Commonly done but not socially accepted? Phubbing and social norms in dyadic and small group settings

ABSTRACT

Phubbing—the usage of one’s smartphone in copresent interactions—has become a prevalent phenomenon in our digital society. At the same time, phubbing is perceived to be inappropriate in most social settings. The present study examines the interrelation between phubbing norms and phubbing behavior by differentiating between descriptive and injunctive norms, as well as between dyadic and small group interactions. Our online survey of 218 smartphone users revealed that people adapt their phubbing behavior to conform to their perception that phubbing is quite common (descriptive norm), whereas the perception that phubbing is not socially approved (injunctive norm) is not behaviorally relevant. This result applies generally to both dyadic and small group interactions. However, individuals orient more strongly toward descriptive normative perceptions in interactions with more than three copresent friends than in dyadic interactions. It can be concluded that phubbing is primarily legitimized by the perception that others do the same.

KEYWORDS:

• Phubbing
• smartphone usage
• descriptive norm
• injunctive norm
• normative influences
• dyads
• small groups

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/ENVHY.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Data and Open Materials. The materials are openly accessible at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/ENVHY.

Notes

1. Across all measurements, item 3 (Table 1) was deleted for internal consistency, so all scales were ultimately based on only four items.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robin Leuppert

Robin Leuppert is a graduate student at Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, Germany. He is interested in the impact of technology on social relationships.

Sarah Geber

Sarah Geber is senior research and teaching associate at University of Zurich, Switzerland. Her research focuses on social influences on media use and health behavior.