Monday, May 21, 2018

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

The "new study" is dated May 2017.

From Business Insider, May 19:
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.

It was launched in association with the London Press Club, and the objective was to determine how journalists can thrive under stress. It is not yet peer reviewed, and the sample size is small, so the results should not be taken necessarily as fact.

Each subject completed a blood test, wore a heart-rate monitor for three days, kept a food and drink diary for a week, and completed a brain profile questionnaire.

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.

Forty-one percent of the subjects said they drank 18 or more units of alcohol a week, which is four units above the recommended weekly allowance. Less than 5% drank the recommended amount of water.

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:...MORE
Here's "STUDY INTO THE MENTAL RESILIENCE OF JOURNALISTS" (12 page PDF)

I asked the Google Box if  'Study into...' was a usage I should adopt and StackExchange returned:
",,,.the verb study casts its field or topic as a direct object—we studied the effect of X on aquatic birds. When transitive verbs are nominalized, their direct objects are most often cast as preposition phrases headed by of:"...

... Often the nominal derivative will license the same prepositions as its mother verb. But this doesn't usually run backwards, from the noun to the verb....
So there you go, don't use "Study Into" and watch out for the self-medicating if you've chosen the Journo lifestyle.