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Can Zoom Fatigue Be Related To Your Personality?

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we’re on video calls more than ever before – and many are finding it exhausting.

There have been many articles addressing this “zoom fatigue” and the potential reasons for it. One reason often cited is the mental work and effort it takes to process nonverbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. But can our exhaustion from remote meetings somehow be tied to our personality?

Many researchers today believe that there are five core personality traits that speak to the characteristics or qualities of an individual. These traits have been found by research to exist in humans all around the world, though the degrees to which people possess each trait differs.

One may find it helpful to use the acronym OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) when trying to remember the big five traits.

Extraversion is one of these cross culturally universal underlying personality traits. A person who is extroverted is generally outgoing, friendly, sociable and happier more of the time than others. In contrast, a person who is introverted may be shy, quiet, reserved, and typically don’t seek out social events.

How introverted or extroverted are you? Find out here with a FREE test!

One suggested characteristic that’s associated with extroverted individuals is that when they meet people, they receive energy. When they meet people, teach classes, or socialize with others, they become energized. Whereas an introverted person uses energy when interacting with others, which can leave them drained. So how does this all relate to zoom fatigue?

Extroverted individuals may find themselves particularly drained after a remote meeting or class. Dr. Matsumoto suggests that although they may be interacting and seeing people they normally interact with, they’re likely not receiving the energy transfer they would in real life that normally invigorates them. Thus, these digital interactions leave them more exhausted than if the same interaction happened in real life.

The remoteness eliminates the interaction quality that allows them to give and receive energy.

Interestingly, there’s cultural differences in mean levels for extroversion as well. Americans generally have high extroversion, low neuroticism, higher conscientiousness, high agreeableness and high openness. Which means as a society as a whole, Americans may be suffering more from Zoom fatigue than other countries who have lower rates of extroversion such as Malaysia (see table below)

 

In addition to the many emotional consequences of digital communication we’ve covered, being remote may also eliminate the possibility of energy transfer we normally get in live interactions.

What are your thoughts? As an extrovert do you find this to be true? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

Want to learn more about the role of culture in shaping personality? View the video below to learn more!

Farming and the Evolution of Speech

As we know, many of our nonverbal behaviors have deep roots in our own process of evolution, but maybe our verbal behaviors have historical roots too.

While perhaps not quite as deeply ingrained as biological evolution, a new study in Science found evidence that many of our speech patterns can be linked back to changing dietary practices due to the dawn of agriculture. Specifically, our use of sounds like “F” and “V” can be linked to changing jaw and overbite structures that arose around that time.

Postdoctoral researchers Damián Blasi and Steven Moran got their idea from 34 year old linguistic analyses that found that contemporary hunter-gatherers lacked some of the linguistic types, called labiodentals, that many agricultural based people had.

When humans became accustomed to chewing foods high in fibers, the jaw bone is put under pressure and molars are worn down. This results in a more even mouth, developing away from an overbite and also making it easier to pronounce sounds like “F” and “V”.

While this idea may have some intuitive credibility, such an attitude was not shared in linguistic communities when linguist Charles Hockett made these unusual observations. Instead, he was met with skepticism, and it was that skepticism that Blasi and Moran sought to validate by proving Hockett wrong.

But they were very surprised. In order to assess Hockett’s claim, they made use of computer models to simulate how the human mouth makes sounds with varying degrees of overbite, and they analyzed languages around the world to see which languages most frequently used labiodental sounds.

The results are incredible striking. The computer models indicate that overbites make labiodental sounds much harder, with contemporary edge-to-edge teeth reducing the necessary effort by almost 30 percent.

Similarly, they discovered that labiodentals were much less common among languages used by hunter-gatherer communities. What might be most striking about these findings is the fact that they were able to track the progress of labiodentals emerging in languages throughout history, finding a steady increase in their use as societies developed and became more focused on expansive settled agriculture.

It is not all good news for those of us who enjoy our labiodentals, as we are also more at risk of cavities and of our teeth becoming overcrowded.

However, this study makes important strides in tracking how our communicative patterns are closely tied to our evolution and to our society. This is important if you are trying to better understand people of different cultures.

For instance, this study shows certain commonalities among those who speak Indo-European languages, emphasizing cross-cultural similarities. Yet, on the other hand, the fact that these speech patterns only emerged because of certain social arrangements also shows how deep the communicative gap can be between people of different cultures.

Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to better read people and communicate across cultural divides. This is one of Humintell’s specialties, and we even offer a cross-cultural training class!

Cultural Interview Lessons From the Road

Republished with permission from WZ

By Chris Norris, CFI

The WZ Non-Confrontational Interview method has been a part of my career for over 28 years now, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been working for WZ for 19 years. Through the years much has changed for both myself and WZ. One of the biggest changes for WZ is the huge International reach we now provide with our training classes. Did you know WZ has operations in Latin America, UK and Europe?

The International division of WZ has provided interview training courses on six continents (the penguins are next!) and to delegates from over 140 countries! I personally have taught classes translated to French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, German, Mandarin and Arabic. Regardless of your travels, your organization’s global reach or simply the need to interview someone from another country, there is always one common thread to interviewing and teaching interview tactics around the world; the need to develop rapport.

