Checking Your Phone is Contagious to Others…like yawning
When I was in high school working on the Rolling Hills production line...we would tend to get bored doing the same monotonous task over & over & over again. So we could pass the time inventing ways to annoy each other.
Sometimes we would sing quietly a super annoying song...otherwise known as an Ear Worm so it would surreptitiously creep into your neighbors head. Just humming or whistling "We Built This City" would make it creep in and get stuck in someone's head.
Full disclosure...it's in my head right now just from writing this article and I'm kinda pissed off about it.
We'd also yawn just to see if we could get someone else to yawn too. It's super contagious and I'm not sure why.
But apparently...a new study found the same thing also happens with our PHONES. Looking at your phone triggers a need in others to look at their phones.
Researchers in Italy wanted to see how many people would check their phone if they saw someone else check theirs. So they tried it with 184 people who didn't know they were being watched and within 30 seconds after seeing someone check their phone they checked their own.
It's a phenomenon called the "chameleon effect."
Another trick is...when someone looks at their phone they're probably checking the time. (No one wears watches anymore) So do yourself a favor and start asking people what time it is after they check their phone. They'll have no idea even though they looked at it a second ago.
And I STILL have We Built This City in my Head, damnit.