Scientists have found a link between smartphone use and human behavior
A person can continue the conversation, nod to the other person and at the same time check messages, scroll through the feed or respond to notifications. This behavior is called fabbing — ignoring a nearby person for the sake of a smartphone. A new study conducted among healthcare professionals has shown that a propensity for fabbing may be associated with certain personality traits and problematic phone use. About what fabbing is, why a person picks up the phone in the middle of a conversation, how it affects relationships, and how a regular habit differs from problematic behavior, see the Izvestia article.
When the phone becomes the third participant in the conversation
The term "phubbing" appeared as a combination of the English words "phone" and "neglect, ignore" (snubbing). They call a situation when a person pays attention to a smartphone instead of an interlocutor during direct communication. This can be a short check of a notification, a reply to a message, or a prolonged scrolling of social media while the other person is trying to keep up the conversation.
This does not necessarily mean that the person intentionally wants to offend the other person. The smartphone constantly offers new incentives: messages, notifications, news, social networks and other types of content. As a result, attention can automatically switch from what is happening around to the screen. Of particular importance is the so-called fear of missing out on something important (FOMO) — the desire to constantly stay informed about what is happening in the digital environment. Researchers attribute FOMO, social comparison, and attachment anxiety to factors that may be associated with fabbing.
It is important to distinguish fabbing from regular phone use. If a person takes out a smartphone to answer an urgent message or solve a practical issue, this does not mean that he regularly ignores others. The problem arises when a device systematically takes priority over direct interaction and a person continues to use it even when it interferes with a conversation or relationship. Therefore, researchers consider fabbing in the context of problematic smartphone use, but do not equate any phone use with addiction.
Why do some people "go" to the phone more often?
A new study published in Medical Xpress was conducted with the participation of 177 healthcare professionals. They were assessed on five main personality characteristics—openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, benevolence, and neuroticism. At the same time, the participants themselves assessed their own phone use and dependence on it, and the researchers received information from their colleagues about how prone they were to fabbing.
It turned out that more pronounced fabbing is associated with openness to experience, extraversion and neuroticism. On the contrary, conscientiousness, which researchers associate with responsibility, self-discipline, and attention to one's responsibilities, was associated with a lower tendency to ignore others for the sake of a phone. There was no statistically significant association between fabbing and benevolence.
At the same time, work does not mean that an extroverted or neurotic person will necessarily be constantly on the phone. We are talking specifically about the statistical relationships between individual characteristics and behavior. The study also does not prove that a certain personality trait directly causes fabbing. Rather, the authors show that individual characteristics can help explain why some people are more easily distracted by a smartphone during communication than others.
Interestingly, researchers have found a link between phubbing and mobile addiction. They suggest that problematic smartphone use may be one of the mechanisms linking personality traits and the habit of ignoring others. At the same time, the authors themselves suggest that using a phone should not be perceived as inherently harmful: what matters is how much a person is able to control their behavior and maintain attention to what is happening off the screen.
How fabbing changes relationships
The effects of fabbing have been studied in most detail in romantic relationships. In a meta-analysis that combined 52 studies, 58 samples, and almost 19.7 thousand participants, scientists found a consistent link between ignoring a partner for a smartphone and a decrease in relationship satisfaction, the quality of romantic connection, intimacy, responsiveness, and other indicators of a couple's emotional well-being. At the same time, fabbing was associated with conflict, jealousy, and a sense of emotional distance.
One possible mechanism is that a person perceives a partner's phone as a signal: "I'm getting less attention now." Even if someone who uses a smartphone does not intend to neglect their partner, the other person may feel less important. Research shows that the subjective feeling of being ignored is sometimes more important than the fact of using a phone.
In some studies, scientists have linked partner fabbing with attachment anxiety. In a study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology involving 837 students, more pronounced partner phubbing was associated with lower relationship satisfaction, with attachment anxiety being one of the intermediate mechanisms. Constructive ways to resolve conflicts could weaken the negative connection.
Another study published in the journal Psychological Reports, involving 308 people, showed a similar pattern: partner fabbing was associated with decreased relationship satisfaction and the perceived quality of romantic connection, and through them, with lower life satisfaction. At the same time, the authors did not find a simple direct relationship between fabbing and life satisfaction: the influence was precisely through the quality of the relationship.
It's not just about romantic couples.
Fabbing can occur in almost any situation where people are nearby and expect direct communication. Another systematic review by the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports included research on romantic relationships, friendship, family, learning environments, and work teams. In all these contexts, scientists have studied how phone use during interaction affects the quality of communication.
In a work team, such behavior may be perceived as a lack of attention or interest. In a family, it can shorten the time of full—fledged communication, and in a friendly company, it can change the feeling of involvement in a conversation. The context is especially important here: the same action — for example, a person looked at the phone for a few seconds — can be perceived completely differently depending on the situation and the relationship between people.
The researchers also talk about the social spread of fabbing. If a person is regularly confronted with the fact that others use phones during conversations, this behavior may gradually be perceived as normal. As a result, he begins to do the same thing more often, and others begin to treat it less critically.
Thus, fabbing is not only about the relationship between two people. It can change the general rules of everyday communication: if a smartphone constantly remains accessible and socially acceptable during a conversation, the line between "we communicate together" and "everyone is busy with their screen" becomes less noticeable.
The smartphone does not necessarily need to be cleaned at all.
Despite a large number of studies on the negative effects of phubbing, scientists warn against too simple a conclusion that any use of the phone near other people is harmful. Systematic reviews point out serious methodological limitations of existing work: many studies are cross-sectional, that is, they record the behavior and psychological state of participants at one point in time. Therefore, it is difficult to determine from them what exactly is the cause and what is the effect.
For example, a person may use the phone more often because of pre-existing loneliness, anxiety, or relationship problems. In this case, the smartphone is indeed associated with fabbing, but it does not necessarily become its original cause. A meta-analysis shows that loneliness, depression, attachment anxiety, and problematic use of digital devices are associated with fabbing, among others.
Therefore, the researchers suggest shifting attention from the very fact of having a smartphone to the nature of its use. What matters is not how many times a person picks up a phone in a day, but whether they are able to put the device down when the situation requires full attention to the other person. Digital etiquette, the conscious use of technology, and agreements between people, such as not using phones during meals or important conversations, are considered as possible ways to reduce negative consequences.
At the same time, the scientific understanding of fabbing continues to evolve. New research is increasingly considering it not as a separate "smartphone disease", but as a result of the interaction of personality, habits, emotional state, characteristics of relationships and the digital environment. In other words, the problem may lie not in the phone itself, but in what place it occupies in a particular communication.
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