Study Shows That Using Cell Phones Makes Us Act Selfishly
A study conducted by the University of Maryland has linked cell phone usage to selfish behavior.

We've probably all sat across from someone constantly checking their email and updating their Twitter and thought, "This person is pretty selfish." However, it seems that cell phones may actually cause us to be less conscious of others. A recent study conducted by the University of Maryland has linked selfish behavior and cell phone usage.
The results of the study, dubbed The Effect of Mobile Phone Use on Prosocial Behavior, show that cell phones could make users less socially minded. Marketing professors Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Rosellina Ferraro, along with graduate student Ajay T. Abraham, conducted a series of experiments on test groups of cell phone users. The experiments showed that, after a short period of cell phone use, the subjects were less inclined to volunteer for a community service activity when asked, compared to the control-group counterparts. The cell phone users were also less persistent in solving word problems, even though they knew their answers would result in money being donated to charity. Apparently just asking the cell phone users to draw a picture of their phone was enough to generate a decreased focus on others.
So, why does using our cell phone make us more self-centered? Well, according to the author of the study, using our phones offers a sense of connectivity to others. (No surprise, considering the multitude of ways they allow us to get in touch with others.) This alone seems to be strong enough that when the opportunity to engage in real life arises, we're not really interested.
"The cellphone directly evokes feelings of connectivity to others, thereby fulfilling the basic human need to belong," said the authors of the study.
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(Man with phone image via Shutterstock)
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I don't think its possible for me to be more selfish LOL
This is all a bunch of bologna, there is no such,,, hang on I have a txt msg brb..........
Oh REALLY now?
I work differently, if someone talks to me while I'm texting I just stop texting until I have time to give my phone the attention. Not the other way around.
Hah >.< Here come the thumbs.. Probably down. lol.
"The cellphone directly evokes feelings of connectivity to others, thereby fulfilling the basic human need to belong," ... He forgot the rest of that ", without the immediacy of having to deal with another persons BS face to face. Let alone their actual physical and emotional responses."
I've noticed this for year's, people seem to enter this bubble when they have a cellphone and will act in a manner that they would otherwise not if the cellphone was not present.
Anyone who has seen idiocracy, this is where we are headed.
It drives me crazy when I am out to eat with friends, and one or more of them is either texting someone else the whole time (hello, why are you hanging out with us if you're having a more interesting conversation?) or they're doing something else the whole time like posting crap on face book... not SELFISH, but an a-hole and obnoxious thing to do.
I also think it's funny watching a table of teenagers... all of them are on their cell phones and none of them are talking to eachother.
I'm pretty sure social networking sites/tools are the direct cause of this behavior, the cell phone is merely an interface.
I think if it's not the cell phones, it's gonna be something else. Those people are just selfish by nature, and cell phone is just an excuse. Just like religion :-)
To me this test sounds more like the control group, not having a phone had more time and were more bored, so were willing to do charity work to keep them occupied, those with cell phones were just not bored enough to do it since they had a phone to play with or were kept busy. Yeah you could attribute it to being selfish but you can say it's an addiction as well if you can't get someone away from it long enough to do something productive.
Oh REALLY now?I work differently, if someone talks to me while I'm texting I just stop texting until I have time to give my phone the attention. Not the other way around.Hah >.< Here come the thumbs.. Probably down. lol.
We haven't all descended into primitivism
It drives me crazy when I am out to eat with friends, and one or more of them is either texting someone else the whole time (hello, why are you hanging out with us if you're having a more interesting conversation?) or they're doing something else the whole time like posting crap on face book... not SELFISH, but an a-hole and obnoxious thing to do.I also think it's funny watching a table of teenagers... all of them are on their cell phones and none of them are talking to eachother.
This. It annoys me when I get cut off by someone in the middle of a conversation, and then finding myself walking away after wasting a few minutes of my life waiting on that person.
my research that people alive generally breathe has a higher degree of correlation than this study.
I'm 21years old right now, i have not had a phone in 4years. All my friends is telling me to get one and they find it highly annoying that they cant contact me whenever they want.
In my honest opinion, i dont give a shit. I hate when people call me on my home phone in the middle of a starcraft 2 game, i hate when people send useless fucking msg's asking what i'm doing. I hate feeling some damn vibration in my pants when i'm going down the slop snowboarding.
People who use there phone 24/7 is pathetic in my eyes, as soon as they are bored and have nothing to do while they sit on the bus or something they HAVE TO pick up there phone and just randomly go into apps or read facebook to kill time, USE YOUR BRAIN PEOPLE. It's an amazing tool that you can have a lot more fun with then playing some angry bird game. I mean really, you rather read what your idiot friends had for dinner then drift into your own mind and toughts... wtf.
