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Mobile sensing is a promising method that allows researchers to directly observe human social behavior in daily life using people’s mobile phones. To date, limited knowledge exists on how well mobile sensing can assess the quantity and quality of social interactions. We therefore examined the agreement among experience sampling, day reconstruction, and mobile sensing in the assessment of multiple aspects of daily social interactions (i.e., face-to-face interactions, calls, and text messages) and the possible unique access to social interactions that each method has. Over 2 days, 320 smartphone users (51% female, age range = 18–80, M = 39.53 years) answered up to 20 experience-sampling questionnaires about their social behavior and reconstructed their days in a daily diary. Meanwhile, face-to-face and smartphone-mediated social interactions were assessed with mobile sensing. The results showed some agreement between measurements of face-to-face interactions and high agreement between measurements of smartphone-mediated interactions. Still, a large number of social interactions were captured by only one of the methods, and the quality of social interactions is still difficult to capture with mobile sensing. We discuss limitations and the unique benefits of day reconstruction, experience sampling, and mobile sensing for assessing social behavior in daily life.

Social interactions are crucial to affective well-being. Still, people vary interindividually and intraindividually in their social needs. Social need regulation theories state that mismatches between momentary social desire and actual social contact result in lowered affect, yet empirical knowledge about this dynamic regulation is limited. 306 participants in a sample stratified by age and gender (51% women, M_age = 39.41, range 18-80 years) answered up to 20 questionnaires about social interactions and affect while mobile sensing tracked their conversations, calls, and app usage over two days. Combining preregistered and exploratory analyses, we investigated how momentary affect relates to social dynamics, focusing on two states of mismatch between social desire and social contact: social deprivation (i.e., being alone but desiring social contact) and social oversatiation (i.e., being in contact but desiring to be alone). We used specification curve analyses to scrutinize the operationalization of these constructs. Social oversatiation was associated with decreased positive affect (PA) and increased negative affect (NA). Social deprivation, however, was unrelated to affect. Exploratory multilevel models showed that a higher desire to be alone was consistently associated with decreased affect, whereas a higher desire for social contact was related to increased affect. Mobile sensing data revealed that having more conversations was related to higher PA even when controlling for momentary social desire. Using communication apps more frequently when alone was related to higher NA. We discuss implications for social need regulation, related studies on voluntary solitude, and the advantages of combining experience sampling and mobile sensing assessments.

Introduction: A frame makes specific information about a topic more salient. Metaphors can be used as frames to influence people’s opinions on controversial political topics as well as on health-related topics. This study aims to determine the influence of metaphorical frames on the opinion towards surrogacy and examines whether specific aspects of surrogacy are more prone to the influence than others. Method: 236 participants were assigned to one of three groups with different metaphorical frames for surrogacy and thereafter completed the Attitude Towards Surrogacy Questionnaire. To investigate if participants’ opinions on surrogacy were influenced by the frame used for surrogacy, three ANOVAS were conducted. Result: The main effect of the ANOVAS revealed that opinion towards payment of the surrogate mothers, but not the attitude towards surrogacy in general, was influenced by the metaphorical frame used for surrogacy. Discussion: The results support the idea that a metaphorical frame can evoke reactance regarding the payment of surrogate mothers. Participants might resist the frame of the metaphorical term for surrogacy as an unemotional business act, by favouring less monetary compensation of the surrogate mother, when the metaphorical frame implies that surrogates only help intended parents for the monetary compensation.