When training Internationally, I always ask attendees, “What makes a good interviewer?” A variety of topics, traits, and characteristics often arise, but one response consistently comes forward no matter what country I’m in; the ability to build rapport. So, what is rapport? Rapport is creating a relationship in a very short period of time. How do you build rapport? Let’s take some lessons from my travels to help understand how to build rapport in a multi-national and multi-cultural environment.

Understand local culture

Understanding a bit about the culture of your subject will help you to understand the dos and don’ts of most interviews. Understanding simple characteristics like anticipated spacial proxemics, eye contact, posturing, potential fears, etc. will benefit your interview and your ability to develop rapport.

I remember my first trip to Kabul, Afghanistan. I was teaching a class of Afghan nationals working in an investigative capacity for the US Government. During the class I asked the group to shut their workbooks, as it was time for teacher to become student. I told them I wanted to talk about their culture and learn about them. We had a great discussion and it altered my training a bit, increasing our interaction and their understanding of the WZ method.

Learning everything you can about someone’s cultural norms and characteristics from on-line resources like the US Department of State can prove to be beneficial, but the best resource is simply talking to people. Getting information from someone raised in that culture can help you to prepare and be more effective in the interview room. Allow them to tell you some common characteristics to anticipate during the interview and even potential fears they may possess; which may be very different than your own.

Learn the language

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying try to conduct an interview in another language you just learned from a “Russian for Dummies” book. I mean, make an effort to say simple phrases and greetings. I’ve always made a point to learn how to say ‘hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘good-bye’, etc. in the local language. This simple, effortless task has huge meaning and is a great way to begin an interaction.

I’ve often been asked the question, “Aren’t people in country X typically rude to Americans?” My reply, “I’ve never experienced that…” and I believe is based upon me starting any greeting with “Buenos dias / Guten-tag / Bonjour / Hi-ya”. I remember once in Koln, Germany I approached an older gentleman sitting in a chair in an open square. In German, I said, “Hi, I’m sorry but I don’t speak German well, do you speak English?” He answered in German and I repeated myself. This happened a couple times until he said in clear English with a big belly laugh, “I said, your German is so good, why must I speak to you in English!?” We laughed and he was quite helpful, and my effort to know a bit of his language helped with rapport in that interaction. In fact, he walked me to my destination and made sure the person I was looking for knew that I only spoke a bit of German.

Know a few colloquialisms

“Yes Eugene it’s a real word!” During a conversation with my brother-in-law (Eugene) I was talking about colloquial language and colloquialisms. His response was “Nice made up word bro!” He didn’t believe either word was real or that most people are able to pronounce them correctly. Colloquial expressions vary from region to region and are an important way people identify with each other. Funny, how he now fits “colloquial” into his conversations and will send me a text afterwards to let me know he used the word!

The use of normal language and understanding of local phrases and more informal speech helps to connect with your subject. If you are interviewing your subject in English, understand some local colloquial English phrases; even if English is a second language. Remember, as a point of rapport, we tend to like people like ourselves. When you are using some colloquial phrases or words you begin to build a bit of a bond and present yourself as being more like your subject.

I’ve learned that telling someone in Ireland that dinner was “grand” or replying with a “thanks a million” can go a long way. Even telling someone I was “knackered” while living in the UK showed I was willing to immerse myself into local customs. Listen carefully and think about mimicking your subject; not patronizing, just altering your presentation and word choices. Taking time to adjust your speech and use simple colloquial phrases will create a more natural communication platform with your subject.

Become more animated

The use of non-verbal communication from an interviewer’s perspective is often overlooked. Think about animating your communication with more illustrators and body posturing that is more engaging. Your use of animation can help overcome many language or communication barriers you may experience. Think about animating your voice as well, putting emphasis on good and bad points and expressing empathy through your tone. These points will add clarity to your message.
Once, on a trip to Egypt, I was trying to order dinner with someone who spoke very little English. By using simple words (not slowing my speech or talking louder) and becoming more animated I was able to describe to him what I wanted. The order was placed and it was one of the best shawarma wraps I’ve ever had…nice and spicy, just the way I like it!

Smile!

One of the most important non-verbal communication tactics you can apply to your interviews is a simple smile. Smile when you initially greet the person. Smile when you begin the interview and attempt to develop rapport. Heck, you might even smile when you ask those difficult questions. Smiling in most cultures creates a connection and reflects and openness on your part. Smiling can defuse confusion, resistance and agitation. I’ve been fortunate enough to smile in 70 different countries in my life. Trust me when I tell you, a smile goes a long way to creating a bond.

The reason these tactics work in terms of rapport-building is they help you share a bit more common bond; even though you might be from different cultures and parts of the world. You begin to develop a sense of who the individual is and you share common traits. By sharing common traits and interests, you tend to build rapport because you become much more like them than they realize. Giving someone an opportunity to discover a common interest with you helps you build that relationship in a very short period of time. It helps you build rapport.

To interact more effectively with people from different cultures, check out our IntelliCulture course!