The only reason i have a home phone is because i need it to have a bankaccount + you need it when you order things online.
Fuck todays phones, my old nokia 3310 had the same sound quality that my friends galaxy S 2 have.
Good for you Granter. Go join a technophobe club or something. Why are you even here, posting on a technology-oriented website, I wonder? Don't you have more "productive" and social activities you could be pursuing, being such a superior member of society?
I love how every group of people who calls themselves "researchers", then does something that they call a "study", gets some attention as though their conclusions are definitely and obviously strongly supported by their totally scientific and robust "study". Even though in this case, correlation vs. causation is highly questionable, the correlation isn't even very strong, and the research methodology sounds pretty weak. All in all, a waste of time.
Don't you have more "productive" and social activities you could be pursuing, being such a superior member of society?
Sorry Granter, upon rereading your comment that should have been "anti-social" rather than social. Oh and by the way, I drift into my thoughts all the time, used to do that all the time walking home from school, riding the bus, and still do. I don't really get how that's a better use of my time than playing a game (whether it's on my phone, a PSP, at home on the computer/console, whatever), or why you playing Starcraft 2 or snowboarding is such a superior use of one's time.
i got my phone for emergencies ie car trouble. it is 4 years old i can receive text messages, but can not send. it might do web, but i have never looked. i hate when someone calls me because invariably i will be busy at that moment. guess that makes me a social animal lol
It drives me crazy when I am out to eat with friends, and one or more of them is either texting someone else the whole time (hello, why are you hanging out with us if you're having a more interesting conversation?) or they're doing something else the whole time like posting crap on face book... not SELFISH, but an a-hole and obnoxious thing to do.I also think it's funny watching a table of teenagers... all of them are on their cell phones and none of them are talking to eachother.
i have a few friends that do the same sh**. next time, i will just walk away. it's pretty damn rude.
Was this study carried d out in the 80's? Because I really can't see people NOT having cell phones nowadays. Or were the test subjects just deposed of their cell phones for a time?
Otherwise, there may be some substance in the findings. Ting is, you can easily replace "phone" with say computer, TV, or even a book or magazine. Guess these belong to another era though.
I was going to comment this article but I'm busy writing a new sms
Anything that starts with "i" should have been the first clue.
i got my phone for emergencies ie car trouble. it is 4 years old i can receive text messages, but can not send. it might do web, but i have never looked. i hate when someone calls me because invariably i will be busy at that moment. guess that makes me a social animal lol
The beauty of the cell phone though is if you ARE in the middle of something important and you dont want to be disturbed.. You just turn it off..
wonder how much was spent on this Captain Obvious research?
I rarely use a phone and im still selfish.
In recent studies carried out by the the "Who Gives a Shit Foundation" they found that most men can't actually suck their own knobs...but many have tried.
This has been a report by Oh My Goodness Face!
I'm 21years old right now, i have not had a phone in 4years. All my friends is telling me to get one and they find it highly annoying that they cant contact me whenever they want.In my honest opinion, i dont give a shit. I hate when people call me on my home phone in the middle of a starcraft 2 game, i hate when people send useless fucking msg's asking what i'm doing. I hate feeling some damn vibration in my pants when i'm going down the slop snowboarding.People who use there phone 24/7 is pathetic in my eyes, as soon as they are bored and have nothing to do while they sit on the bus or something they HAVE TO pick up there phone and just randomly go into apps or read facebook to kill time, USE YOUR BRAIN PEOPLE. It's an amazing tool that you can have a lot more fun with then playing some angry bird game. I mean really, you rather read what your idiot friends had for dinner then drift into your own mind and toughts... wtf.The only reason i have a home phone is because i need it to have a bankaccount + you need it when you order things online.Fuck todays phones, my old nokia 3310 had the same sound quality that my friends galaxy S 2 have.
I didn't know you could swear that much and get away with it, but I agree. I called one of my friends and he was on vacation driving with his wife. I thought, "Why would you want to answer the phone while on vacation with your wife and while driving even?" I get stressed when I am on a trip and I hear my cellphone ring because I know I am with my wife so it must be my manager and there is trouble at work.
I can't tell you how many times I felt like someone's servant because I was holding the door open for someone on their cell phone and they just ignored me, or got ran into by someone with a shopping cart while they were on the phone.
Selfish is the wrong word, but it is annoying. Who pays money for these studies anyways? Give it to me and I will study the effects of a 48 core server in my basement on my power bill.
It's a shame that they actually had to fund a study to figure that one out. Meanwhile, they could have used the money to feed starving children. How selfish of them......