Around 50% of people reach for their phones when they see another person playing on theirs.
Around 50% of people reach for their phones within 30 seconds of watching another person playing on theirs, an Italian study shows.
In the study, published in the Journal of Ethology in April, researchers looked at what happened when they pulled out their smart phones in 820 different natural settings, such as public transport, parks and restaurants.
In a control setting, the researchers would fiddle with their phone without looking at it, in the experimental setting, the researchers would turn their full attention to the device.
The 184 people captured in the study had no idea their behaviour was being observed.
Around half of people who witnessed the researcher swiping away on their phone pulled out their smart phone within 30 seconds.
In the control setting, when the researcher only touched their device but didn’t look at it, only 0.5% of people were triggered to engage with their smartphone.
This mimicry behaviour is common among humans and is often called the chameleon effect. We also mimic each other’s facial expressions, yawns and speech patterns.
The speed of the copycat behaviour indicates that something automatic and subconscious is happening, the researchers told New Scientist.
“One woman who was sitting across from me in a waiting room saw me check my phone, and within seconds she took out her phone and called someone and said, ‘Hey, I just felt like calling you; I don’t know why,’” said Associate Professor Elisabetta Palagi, a researcher at the University of Pisa in Italy.
Usually, mimicry bonds humans closer together but being absorbed with smart phones might have the opposite effect as people disengage with the physical world in favour of digital interactions, the researchers said.
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