Do Cell Phones Make Us Less Socially Minded?

A recent study from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business finds that even though cell phones are generally thought to connect people with each other, they may make users less socially minded. The findings of various experiments conducted by marketing professors Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Rosellina Ferraro with graduate student, Ajay T. Abraham have been published in their working paper The Effect of Mobile Phone Use on Pro-social Behavior. 

The study involved separate sets of male and female college students, who were mostly in their early 20s. Ferraro commented: 

"We would expect a similar pattern of effects with people from other age groups. Given the increasing pervasiveness of cell phones, it does have the potential to have broad social implications."

Their findings revealed that participants were less likely to volunteer for a community service when asked after a short period of using their cell phone, than those in the control-group and were also less persistent in solving word problems, despite knowing their answers would result in a monetary donation to charity. 

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