Brushing off phubbing as casual? Here's how it is harming your emotional intelligence
Regularly phubbing may affect your ability to interpret others' emotions, making you seem indifferent and less willing to support or connect with them.
Ever started checking your phone mid-conversation? You may think it is urgent or that you are just casually checking while still listening to the other person talk. However, this behaviour of focusing on your phone instead of actively listening and participating in the conversation is called phubbing.
Phubbing is essentially ignoring someone to use your phone. The term comes from a blend of ‘phone’ and ‘snubbing.’ Those who are being phubbed may feel excluded and neglected, as the person using the phone is not mentally present.
A study published in Psychological Reports shows that those who frequently engage in phubbing also experience a reduction in their empathy, which is the ability to understand what someone is feeling and to see things from their perspective.
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Phubbing reduces empathy
Phubbing shows a slight reduction in empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. In turn, almost akin to a chain reaction, when empathy declines, people become less willing to help others or engage in actions that benefit others, also known as prosocial behavior.
Two parts of the study were conducted by the researchers. The first included an online survey involving 220 English-speaking adults, which examined phubbing habits, empathy, self-control, and prosocial intentions. The findings clearly showed that those who engaged in phubbing more often displayed lower prosocial intentions.
Although in this part, the researchers did not establish the relation between empathy and phubbing directly. They found that phubbing leads to self-control (which is the inability to control impulse or urge, in this case checking the phone) which in turn reduces empathy and subsequently prosocial activities.
It's essentially a chain reaction. With low self-control, people quickly give in to the urge to check their phones more often, and as a result, they are absent from the social conversation. When they are not actively listening, they don’t understand what the other person may be feeling. With this drop in empathy, the willingness to act kindly or supportively also drops.
Habitual and momentary phubbing
There are two types of phubbing: habitual phubbing, where people do it on a daily basis, and occasional phubbing, where it happens less frequently.
The study researchers found that habitual phubbers have lower self-control, which makes them more likely to be distracted and less likely to stay engaged in conversations.
This is not the case with occasional phubbers. The frequent phone usage does not hinder their ability to pick up on others' feelings in the conversations.
This is important as it also gives a glimpse into the state of mind of the habitual phubbers and that regularly ignoring others for a phone may indicate deeper psychological issues.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional advice.
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