Working from home during the Covid pandemic has made us better at switching between different social identities, study finds
- People can switch seamlessly between different social identities, research finds
- These include employee, parent, friend or even a fan of a particular sports team
- Past research showed frequently switching tends to result in lower performance
- Experts thought Covid would have made things worse due to working from home
- This is because people weren’t able to get the slower switch from daily commute
- But they found people were able to switch rapidly ‘with no apparent difficulty’
Working from home because of the Covid pandemic has made us better at switching between different social identities, a new study suggests.
Each person has multiple social identities, including employee, parent, young person, friend or even fan of a particular sports team.
It had been thought that frequently switching between these identities led to a lower performance in each, but new research challenges this theory.
During the various Covid lockdowns, many people were forced to work from home for long periods, which meant they were no longer having to do a commute.
Researchers from the University of Exeter assumed this would have had an adverse affect on people’s abilities to flit between different social identities, because it took away the slow switch between employee and parent during the commute home.
But instead they found that people were able to switch rapidly and seamlessly ‘with no apparent difficulty’.
Working from home because of the Covid pandemic has made us better at switching between different social identities, a new study suggests. Each person has multiple social identities, including employee, parent, young person, friend or even fan of a particular sports team
What are some of the social identities people switch between?
- Employee
- Parent
- Young person
- Friend
- Fan of a sports team
‘Our lives have sped up a lot in recent years and decades, so we have to switch more often between different identities,’ said Anna Zinn, of the University of Exeter.
‘Due to the pandemic, many more people now work from home — so they no longer have the slow switch of a commute separating home from work.
‘Our research aimed to find whether rapidly activating different identities comes with a cost.
‘We were surprised to find that these switches are extremely effective — people can switch quite rapidly with no apparent difficulty.’
However, the researchers said this ability might also come with a downside.
‘We might have little control over these switches,’ Zinn said,
‘For someone working from home, it may be important to stay in a professional identity – but our findings suggest you could easily be drawn away from it.
‘The next stage of our research is to examine these possible drawbacks, and whether steps such as having a dedicated workspace at home can limit them.’
The researchers carried out several studies using the ‘Implicit Association Test’, in which participants have to quickly sort words and images into categories.
Using this method, participants were made to think about a certain 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 make people switch to a different identity – or at other times stay in the same identity – 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.
Switching between this new identity and existing identities was also seamless.
The research has been published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS
The ‘Big Five’ personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
The Big Five personality framework theory uses these descriptors to outline the broad dimensions of people’s personality and psyche.
Beneath each broad category is a number of correlated and specific factors.
Here are the five main points:
Openness – this is about having an appreciation for emotion, adventure and unusual ideas.
People who are generally open have a higher degree of intellectual curiosity and creativity.
They are also more unpredictable and likely to be involved in risky behaviour such as drug taking.
Conscientiousness – people who are conscientiousness are more likely to be organised and dependable.
These people are self-disciplined and act dutifully, preferring planned as opposed to spontaneous behaviour.
They can sometimes be stubborn and obsessive.
Extroversion – these people tend to seek stimulation in the company of others and are energetic, positive and assertive.
They can sometimes be attention-seeking and domineering.
Individuals with lower extroversion are reserved, and can be seen as aloof or self-absorbed.
Agreeableness – these individuals have a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative as opposed to antagonistic towards other people.
Sometimes people who are highly agreeable are seen as naive or submissive.
People who have lower levels of agreeableness are competitive or challenging.
Neuroticisim – People with high levels of neuroticism are prone to psychological stress and get angry, anxious and depressed easily.
More stable people are calmer but can sometimes be seen as uninspiring and unconcerned.
Individuals with higher neuroticism tend to have worse psychological well-being.
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