Most people perceive phone-snubbing as harmful but continue to do it. New research explores why we “phub” (short for “phone snub”) others, despite disapproving of the practice. Research examines why we engage in a behavior we know is socially undesirable and why we allow ourselves to succumb to it
The downside of phubbing
People tend to feel excluded and their mood suffers when they’re being ignored in favor of someone’s phone.
- Phones are also distracting, making it difficult for people to fully attend to whatever else is going in their environment.
Why do we still do it?
In a series of studies just published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Elyssa Barrick and colleagues investigated this seeming contradiction.
- They asked people about multiple reasons why someone might use their phone during an interaction and grouped them into general categories: Positive personal reasons, Positive social reasons, Negative personal reasons and Negative social reasons
- People didn’t necessarily think others had more negative reasons for using their phones than they did themselves, but they perceived themselves as having more positive motives than other people. This also explained why people felt that interactions where they used their phone were more connected, enjoyable, and engaging for both themselves and the other person than the interactions where someone else used theirs
How to avoid the bias
Making yourself more aware of bias and considering how it may be operating when you’re using your phone can help you to see how your phone use may be negatively affecting others
