Labor/leisure decisions in their natural context: The case of the smartphone

Abstract

In this research, we attempt to understand a common real-life labor/leisure decision, i.e., to perform cognitive work or to interact with one’s smartphone. In an ecologically valid experiment, participants (N = 112) could freely switch back and forth between doing a 2-back task and interacting with their own smartphone. We manipulated the value of the 2-back task (by varying the value of monetary rewards; within-subjects) and of the smartphone (by switching on and off airplane mode; within-subjects) while we recorded incoming notifications, such as text messages. Our study produced three main findings: (1) the current value of the smartphone did not increase our statistical model’s ability to predict switches from labor to leisure when the current task value was also taken into account; (2) however, participants reacted strongly to naturally incoming notifications, which were the strongest predictor of labor-to-leisure switches; (3) there was no evidence that taking into account individual differences (in the value assigned to labor and leisure) improved the model’s ability to predict labor-leisure switches. In sum, using a situated approach to studying labor/leisure decisions, our findings highlight the importance of high task motivation, as well as the temporary distractive potential of smartphone notifications, when people face the challenge of staying focused on their productive tasks.

No effect of different types of media on well-being

“…We did not assess what content people engaged with or what their motivation for use was. Although we believe such net effects are important to investigate as first step, they may mask important interactions between content and user motivations 31 , 48 , 53 . Therefore, even though within-effects of traditional media are small, there may be meaningful under certain conditions 54 .…”

Mind wandering increases linearly with text difficulty

“…These models are based on the classic assumption that humans (and other organisms) avoid effort that is not proportional to the reward expected to result from it-in other words, people avoid effort that is not "worth it". This behavioral principle has first been applied to behavioral effort (e.g., Hull 1943), and has since been extended to cognitive effort (e.g., Aridan et al 2019;Dora et al 2020;Kool et al 2010). Phenomenologically, effort feels aversive (e.g., Dunn et al 2016;Inzlicht et al 2018;Saunders et al 2017); however, exerting more effort is often associated with greater reward.…”

No effect of different types of media on well-being

“…Similarly, although they displayed decent psychometric properties, the well-being measures in the data set were not validated. Last, it is likely that motivations for using a medium or the enjoyment from using it are better predictors of well-being than mere use (Dora, van Hooff, Geurts, Kompier, & Bijleveld, 2020;Johannes, Vuorre, & Przybylski, 2021).…”