Dear Journalists: You Drink Too Much — and, Even Worse ...

Journalists' brains show a lower-than-average level of executive functioning, according to a new study, which means they have a below-average ability to regulate their emotions, suppress biases, solve complex problems, switch between tasks, and show creative and flexible thinking.

The study, led by Tara Swart, a neuroscientist and leadership coach, analysed 40 journalists from newspapers, magazines, broadcast, and online platforms over seven months. The participants took part in tests related to their lifestyle, health, and behaviour. ...

The results showed that journalists' brains were operating at a lower level than the average population, particularly because of dehydration and the tendency of journalists to self-medicate with alcohol, caffeine, and high-sugar foods. ...

However, in interviews conducted in conjunction with the brain profile results, the participants indicated they felt their jobs had a lot of meaning and purpose, and they showed high mental resilience. Swart suggested this gave them an advantage over people in other professions in dealing with the work pressure of tight deadlines.

Journalists scored pretty high on:

• Abstraction, the ability to deal with ideas rather than events. It's related to the part of the brain where the most sophisticated problem-solving takes place. In other words, it highlights the ability to think outside the box and make connections where others might not see them.
• Value tagging, the ability to assign values to different sensory cues, such as whether something is a priority or has meaning. Scoring highly in this area indicates a good ability to sift through information and pick out what's important.

Journalists scored lower on:

• Executive function. As well as the traits mentioned above, low scores for executive function also suggest poor sleep, nutrition, exercise, and mindfulness. Many participants reported they had no time for breaks while working.
• Silencing the mind, which is related to the ability to have thoughts without getting distracted by them, or a powerful ability to focus. Low scores indicate the opposite, suggesting journalists have a hard time preventing themselves from worrying about the future or regretting the past.

Journalists drink too much, are bad at managing emotions, and operate at a lower level than average, according to a new study

 

Interesting.

 

What the fuck does this scientist know? Where is she at 10 p.m. when I'm chugging another coffee and holding in the piss I've had to take for three hours while waiting for some asshole to file a story that's already 90 minutes late?

 

Your newspaper doesn't issue the urine bags? Weird.

 

She's a 9 to 5 bean counter.

 

Overlooked? Journalists have the best stories and know how to tell them well. Especially when drunk and ranting.

 

The first clue was when she saw people giving the company five hours of free work in exchange for three slices of pizza.

 

• Silencing the mind, which is related to the ability to have thoughts without getting distracted by them, or a powerful ability to focus. Low scores indicate the opposite, suggesting journalists have a hard time preventing themselves from worrying about the future or regretting the past.

Gee ... considering the state of the newspaper business, I wonder why.

 

Journalists have below-average ability to show creative and flexible thinking? Gannett executives nod their heads.

 

You had to be joking. No reporter could survive being 90 minutes late nowadays if it meant the presses running late. Bye bye. The story means nothing. It's just filling holes. Now online is a different story.

 

I can't really disagree.

I have a tremendous ability to work on deadline, to make connections others might not see in events and I am resilient.

I also sleep like total shit, drink too much coffee (likely the root cause of my shitty sleeping), probably drink more alcohol than the average person (I've cut back a good deal in my 30s, though, especially since waking up with a toddler all week sucks ass with a hangover) and have so much trouble turning my brain off that I've actually gone to therapy for help with that, which I would recommend to anyone.

I am cursed to be good at this damn job.