Final answer:
Online multitaskers had difficulty in all the answer choices, which includes identifying emotions in pictures, in stories, and determining how to respond empathetically, showing how multitasking can impair natural social abilities. Therefore, the correct answer is that the online multitaskers had difficulty in all answer choices.
Step-by-step explanation:
When Clifford Nass, a social psychologist at Stanford, showed pictures of human faces and read stories to online multitaskers, they had difficulty in identifying the emotions on the faces of people in pictures, identifying the emotions of the people in the story, and identifying what they would do to make the person in the story feel better.
The ability to recognize emotions and facial expressions is considered a universal human trait, deeply embedded in our evolutionary history to enable social interactions and survival. Despite variations in cultural display rules affecting emotional expression, our innate capacity to decipher emotions allows us to connect and communicate with others. The difficulties the multitaskers experienced illustrate how the cognitive demands of multitasking can impair our natural social abilities, including the accurate interpretation of emotions.