Meetings Make You Stupid

There's a funny post by Tim Dowling at the Guardian Blogs.  He discusses a recent study in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B that found the IQs were significantly lower after meetings. The decline was greatest in women.

In the Telegraph, Lead author Kenneth Kishida, a research scientist at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute was quoted as saying: "Our study highlights the unexpected and dramatic consequences even subtle social signals in group settings may have on individual cognitive functioning... (and) given the potentially harmful effects of social-status assignments and the correlation with specific neural signals, future research should be devoted to what, exactly, society is selecting for in competitive learning and workplace environments."

Tim Dowling's suggestions for surviving meetings include:

• When something needs to be decided by several people in a department, call a meeting without telling anyone. The next day send emails to colleagues with the subject heading: "For all of you who missed the meeting, here is what we decided." Put down whatever you've decided.

 • Walk into a pre-scheduled meeting, sit down and have a bite of whatever nibbles might be on offer – egg sandwiches, for example – then jump up and say: "Oh my God! I completely forgot I was allergic to eggs!" Run out of the room, leaving your phone on the table to record proceedings. Listening back later, you may be surprised to hear how stupid everyone sounds.

• When you cannot get out of an office meeting, attend with a marmoset on your head, covered by a capacious but tight-fitting hat. Give the marmoset a couple of cans of Red Bull right before you go in. This should ensure that stress-inducing social cues associated with perceived rank in a work environment are among the very least of your worries.

 Sources:
(1) Tim Dowling, the Guardian Blogs 28 February 2012
(2) Rebecca Smith, the Telegraph, 27 February 2012
(3) Kishida KT et al. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 5 March 2012