Can’t stop checking yourself out in that little box at the bottom of your Zoom screen? The habit may be doing more than simply stealing your attention.
Research suggests that seeing your own face during video calls can trigger physical and mental effects that could sabotage your performance at work.
The good news? You may not be able to escape those virtual meetings that should’ve been emails, but a simple screen adjustment could make them easier to get through.
In a 2024 study, researchers at the University of Galway recruited 32 volunteers — 16 men and 16 women — to take part in a live Zoom meeting.
Before the call, researchers attached electrodes to participants’ scalps to perform an electroencephalogram, or EEG, a painless, noninvasive test that measures the brain’s electrical activity.
During the conference, the volunteers were periodically asked to switch their self-view on and off.
The researchers found that when participants could see themselves on screen, their brains showed significantly greater signs of fatigue than when their self-view was switched off.
The research backs up what workers have been saying for years: Video meetings can leave you feeling mentally and physically drained, even when you’re just sitting at your desk.
The phenomenon, commonly known as “Zoom fatigue,” is believed to have several causes.
One is what’s known as the “mirror effect.” The theory suggests that constantly watching your own face can put you in an unnatural state of heightened self-awareness, forcing you to focus on how you look and behave rather than simply paying attention to the conversation.
Video calls also force our brains to work overtime, juggling what’s being said while trying to read facial expressions, body language and other social cues that come much more naturally during face-to-face conversations.
And those close-up faces staring back at you from the screen may add to the strain, putting your body on high alert and leaving you feeling wiped out.
The research comes years after the COVID-19 pandemic triggered an explosion in remote work, as staffers and students were forced to swap offices and classrooms for computer screens.
“They continue to be heavily used in work and education today and offer some advantages over in-person meetings, but people often report feeling exhausted by video conference meetings,” Eoin Whelan, a professor in the School of Business and Economics at the University of Galway who led the study, said in a press release.
“Our study shows that those feelings of fatigue you get during video calls are real, and seeing your own reflection makes it even more tiring.”
The study also found that men and women appeared to be affected in much the same way.
Previous research, largely based on people’s own accounts through surveys and interviews, had suggested that women experience greater video-call fatigue than men.
The thinking has been that women may be more self-conscious about their appearance when confronted with their own reflection, making it harder to relax and focus during a video call.
But the brain-wave readings told a different story.
“Alpha activity did not change significantly across a 20-minute session, and was not significantly different for men or women,” the study authors wrote.
“Thus, our study does not replicate previous findings that women experience greater video conferencing fatigue because of the increased self-awareness generated when viewing themselves on a screen.”
Fortunately, Whelan said there’s an easy way to ease some of the strain next time you’re on a Zoom call.
“Simply turning off the mirror image can help offset fatigue in virtual meetings,” he advised.
