Linking phubbing behavior to self-reported attentional failures and media multitasking

Abstract

Phubbing, or using a phone to snub another person, has been investigated through social and personality frameworks. Phubbing involves attending to and performing competing tasks, implying the involvement of attentional abilities. Yet, past research has not yet used a cognitive framework to establish a link between phubbing and attention. Using self-report data from a large online sample, we explored the associations between phubbing and everyday attentional failures. Phubbing was associated with difficulties in attentional shifting and distractibility, frequent attentional lapses, spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering, and attention-related cognitive errors. When examining these attention variables alongside several psychosocial and personality variables, attention-related cognitive errors acted as the biggest predictor of phubbing behavior. Phubbing was also positively correlated with media multitasking, which is a conceptually similar yet distinct technology use behavior. The results suggest that perceived everyday attentional failures are strongly associated with, and to an extent can predict, phubbing behavior, even more so than some social and personality variables. Technology has incorporated itself as a necessity, or at the very least a favored convenience, in most people’s lives. Characterizing technology multitasking behaviors from a variety of frameworks can help us better understand who is engaging in these behaviors and why.