The majority of Americans – 95%, according to the latest Pew Research Center statistics – now own a cell phone of some kind. While this allows for unprecedented connectivity, a new study also suggests there may be a downside to cell phone use for the brain.
A team of investigators at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin, asked nearly 800 undergraduate students to engage in a cognitive task with their smartphones placed in one of three places: in a separate room, nearby and in sight, or nearby and out of sight.
The researchers found that the mere presence of a smartphone hijacked some available cognitive capacity, even when participants were successful at sustaining attention, were not using their phone, and did not report thinking about the phone. These cognitive effects were strongest in those who reported greater smartphone dependence.
“Ironically, the more consumers depend on their smartphones, the more they seem to suffer from their presence – or, more optimistically, the more they may stand to benefit from their absence,” the researchers noted in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, where the study was published.
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