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Tell HN: Research showing value of in-person interaction
Remote vs in-office is a perpetual topic of contention here. I tried to compile a list of research papers highlighting the value of in-person interactions. It would be great to have some high quality research on the relative effectiveness of remote vs in-office vs hybrid setups.
[1] https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1038/s41598-021-045... - "In‑person attendance was associated with greater synchronicity in autonomic nervous system activation at the group level, which resulted in more transformative experiences and contributed to stronger identity fusion."
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321... - "In both experiments, positive affect was higher after in-person support vs. texting."
[3] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407519836170 - "Adolescents’ feelings of loneliness increased sharply after 2011. Adolescents low in in-person social interaction and high in social media use reported the most loneliness."
[4] https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Femo0000403%2F "adolescents spending a small amount of time on electronic communication were the happiest. Psychological well-being was lower in years when adolescents spent more time on screens and higher in years when they spent more time on nonscreen activities, with changes in activities generally preceding declines in well-being."
- cratermoon 4y agoAll I have is "Why Open Plan Offices are Bad News For Employees" https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325959 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325959 ""Consistent with the fundamental human desire for privacy and prior evidence that privacy may increase productivity, when office architecture makes everyone more observable or "transparent', it can dampen F2F (face to face) interaction, as employees find other strategies to preserve their privacy; for example, by choosing a different channel through which to communicate."" "employees' perception of lack of privacy and high office density negatively affect job satisfaction, work engagement, and internal work relation as well as increases the number of limited ability days." The article includes some citations.
- RestlessMind 4y agoI faintly recall a study published a few years back which recommended a compromise between individual offices and open office plans - it was along the lines of small rooms for groups of 4-6 people. That jives with my experience, most notably at Google. It is also in line with my observation that a group of 3-5 people in a room with a whiteboard produces the best progress on truly challenging projects.
- cratermoon 4y agoI would say that if all the people in the room are working closely together on the same thing, yes. Randomly throwing people together into a room, not so much.
- RestlessMind 4y agoAbsolutely. Having a random set of 3-5 people in a room will totally defeat the purpose of such an arrangement.