Washington, November 19: In a shocking revelation, a study has found that college students prefer skipping meals over parting with their smartphones. The finding, which point out the ill effect of smartphones on youngsters, was published in the journal ‘Addictive Behaviours’.
Students more motivated to work to use their smartphones
The study suggests that smartphones can be more reinforcing than food for college students.
“In this study, we provide evidence for the first time that smartphones are reinforcing…We also found that when deprived of both food and smartphones, students were much more motivated to work for time to use their smartphone, and were willing to part with more hypothetical money to gain access to their phone,” Sara O’Donnell, a scientist at University at Buffalo in the US, said.
The idea behind the research was to explore if smartphones can function as a reinforcing behavior, similar to that of food, drugs and alcohol.
“The frequency with which we use our cellphones every day is astounding, with estimates ranging from five to nine hours a day,” O’Donnell was quoted as saying by a news agency.
Methodology
For the study, the researchers randomly selected 76 college students aged between 18 and 22. They were given no food for three hours and no access to their smartphones for two hours. During that time, the students either studied or read newspapers.
After the lapse of three hours, the students were given a computer task, the completion of which would earn them either the use of their smartphones or 100-calorie servings of their favourite snack food.
As smartphone time or food was earned, the amount of work needed to earn either one increased.
The researchers used two methodologies to measure smartphone reinforcement.
First was a hypothetical questionnaire that asked how many minutes of smartphone use an individual would purchase at increasing prices. The second one was measuring the amount of work (the number of mouse button clicks) an individual would expend to use their phone, where the amount of clicks needed to use the phone increases over time.
The more hypothetical money and work the students were willing to spend to be able to use their smartphones reflected a higher reinforcing value, O’Donnell said.
“We knew that students would be motivated to gain access to their phones, but we were surprised that despite modest food deprivation, smartphone reinforcement far exceeded food reinforcement across both methodologies,” she said.
