Psychology Computer crashes stress men more

Men are more stressed on computer crashes than women

01/10/2013

Computer crashes at work increase the stress level. According to an Austrian study, especially men are stressed when the computer goes down. Women go with the so-called „Technostress“ - if a task has to be done under time pressure on the computer, but this strikes - relaxed around. The scientists found an explanation with evolutionary theoretical approaches to the phenomenon.

„Technostress“ - when the computer crashes
When men are forced to do a task on the computer under time pressure, they are more stressed than women at computer crashes. This was the result of a study by an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, which together with the neurological department of the General Hospital Linz conducted a study on the subject „Technostress“ conducted. According to this, men show a higher activation of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system when an obstacle stands in their way.

When „Technostress“ Scientists describe the stress that occurs in a computer crash. Meanwhile, it claims its own interdisciplinary research field, in which the fields of psychology, economics, human-computer interaction, neurobiology and medicine flow together. Due to an ever more intensive use of IT equipment in the private and professional sector and the permanent acceleration of life processes also decreases „Technostress“ in the society too.

Computer crash activates the sympathetic autonomic nervous system in men more than in women
To further investigate the phenomenon, professors Rene Riedl, Harald Kindermann and Andreas Auinger from the Faculty of Management at FH-Campus Steyr and Andrija Javor from the neurological department of the General Hospital examined the cortisol content in the saliva of computer users. As it turned out, the level of stress hormone increased significantly when a human-computer interaction task was not guaranteed to be performed by a system. In men, the PC crash caused a much stronger activation of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system than in women.

According to this, gender - specific strategies could be used to tackle the problem „Techno stress“ make sense, as the researchers told the news agency „APA“ Conclude. The results are in the journal „Advances in Human-Computer Interaction“ released. (Ag)

Image: Martina Taylor