Abstract

Economies across the globe were brought to their knees due to lockdowns and social restriction measures to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2, despite the quick switch to remote working. This downfall may be partially explained by the “water cooler effect”, which holds that higher levels of social interaction lead to higher productivity due to a boost in people’s mood. Somewhat paradoxically, however, there are reports of increased productivity in the remote working scenario. Here we address quantitatively this issue using a variety of experimental findings of social psychology that address the interplay between mood, social interaction and productivity to set forth an agent-based model for a workplace composed of extrovert and introvert agent stereotypes that differ solely on their propensities to initiate a social interaction. We find that the effects of curtailing social interactions depend on the proportion of the stereotypes in the working group: while the social restriction measures always have a negative impact on the productivity of groups composed predominantly of introverts, they may actually improve the productivity of groups composed predominantly of extroverts. Our results offer a proof of concept that the paradox of productivity during quarantine can be explained by taking into account the distinct effects of the social distancing measures on extroverts and introverts.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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隔离期间生产力的悖论：基于代理的模拟

摘要

尽管迅速转向远程工作，但由于封锁和社会限制措施以遏制 SARS-CoV-2 的传播，全球经济都陷入了困境。这种下降可能部分由“水冷却器效应”来解释，该效应认为，由于人们情绪的提升，更高水平的社会互动会导致更高的生产力。然而，有些自相矛盾的是，有报道称远程工作场景中的生产力有所提高。在这里，我们使用社会心理学的各种实验结果定量地解决这个问题，这些实验结果解决了情绪、社会互动和生产力之间的相互作用，为工作场所建立了一个基于代理的模型，该模型由仅在倾向上有所不同的外向和内向代理刻板印象组成发起社交互动。我们发现，减少社交互动的效果取决于工作组中刻板印象的比例：虽然社交限制措施总是对内向者为主的群体的生产力产生负面影响，但它们实际上可能会提高由内向者组成的群体的生产力主要是外向的人。我们的结果提供了一个概念证明，即隔离期间生产力的悖论可以通过考虑社会疏离措施对外向和内向的人的明显影响来解释。它们实际上可以提高主要由外向者组成的群体的生产力。我们的结果提供了一个概念证明，即隔离期间生产力的悖论可以通过考虑社会疏离措施对外向和内向的人的明显影响来解释。它们实际上可以提高主要由外向者组成的群体的生产力。我们的结果提供了一个概念证明，即隔离期间生产力的悖论可以通过考虑社会疏离措施对外向和内向的人的明显影响来解释。

图形摘要