31–40 of 203 posts
Historically, this could be the underlying reason for the existence of various professions: adjutant, batman, valet, secretary, personal assitant - perhaps the main function they provided was just providing a presence?
I read about influencers who basically stream themselves while studying, seems to be a similar idea with more even participation (and less likelihood of becoming internet-rich).
Having this kind of content plentiful and available 24/7 is really helpful.
I finished my thesis thanks to a group of people scattered over the internet, all agreeing to do pomodoro. In the breaks we'd chat about our day to day lives then get back to work when the bell rang. I'll always be grateful for their presence, getting me through hard times when I'd perhaps have given up if I felt completely alone; or at least not worked so deeply and thoroughly.
Why not just have the tv palying in the background? Works for me.
I can't code with anything else going on - except very limited forms of music.
My problem is that “focus” music is often pretty repetitive. It can drive me nuts if I listen to it for 8 hours.
from the linked site https://psychcentral.com/adhd/adhd-body-doubling : > “While there’s not a lot of research on ADHD and body doubling, anecdotal clinical reports seem to point to its utility,” Roberts says. Shame this stuff isn't backed by research. Hopefully it gets looked into. I wouldn't be surprised if it's helpful for some people though.
Because you don’t really need a study to figure out if it works for you. Just try it! Because I can literally feel my understimulation block fade when there’s another person around — it stokes a little guilt and anxiety to get you started and then they act like a pace runner providing some artificial forward momentum.
It’s not one of those things where you won’t be sure whether it’s working or not.
My problem is I'd have an overpowering urge to interrupt the other person whenever I was stuck. That and my other mutterings, pacings etc would probably be intolerable.
Everyone on my team, including myself, mutters to themselves like this. I’ve asked some of my team members about it to determine if it bothers them and was surprised to find they feel the same way I do. It’s actually somewhat endearing. Granted, we could be drawing the line at different places here. I just curse under my breath at things that have me stumped, sulk for a moment to collect my thoughts, and then get bac…
If you were hooked up to an MRI and asked to do a coding challenge, but were prohibited from talking/regulating, I'd bet your amygdala would be more engaged compared to your control.
I finished my thesis thanks to a group of people scattered over the internet, all agreeing to do pomodoro. In the breaks we'd chat about our day to day lives then get back to work when the bell rang. I'll always be grateful for their presence, getting me through hard times when I'd perhaps have given up if I felt completely alone; or at least not worked so deeply and thoroughly.
Historically, this could be the underlying reason for the existence of various professions: adjutant, batman, valet, secretary, personal assitant - perhaps the main function they provided was just providing a presence?
Batman?
Does the effect fall off with the square of the distance? Is it linear? Is there a threshold? Does adding a third person (or more people) affect it? How is it different from, say, sitting in a cafe with another person? Do you have to know each other? If there is a difference what criteria determine that difference? Can one "pretend" that one is "body double"-ing with a unknowing stranger? Or does each person have to…
You seem to want to treat it as some sort of physical field or force. IANAP (I am not a psychologist), but it seems fairly self-evident that the effect arises from the awareness of being observed, which leads to you observing and mediating your own actions. Based on that, I would predict that physical distance is only indirectly relevant. The strength of the effect is going to depend on how many of your activities are theoretically knowable by the other person. If they are physically present but farther away, you can "get away with" doing more things without them knowing, so you'll omit such behaviors from the self-monitoring loop. If they are virtually present, I would imagine that the strength of the effect depends on how clearly you can observe them (because we can't see how they see us, but we'll assume that it's roughly the same).
Which would make for an interesting experiment: do body doubling with very asymmetric visual quality, size, and latency but without informing the participants that they are seeing anything different. My guess is that the one who sees a better quality signal will experience a much stronger effect.
Like many things in psychology, though, there are tons of confounding variables. Your relationship to the person matters—specifically, how much you care about their opinion of you and your actions. I would imagine body doubling with a dog would work temporarily and then the effect would fade away as you got comfortable with goofing off in front of them.
Anybody you double with, you'll place on a scale from somewhere between "dog" and "attractive person I am desperate to impress". (And the latter end of the scale can be paralyzing, so this isn't a small→large effect scale.)