# News Roundup: Remote work vs. in-office connection (Cornell study)

- **Episode:** [136](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/136.md) (2024-10-15)
- **Type:** news-roundup
- **Tags:** remote-work, in-office, cornell-study, connection
- **Time:** 12:44–19:10 (start 764s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/136?t=764](https://truthliesandwork.com/136?t=764)

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[12:44] Leanne Elliott: Well, of course, everywhere the debates around remote work, return to office is continuing. I actually saw an article very like in the last hour or so that I would have included but didn't quite have the time to read through and prep properly, basically saying that now Amazon are making 14,000 more layoffs and really the whole RTO mandate was just a cover to reduce headcount, hoping that they get that natural attrition. Classy move, Amazon, as always. But anyway, I did actually come across an actual study, a scientific study that was very well timed. So as you know, one of the big arguments for people coming back into the office, dragging everyone back, is that it's much harder to form the same kind of connection over a screen, um, compared to in person. Person— the assumption is in person is superior when it comes to building relationships. And yeah, there is something to that, isn't it? It feels intuitive that physically to be in the same room with somebody, you, you can, you know, maybe pick up on other cues and, and create that bond. Um, but there's a new study from Cornell University published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, which basically calls bullshit. So the research led by Marie-Catherine Mignot set out to compare whether people form different or less accurate first impressions of others during video calls, so like on Zoom, versus face-to-face interactions. So the study involved over 1,000 participants participants who were asked to meet others in 2-minute getting-to-know-you sessions, either over Zoom or in person. And after each meeting, participants rated the other person's personality and how much they liked them. What the researchers also did was make all the participants take a Big Five-based personality inventory before these kind of meet and greet things. So what the researchers found, um, was, was Surprising perhaps to our intuition, people were just as good at picking up on each other's personalities via Zoom as they were in person. Not only that, but they also liked each other just as much whether they met through a screen or face to face. There is a caveat though. The study did reveal that some traits like assertiveness and energy were more easily perceived in person, but on the flip side, traits like originality or openness were actually judged more accurately on Zoom. So the researchers thought that that might be because video calls can provide extra contextual clues, like what's in somebody's background. So think books, art decor, um, that could hint at a person's creativity or intellect. So yeah, what was interesting though is that in all scenarios, if the video or audio quality was poor, people had a much harder time reading the other person's personality, which could have a huge, huge impact, especially in settings like job interviews. Imagine being judged less favorably simply because your connection wasn't the best. And this could actually then bring in a real serious issue in terms of diversity and inclusion, because it could even exacerbate the socioeconomic divide, particularly for people without access to high-quality internet. Or those in a rural area or those from a lower income. So yeah, some really interesting points raised in the study, both in terms of our assumptions when it comes to forming connections in this digital age and also potentially the downside of video and particularly internet connections could actually be creating some bias and discrimination in the recruitment process. I thought it was really interesting. I'll leave a link. Our thoughts
[16:23] Al Elliott: Yeah, I'd be interested to see what would happen if we had tested this 5 years ago before the pandemic, uh, because after the— during the pandemic, everyone, including like elderly parents, our parents, uh, were on Zoom, um, and they got used to it. So I wonder if maybe it is something that's evolved over the last 5 years. Um, but it makes sense. Um, and I think it's the same with like a YouTube video. I've watched lots of stuff. I nerd out on people on YouTube videos that do well, and they always say that if you've got good video but poor audio, they never do as well as someone who's got great audio but not as good video. So I'm guessing that, yeah, add everything together, you get a beautiful connection, you get a lovely background. That's why we spend so much time on our backgrounds as well, I think, because we want to, uh, we want to talk to you guys
[17:05] Leanne Elliott: Write in, tell us, what can you tell about Al and I from our backgrounds? There are some little clues actually, in terms of— there's clues about where we're from, clues about our wedding. There are clues about— what else, Al? Will you tell us, listener?
[17:24] Al Elliott: Yeah, you tell us
[17:25] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, viewer, listener, you're probably— you're not gonna be able to do that, but go over to YouTube, let us know
[17:30] Al Elliott: Okay, after this very short break, we have a hot take from none other than Oliver Yonchev, former CEO of Flight Story, the global marketing and innovation group founded With Stephen Bartlett. You do not wanna miss this
[17:53] Al Elliott: We actually have a lot in common. We both use behavioral science to help people do better at work
[18:56] Al Elliott: It can
[19:03] Leanne Elliott: But come back
[19:04] Al Elliott: Yeah, come back. Definitely come back because Nudge isn't as good as this. So come back. I'll cut that out. Keep that in