I can’t remember when I first learned about this phenomenon, but I do remember having the dumb thought:
I don’t fall for this.
But whenever the opportunity for it next came up—going around the table introducing ourselves—I discovered that the name of the person who’d gone just before me was—well, exactly. I had no idea. My mind was blank.
One theory for why this happens—and it was certainly my instinctive explanation—was anxiety. I’m always a little anxious in those turn-taking situations.
A study back in the 1970s, however, found that measured anxiety in participants was unrelated to the next-in-line effect. It didn’t matter how anxious or at east you were when introducing yourself in a group setting. You were still just as likely to not recall the person who went before you.
(This makes performance art—especially improv theater—all the more impressive.)
The next-in-line effect has made me somewhat wary of traditional icebreakers—traditional in the sense of going around a room clock- or counterclockwise. This is a fringe benefit of the virtual meeting, where no obvious order exists.
Taylor Coe 