What's the link between humour and productivity?

What is it about humour that increases work productivity? An Australian study published in the Journal of Business and Psychology (December 2015) reveals that watching funny videos at work makes people more productive.

The study, ‘Examining the Energizing Effects of Humor: The Influence of Human on Persistence Behavior’ was conducted to examine how humour can increase people’s persistence at work. Researchers in the School of Management at the Australian School of Business in the University of New South Wales conducted two laboratory studies with 124 students.

The participants were given a boring job to do, and then watched something funny before returning to work (it was a Mr Bean episode). Another group of participants did the same boring job, but watched videos about nature or business management. The idea was to give participants a short mental break from their boring task, and to test which videos contributed to the participants returning to work more energized. It was the first study to systematically examine the influence of humour on persistence of concentration while doing a boring task.

The results showed that all of the short mental breaks were effective in recharging people’s mental batteries and gave them renewed vigor to tackle dull, frustrating, or challenging tasks at work.

However, the participants who watched the funny videos worked longer on the task and were more engaged in the task. The researchers also found that the positive effects of humour were stronger when participants watched a funny video of their own choice – like funny cat videos.

David Cheng and Lu Wang showed that humour is not only entertaining, but it is also replenishing. Individuals engaging in activities that require persistence (or for boring tasks) may benefit from exposure to humour.

http://time.com/money/4204427/humor-helps-productivity/

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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