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  4. Risk of contagion: Digital stress influences colleagues
Person suffering from technostress

Risk of contagion: Digital stress influences colleagues

When individuals suffer from digital stress, it often affects others in the work team. Because it is contagious, according to a recent study.

The potential for contagion has now been demonstrated by Prof. Dr Tim Weitzel and Lea Reis from the Chair of Information Systems and Services, together with Prof. Dr Christian Maier (LMU Munich) as part of the research network 'ForDigitHealth'. "It happens automatically when we meet our social environment with empathy and sympathy," explains Tim Weitzel.

The good news: we are not helplessly at the mercy of the risk of contagion! To counteract the transfer of stress, it helps to consciously distance oneself from one's own emotional reaction to others - in the case of cognitive contagion, it is helpful to acquire a strengthened self-confidence in one's own IT skills and to realise that one can cope with the situation oneself.

More valuable tips and results from the joint research project 'ForDigitHealth' are available free of charge as an online guide to dealing with digital stress: https://gesund-digital-leben.de/ergebnisse-2/digitaler-stress-der-wegweiser/

In the joint project of the universities of Augsburg, Bamberg, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Munich and Würzburg, experts from medicine, communication science, psychology, computer science and business informatics conducted interdisciplinary research for four years. 'ForDigitHealth' was funded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and the Arts with a total of 3.4 million euros.

More in the uni.blog: https://blog.uni-bamberg.de/forschung/2023/fordigithealth/