain’s ability to process information,” she said. ‘This also affects our motor skills.’

The researchers also found that people’s typing and mouse movement behaviors were a better indicator of how stressed they were compared to measuring their heart rates.

The team said their mathematical model could enable workers — and employers — to prevent chronic stress at an early stage by detecting who is most stressed in the workplace.

Analysis showed that people who were more stressed moved the mouse pointer more often, with less precision, and traveled longer distances on the screen. (file image)

However, they cautioned that detection of workplace stress should be handled with care.

“We want to help employees identify stress early, not create a monitoring tool for companies,” they said.

According to a survey conducted in the UK in 2020, 79 percent of people said they often suffer from work stress.

This was higher than the number of people who reported experiencing financial or family stress.

Other statistics suggest that 13.7 million working days are lost each year in the UK due to work-related stress, anxiety and depression, costing £28.3 billion annually.

The findings of the new study are published in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics.

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