Who is Better at Multitasking - Man or Woman?

A study points to better multitasking abilities in women as compared to men. This is especially so, when it comes to switching between tasks, a test conducted by psychologists in UK has revealed. It appears that when it came to speed and organizing abilities, women were far superior to men, even though both sexes portrayed difficulty juggling priorities.

Researchers do agree that this is one subject that can do with more study as it can influence the organization of workplaces.

Co-author Dr Gijsbert Stoet, of the University of Glasgow, said, "Multitasking is getting more and more important in the office - but it's very distracting, all these gadgets interrupting our workflow. It could be that men suffer more from this constant switching."

During their study, researchers found that when it came to juggling between jobs, both men and women slowed down but men appeared to be slower than women. Men were markedly slower, and took sometimes 77% longer to respond as against 69% longer on the part of women.

"This difference may seem small, but it adds up over a working day or week”, said Dr Stoet.

Psychologist Dr Dongning Ren of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said, "Still, it is possible that for certain tasks, men might be better at multitasking. It may depend on the nature of the tasks - sequential or simultaneous. Of course I don't think we should just assign women to roles where rapid switching is demanded. Studies show that men tend to think they're better at multitasking than they are in reality, and women tend to think they're worse than they really are.”

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Source-Medindia