Habitual Multitaskers Do It Badly

iandoh writes "According to a group of Stanford researchers, people who frequently multitask don't pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time. In other words, multitaskers are bad at multitasking. The research team is also studying how to design computer voices for cars that result in safer driving." Reader AliasMarlowe adds "The comparison involved multitasking with a number of attention or context related tests. For the study, multitasking was defined as consuming multiple media sources at once — gaming, TV, IM, email, etc. Interestingly, the habitual multitaskers were much worse at multitasking than the single taskers in these relatively straightforward tests. In self-assessment the multitaskers considered themselves good at it and the single taskers considered themselves bad at it. An extreme case of the Dunning-Kruger effect, perhaps, with consequences for business and society."

Comments

I have always suspected this

[wcrowe]

I have long suspected this. I think people who believe they are good at multitasking give themselves the illusion that they are doing a good job simply because they are so busy. It has been my observation that many women, in particular, pride themselves on their multitasking ability, and are confident that they are excellent at each and every task, when in fact they are just doing a mediocre job.

Pity the poor man who should ever suggest this, however.