Zoom fatigue is real. Especially if you’re a woman.
A new study from Stanford University shows that over 13.8% of women feel “very” to “extremely” fatigued after video conference calls, compared to 5.5% of men. So naturally, the researchers wanted to know why. The study delved deep into the numbers and found that the self-view—the little window that shows how you look on camera to others—was the leading factor for video conference exhaustion among women.
The team reached these findings based on two groups of data, according to Jeff Hancock, founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab and an author of the study. They created a Zoom Fatigue scale, in which 10,000 respondents answered video conferencing questions, including questions related to what Hancock calls “mirror anxiety”—stress you feel from that little self-view window. Questions included: “How concerned are you with your appearance?” and “How distracted are you by the mirror?” The team found that women reported greater mirror anxiety than men. Mirror anxiety increased Zoom fatigue overall within that demographic.
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