My previous blog on the multi tasking myth was picked up by Siri Wikander in her blog. Her take on the issue inspired quite a little row with professor Keith Laws of the University of Herteforeshire, who is partly responsible for the general (mis)conception that women have greater multitasking abilities than men.
Professor Laws claims that his soon to be published study will support the statements he made many years ago. Naturally, a long term academic study holds more water than the informal little test we did on ourselves in Brilliant. Still I maintain: Most reasonably well produced studies give very little support for the view that women have greater multitasking ability. There is the occasional study supporting the idea of female multitasking superiority and Professor Laws may contribute to evening this balance but his study is unlikely to tip it.
There is, however, plenty of evidence that women do more multitasking than men. That was my main point. That is bad because the little test we did on ourselves here at Brilliant found that everybody loses both productivity and accuracy by attempting to switch back and forth between two or more tasks rather than focusing on finishing the tasks one by one. This puts us in line with a huge majority of the research in that area.
That is where this issue gets hot. A job ad for a person with the ability to “juggle multiple projects” will produce a huge majority of female applicants. The holders of that job will have a hard time maintaining a reasonable productivity and accuracy.
That, Professor Laws, is a women’s trap.