A new study in Computers in Human Behavior has found that the seemingly harmless act of “phubbing”—ignoring others to check one’s phone—can have surprising social consequences. Researchers discovered that being phubbed makes people feel uncertain about others’ intentions, causing them to view the phubber as less human and even respond with increased aggression. The findings shed light on how digital distractions can erode basic human connections, impacting both how we perceive others and how we behave toward them.
Phubbing, a blend of “phone” and “snubbing,” describes the behavior of ignoring someone in a social setting to pay attention to a smartphone instead. This behavior, common in today’s digitally connected world, can subtly erode the quality of face-to-face interactions, as it often signals disinterest or disengagement to the person being ignored. In relationships, like those between romantic partners, parents and children, or even coworkers, phubbing has been shown to create feelings of neglect and lower satisfaction. Despite
The new research aimed to explore whether phubbing might lead people to dehumanize others—that is, to perceive them as less human and more like objects. The researchers were particularly interested in whether phubbing generates “subjectivity uncertainty,” a feeling of ambiguity or difficulty in interpreting the thoughts and feelings of others. By making people feel unsure about others’ intentions, phubbing may drive individuals to view the phubber as lacking warmth, individuality, or sincerity—traits typically associated with humanness.
The researchers conducted four studies to examine the effects of phubbing on social perceptions.
The first study aimed to establish whether phubbing is associated with dehumanization in real-world social contexts. The researchers examined data from Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, collecting a massive dataset of 69,399 posts from 200 active users. Participants first completed a survey to measure how often they felt “phubbed” in daily life using the Perceived Phubbing Scale. Afterward, participants provided their Weibo usernames, allowing the researchers to access their posts.
The researchers analyzed the posts using the Chinese version of the Mind Perception Dictionary, a tool with words that indicate human qualities like emotions and agency. They compared the proportion of mind-perception words (words conveying warmth, individuality, or emotion) in posts of participants with high and low phubbing scores. A lower use of these words indicated a tendency to view others as more object-like or less human.
The results showed that individuals who frequently experienced phubbing tended to use fewer words that convey human qualities, suggesting an increased perception of others as less human. This initial study demonstrated that phubbing correlates with dehumanizing language in a real-world setting, laying a foundation for the subsequent studies.
Building on Study 1’s findings, Study 2 aimed to verify whether people who experience frequent phubbing feel increased subjectivity uncertainty, which then leads them to dehumanize others. The researchers recruited 305 participants for an online survey. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their daily phubbing experiences, subjectivity uncertainty, dehumanization tendencies, and feelings of being dehumanized (metadehumanization).
The analysis revealed that individuals who felt more frequently phubbed reported higher levels of subjectivity uncertainty and, in turn, were more likely to dehumanize others. Importantly, subjectivity uncertainty was identified as a significant mediator in the link between phubbing and dehumanization, while metadehumanization did not have a notable impact. This suggests that people who experience phubbing feel less certain about others’ internal states, leading them to dehumanize others, rather than feeling dehumanized themselves as an explanation.
Having established a correlation between phubbing, subjectivity uncertainty, and dehumanization in Studies 1 and 2, Study 3 aimed to test causality through an experimental design. Participants (198 in total) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a “phubbing” condition or a “non-phubbing” condition. In the phubbing condition, participants were instructed to recall a recent conversation where the other person constantly checked their smartphone. In the non-phubbing condition, participants recalled a conversation where the other person gave them undivided attention.
After recalling the interaction, participants reported their levels of perceived phubbing, subjectivity uncertainty, and dehumanization using the same scales as in Study 2. The researchers also measured whether recalling a phubbing experience heightened participants’ negative emotions, which were controlled for in the analysis to ensure that the effects on dehumanization weren’t simply due to a bad mood.
Results showed that participants in the phubbing condition reported significantly higher levels of subjectivity uncertainty and dehumanization compared to those in the non-phubbing condition. This provided evidence that phubbing causally leads to increased uncertainty about others’ thoughts and feelings, which in turn drives dehumanizing perceptions.
The final study (which included 212 participants) aimed to replicate the findings of Studies 1–3 and explore a downstream consequence of phubbing-induced dehumanization: increased aggressive behavior. The researchers used a video vignette in which participants watched a 3D animated conversation between two people.
Depending on the assigned condition, the conversational partner in the video either phubbed (checked their phone continuously) or paid full attention to the other person. This controlled visual setup helped ensure consistency across participants and closely simulated real-life experiences of being phubbed.
After watching the video, participants rated their levels of subjectivity uncertainty, dehumanization, and perceived phubbing. To measure aggression, the researchers used the “voodoo doll task,” a widely used psychological measure where participants are given a voodoo doll representing the conversation partner and asked to insert any number of pins into it.
Participants in the phubbing condition reported higher subjectivity uncertainty and dehumanization than those in the non-phubbing condition. Importantly, they also demonstrated significantly more aggressive behavior, indicated by inserting more pins into the voodoo doll. These findings showed that phubbing can foster not only dehumanizing perceptions but also hostile responses, highlighting a potential social consequence of seemingly minor phone use during conversations.
“Phubbing, an emerging social phenomenon spawned by the inappropriate use of mobile devices, is becoming increasingly prevalent and has profound psychological consequences,” the researchers concluded. “However, how it affects interpersonal perceptions and behaviors remains largely underexplored. In four studies, we found that perceptions of phubbing breed dehumanization, and subjectivity uncertainty (but not metadehumanization) accounts for this effect. In addition, dehumanization caused by perceptions of phubbing further lead to aggressive behaviors.”
“Our findings enrich the knowledge regarding the outcomes of phubbing and highlight the significance of reducing such behavior to minimize the potential adverse consequences it may bring to interpersonal interactions.”
Despite the robust findings, there are some limitations to consider. For one, the research focused on participants in China, so the results may vary in different cultural contexts. Additionally, while the researchers used social media data, surveys, and controlled simulations to assess responses to phubbing, real-life interactions might elicit different reactions. Future studies could explore how personality traits or cultural factors affect responses to phubbing, as well as how the behavior might be interpreted differently in close relationships versus casual social contexts.
The study, “Smartphone’s on, humanness’s off: Phubbing breeds dehumanization via subjectivity uncertainty,” was authored by Lipeng Yin, Jiaming Feng, Wenjing Hou, Pengcheng Wang, and Yulong Yin,
