Behavioral Responses to Phone Snubbing

Abstract

This manuscript reports an experiment in which undergraduate confederates interacted with naïve participants. At 5-min into a 7-min interaction, the confederate manipulated their cell phone: (1) phone rings, confederate ignores; (2) phone rings, confederate picks up; or (3) confederate proactively checks cell phone. Both the participants and the confederates were video recorded for the entire 7 min. In addition, participants filled out a questionnaire at the end of the interaction. The videos were coded and analyzed to determine what behavioral reactions, if any, were related to responses on the questionnaire. The data indicated that participants who looked away from the confederate after phone manipulation had significantly more negative perceptions of the confederate than those who emitted other behaviors.