How rude! The relative effects of smartphone use on adults’ and children’s perceived incivility

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

Even with its high upsides on how we manage our lives and communicate with the world, the “mere presence” (Courtright & Caplan, 2020) of technology can negatively interfere with our perceptions of others, as it is commonly associated with incivility (rudeness; Cameron, 2011), especially during social, professional, romantic, or familial interactions (McDaniel, 2015; 2019). Perceived rudeness can diminish the quality of relationships, attitudes toward significant others, willingness to help, ability to attend and perform on routine tasks (Cameron, 2011).

While research has demonstrated that using a smartphone in social situations has negative effects on adults’ perceptions of others (Courtright & Caplan, 2020), there is a paucity of empirical research studying the effects of smartphone use on children’s perceptions of incivility. Children’s perceived incivility from others’ technology use may negatively impact relationships and behaviors, as cell phone use is related to increases of social bidding and negative affect (Myruski et al., 2016). The present study investigates adults’ and children’s relative perceptions of incivility after watching a video of a person using their smartphone during a storybook read along interaction. We hypothesize that children, like adults, will rate people who use their smartphone during a social interaction as ruder.

The current study used a between-subjects design to investigate the relative impact of smartphone use on adults’ and children’s perceived incivility of two readers reading a story together. Forty-two adults (> 18 years of age) recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk and six four-to-six-year-old children recruited from a university laboratory database participated in this study. Participants watched a two-minute video of two Caucasian female readers taking equal turns reading verses from the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle. Two versions of the videos were counter-balanced such that half of the participants watched Video A where Reader A was using the smartphone and the other half watched Video B where Reader B was using the smartphone. After watching the video, all participants answered a short survey (adapted from Cameron, 2011) that asked them to choose which person in the video was “the rudest”.

Chi Square Tests indicated significant differences in the proportion of participants ratings of incivility, Χ2 (1, N=42)=16.875, p=.000, with 82% of adults rating the person using the smartphone during the video read along as “the rudest”. Similarly, 66% of the children rated the person using the smartphone as “the rudest”. While data collection is in progress, these findings suggest that young children may be as sensitive to smartphone use being an indicator of incivility as adults.

Preliminary findings demonstrate that technology may impact how adults and children perceive another’s use of technology during a social activity. These findings point to the possibility that smartphone use may render similar detrimental impacts on the quality of children’s behaviors toward others (e.g., willingness to help, ability to attend and perform on routine tasks) as it does for adults. Children’s perception of rudeness induced by the “mere presence” of smartphones may be due to the interruptive nature of technology in present-day caregiver-child interactions.

Authors

• Douglas Piper, Temple University
  Presenting Author

• Rachael Todaro, Temple University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathy A Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Roberta M Golinkoff, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author