Citation

This  study used a custom computer system designed to induce anxiety in  participants and determine if people who are anxious produce more errors  in an independent working computer network. Participants (N = 130) were  asked to complete sixteen tasks on a computer in twenty minutes to  receive a reward. Each participant self-rated their anxiety levels  during the tasks. In addition, 130 sessions were run without a computer  operator. The network ran independent of the tasks, and operated  continuously during the sessions. The first hypothesis predicted  sessions without operators would produce fewer network errors than  sessions with operators, but it was not supported (p = 0.35). The second  hypothesis predicted that anxious operators would produce more errors  on the independent network than those less anxious. Initial analysis  indicated an unsupported hypothesis, but the initial design did not  properly identify anxious users. A post-hoc revised grouping based on  actual reported anxiety resulted in this hypothesis being supported (p =  0.04, d = 0.45) indicating that anxious computer operators may affect  network communication. There may be other electronic effects as a result  of human emotions. Additional research is necessary to confirm these  results and explore whether the intensity of emotions affects  electronics.

Keywords: electronics; emotion, network; signal fault; mind-matter interaction; PK