Psychologists have looked into why “phubbing” is so harmful to our social lives

By Alex Fradera If you are with someone who is ignoring you while they interact with their smartphone, you have been phone snubbed, or “phubbed”. Phubbing is common, at least in Western cultures – in a recent US survey, nine out of ten respondents said they had used their smartphone during their most recent social activity. There’s also evidence that it is socially harmful, leaving people less satisfied with their face-to-face interactions and generating feelings of resentment and jealousy. Now the Journal of Applied Social Psychology has published a new study exploring the reasons for these effects. The paper is based on PhD research by Varoth Chotpitayasunondh at the University of Kent, who, together with co-author Karen Douglas, asked mostly female student participants (average age 19) to watch a three-minute animation in which cartoon figures interacted and exchanged utterances that could not be heard but could be detected through mouth movements. Participants had to imagine themselves as the closest figure in the video and afterward make judgments about the conversation and how they felt.  In one condition, the participants’ conversation partner’s phone remained unused on the table throughout the conversation. In another version, their partner’s attention was quickly drawn to something on their phone and they spent the rest of the interaction phubbing, keeping their gaze on the screen as they periodically swiped it while smiling and chuckling at what the...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Social Technology Source Type: blogs