TITLE:
Does It All Harm the Same?—An Empirical Exploration of Opportunities to Reduce the Negative Psychological Effects of Phubbing
AUTHORS:
Klara Schuster, Tim Lindermayer, Lisann van Putten, Jeremy Clark, Sarah Diefenbach
KEYWORDS:
Phubbing, Smartphone Use, Ostracism, Exclusion, Expectancy Violation, Multitasking, Phone Distraction, Conversational Behavior, Smartphone Addiction, Mobile Phone
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.14 No.6,
June
9,
2023
ABSTRACT: With ever-increasing smartphone use, phubbing (i.e., paying attention to the smartphone instead of the direct conversation partner) is playing an increasingly important role in our society. Along with this, we encounter challenges of phubbing such as a more negative perception of the conversation partner and their relationship. We suggest that different phubbing behaviors can mitigate these negative effects. To test our hypotheses, we conducted an online study (N = 324) in which phubbing behavior was systematically altered in 5 different experimental conditions. Additionally, we examined the mediating role of the constructs expectancy violation and ostracism and explored effects on future phubbing behavior. Our results suggest that giving an important reason to justify the smartphone use mitigates negative effects compared to phubbing only and that this relationship is mediated by ostracism. Translated into practice, the data suggests that if phubbing is unavoidable, one should at least communicate the (personally) important reason for using the smartphone in order to maintain a positive relationship to the conversation partner.