Watch out! If your colleague is lazy, he might pass it on to you

SOME may be born lazy, but researchers have discovered that idleness is also contagious.

They found that we tend to adapt to those around us, so if we are surrounded by lazy people, we will start making less effort.

The same was true of two other characteristics investigated in their study: impatience and prudence.

Researchers Marie Devaine and Jean Daunizeau said their study adds to findings that people like to follow the herd, rather than having fixed character traits.

The psychologists, from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, studied 56 participants.

They were set tasks involving risks (to study prudence), effort (laziness) and delay (impatience). To measure impatience, the participants had to choose between a small payout offered in three days and a higher payout up to a year later.

For effort, they had to grip a device at between 10 and 90 per cent of their ability for either a low or high reward.

To assess prudence, they were asked to choose between winning 90 per cent of a small lottery prize, or a lower chance to get a higher payout. The participants undertook each task several times. During the process they were told how a previous participant had guessed, and their own responses were assessed.

The authors whose research is published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, write: ‘We found that people learn from others’ lazy, impatient or prudent behaviour. More precisely we have shown that people’s attitude drifts towards that of others.’

Only 19 per cent of those who changed their attitude were aware they had done so.