Abstract
Smartphones have been shown to distract people from their main tasks (e.g., studying, working), but the psychological mechanisms underlying these distractions are not clear yet. In a preregistered experiment (https://osf.io/g8kbu/), we tested whether the distracting nature of smartphones stems from their high associated (social) reward value. Participants (N = 117) performed a visual search task while they were distracted by (a) high social reward apps (e.g., Facebook app icon + notification sign), (b) low social reward apps (e.g., Facebook app icon), and (c) no social reward apps (e.g., Weather app icon). We expected that high social reward app icons would slow down search, especially when people were deprived of their smartphones. Surprisingly, high social reward (vs. low or no social reward) apps did not impair visual search performance, yet in a survey (N = 158) participants indicated to perceive these icons as more rewarding. Our results demonstrate that even if people perceive social smartphone apps as more rewarding than nonsocial apps, this may not manifest in behavior.
Highlights
Smartphones have been shown to distract people from their main tasks, but the psychological mechanisms underlying these distractions are not clear yet
Contrary to our expectations, high social reward apps did not slow down visual search compared to low or no social reward apps, neither in the smartphone deprived, nor in the control condition
These reward-associated stimuli slow down visual search; that is, impairment of visual search is an indicator of attentional capture by the reward of the stimuli
Summary
Smartphones have been shown to distract people from their main tasks (e.g., studying, working), but the psychological mechanisms underlying these distractions are not clear yet. Hearing a phone ring (Shelton, Elliott, Eaves, & Exner, 2009), receiving notifications (Stothart, Mitchum, & Yehnert, 2015), or even the mere presence of a smartphone (Thornton, Faires, Robbins, & Rollins, 2014; Ward, Duke, Gneezy, & Bos, 2017) had a negative effect on sustaining attention on a main task (but see Johannes, Veling, Verwijmeren, & Buijzen, in press) In line with such an impairment in maintaining attention, Kushlev, Proulx, and Dunn (2016) found that people report more difficulties to concentrate on their tasks when they enable (vs disable) notifications. Smartphone distractions have predominantly been explained as a stimulus-driven mechanism From this perspective, impairments in performance happen because people are distracted by an external source (e.g., notifications, ringing phone). Even though several studies have addressed the idea that smartphones are associated with high social rewards, there is no direct empirical test of this mechanism
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