“You’re on mute” remains a top post-March 2020 term thanks to video calls becoming BAU for many. But a new study published by Nature has found remote meetings have also put brainstorming sessions on mute. The study saw 745 pairs of engineers tasked with finding ways to use a Frisbee or bubble wrap either in face-to-face meetings or video calls. Those in the same room generated one more idea on average than those working remotely, and their ideas were deemed to be more creative. It was an outcome researchers expected, but they were surprised to find it wasn’t because the remote engineers lacked a social connection. Rather, it was because they were less likely to let their eyes and minds wander as much because they were busy focusing on the face on the computer screen. If that’s an excuse to turn the video off in our next meeting, we’ll take it…