“You phubbed me for that?” Reason given for phubbing and perceptions of interactional quality and exclusion

Abstract

When someone focuses on their phone, rather than the person in front of them (“phubbing” or “technoference”), this can lead to feelings of exclusion and dissatisfaction. Few studies have examined this phenomenon experimentally using a confederate during face‐to‐face interactions, and to our knowledge the published research has yet to examine the role that attributional information may have on the effects of being phubbed. Thus, we conducted an experiment investigating how attributional information influenced the effects of phone use on feelings of exclusion and interactional quality during a face‐to‐face interaction. We randomly assigned 99 young adults into one of three conditions: no phone use, important use, or trivial use. In the phone conditions, the participant's interaction partner (a confederate) pulled out their phone 2 min into the interaction, gave either an important or trivial reason for use, and then interacted with their phone, making intermittent eye contact while continuing to interact with the participant. Phubbed individuals reported feeling more excluded, less close, and like the partner was more distracted in the phone use conditions, regardless of reason. However, individuals phubbed for an important reason reported feeling less excluded and like the partner was less distracted as compared with participants in the trivial condition. Results suggest that people take attributional information into account during the phubbing experience. Given the frequency of phone use during social interactions, these data suggest giving a good reason for use may help in relationships and interactions; yet, it may not alleviate all the potential negative effects.

Feeling Ostracized by Others’ Smartphone Use: The Effect of Phubbing on Fundamental Needs, Mood, and Trust

“…Thus, we hypothesize that phubbing causes negative mood and threatens fundamental human needs as well. Prior research has provided initial evidence for this assumption (Gonzales and Wu, 2016;Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2018;Hales et al, 2018;Beukeboom and Pollmann, 2021;McDaniel and Wesselmann, 2021). The goal of our research was to replicate and extend this existing research (Study 1 and 2) in two important aspects.…”

“…In fact, Hales et al demonstrated that participants, who merely remembered being phubbed (vs. an attentive conversation vs. control) experienced feelings of ostracism, need threat and negative mood. Also, Gonzales and Wu (2016) as well as McDaniel and Wesselmann (2021) found that a manipulated phubbing episode during a face-to-face conversation caused feelings of exclusion in the participants. Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas (2018) found that imagining being phubbed increased negative mood, and decreased positive mood and feelings of belongingness.…”

“…However, most studies were correlational. To our knowledge, there are only a few published articles that have experimentally investigated the effect of mobile phone presence or usage on interactions with others who are physically present (Przybylski and Weinstein, 2013;Gonzales and Wu, 2016;Vanden Abeele et al, 2016;Hales et al, 2018;McDaniel and Wesselmann, 2021). For example, Przybylski and Weinstein (2013) demonstrated that the mere presence of a smart phone vs. a notebook during a dyadic conversation caused a reduction in perceived closeness, connection and conversation quality in both conversation partners.…”

“…However, the negative consequences of phubbing are not limited to the formation of interpersonal impressions and conversational quality, but they also cover effects like those of ostracism (Gonzales and Wu, 2016;Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas, 2018;Hales et al, 2018;McDaniel and Wesselmann, 2021). In fact, Hales et al demonstrated that participants, who merely remembered being phubbed (vs. an attentive conversation vs. control) experienced feelings of ostracism, need threat and negative mood.…”

Parental internet activity and communication through the new media - literature review

“…Still, their actions while using the telephone, e.g. frequent loss of visual contact, emotional reactions inadequate to the course of the conversation, and breaks in the discussion, may be a signal of lack of interest for the partner (McDaniel & Wesselmann, 2021). Phubbing also seems to be of great importance in a parenting context.…”