Robots are good listeners, or so children obliviously think
And mental health is good for profits. Thanks goodness for that. I am so tired.
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Kids will share more about mental health with robots than they’ll share with, well, you
Look, I’m sure you’re a great person and you’re really great with kids and kids like you a lot. I get it. So this article isn’t about you.
But the Guardian reports…
The Nao robot looks more like a prop from a low-budget sci-fi film than the cutting edge of medical research. But a study found that children felt more comfortable confiding in the child-sized, quizzical-looking humanoid than when responding to mental health assessments with their parents, in some cases disclosing information that they had not previously shared.
Children whose responses on traditional questionnaires suggested they could be experiencing mental wellbeing problems, gave more strongly negative responses when answering the same questions with the robot and some shared information that they had not disclosed when responding to in-person or online questionnaires.
Children may view the robot as a “confidant”, allowing them to divulge their true feelings and experiences, the scientists suggested. One of the parents, observing the session through a mirrored window, told the researchers they had not realised their child was struggling until hearing them respond to the robot’s questions. And previous research found that children are more likely to share private information, such as their experiences of bullying, with a robot than an adult.
I mean, it’s great. If children can get better care, this is good news. Obviously.
Still, it does feel like if a muppet had the potential for a “murder” setting.
If you want your kids to open up to you more, say “bleep bloop” more often.
Mental health progress is good for business
Boy, this one makes me feel weird. It’s an article in ALL POSITIVITY MUST BE COMMODIFIED magazine. Just kidding. It’s in the no less obviously named FORTUNE magazine.
Good things will come with this realization that healthier people do a better job. It seems obvious but hey, I’m no CEO. I mean, I guess I am. I have my own company, of which I’m the only employee.
Roughly 62% of U.S. executives say they’ve either already implemented, or have a plan in place to expand, mental health benefits for their workers, according to a recent PwC survey of more than 720 executives, including chief human resource officers and chief operations officers, from public and private companies across six sectors.
Ignoring mental health in the workplace comes at a major cost to companies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that depression causes 200 million lost workdays each year, costing employers $17 billion to $44 billion.
But a little investment goes a long way: For every dollar spent on mental health care at work, employers see a $4 return on investment, according to the World Economic Forum.
This story also appeared in DUH.
Business is good for detective writers
I interviewed Jonathan Ames a while back and we’re putting that episode together for the podcast on Monday. Jonathan used to read and write a variety of things but now it’s mostly all about detective stuff. He can’t get enough as a reader or a writer.
His boxing career is not currently active.
And it was only after talking to Jonathan that I had this thought about private detectives in fiction: they’re all depressed! There’s been some fall from grace, often as the result of a trauma. The office is shabby, the home (if different from the office) is even shabbier, there’s a bottle of booze in a drawer, there’s an inability to form healthy relationships. And then the client walks in and unloads a whole new basket of trauma.
Then inevitably they get shot at!
So anyway, we talk about that. Jonathan says the original fiction detective is Oedipus.