iFrown: Having a mobile phone makes us less likely to smile because they make people less engaged

Having a mobile phone makes us less likely to smile, a new study has revealed.

When 90 pairs of strangers were asked to wait together for ten minutes, video analysis showed that those without phones smiled to the other for an average of about 150 seconds.

This compared with the 90 seconds of those who had been allowed to keep their mobiles on them. 

Also, in the study – which offers disturbing evidence of how smartphones are changing the way we behave – those with phones were far less likely to offer genuine smiles.

‘Smartphones may make people less engaged with their immediate social environment,’ said the study, led by Kostadin Kushlev of Georgetown University, Washington DC.

The researchers added: ‘Smiling is a fundamental building block of human social behaviour. 

Also, in the study – which offers disturbing evidence of how smartphones are changing the way we behave – those with phones were far less likely to offer genuine smiles [File photo]

By providing access to broader social networks… mobile devices like smartphones may make people less engaged with their immediate social environment. 

Phones may interfere with the formation of new relationships or the simple pleasant exchanges that build social capital.

‘These findings provide clear evidence that being constantly connected to the digital world may undermine important behaviour,’ said the study published in the journal Computers In Human Behaviour.