Many of us have smartphones (literally) attached to the hip, whether we’re at a restaurant or at the bar with friends. Our eyes are glued to the small screen that perfectly fits our hand as everything else remains in constant motion. Smartphones have become such an integral part of our lives, from serving as a cookbook to a GPS navigator, that they become a part of us.
A recent study presented at the British Psychological Society Social Psychology Section annual conference in Cardiff found our choice of smartphone can speak volumes about our personality.
“Smartphone choice is the most basic level of smartphone personalization, and even this can tell us a lot about the user,” said Heather Shaw, author of the study from University of Lincoln’s School of Psychology, in a statement.
Android users were perceived to have greater levels of honesty and humility, agreeableness, and openness personality traits, but are seen as less extroverted than iPhone users. These personality stereotypes manifested themselves in real life as honesty and humility were found in greater amounts within Android users. Women were also more likely to own an iPhone than an Android phone, and Apple users thought it was more important to own a high status phone.
These smartphone brands are becoming small extensions of ourselves and send messages about who we are to others.
“It is becoming more and more apparent that smartphones are becoming a mini digital version of the user, and many of us don’t like it when other people use our phones because it can reveal so much about us” said Shaw.
Similarly, Kimberly Moffit, a psychotherapist and counselor revealed our smartphone can reveal a lot about our dating personality. iPhone users are known as “the office romantic”, where iPhone addicts are the most likely to date someone in their workplace. Nearly a quarter of iPhone singles have had an office romance in the last five years, said Moffit in Forbes.
Meanwhile, Android users are known as “the seducer,” because they’re most likely to have sex on a first date. A total of 62 percent of Android singles say they’ve done the deed after date number one, compared to 57 percent of iPhone users. They’re also 72 percent more likely to visit an online dating site, compared to 58 percent of iPhone users.
“Imagine if we further researched how personality traits relate to the applications people download,” said Shaw.
There will soon probably be an app for that.
Source: Shaw H, Ellis D, Kendrick LR et al. Individual differences between iPhone and Android smartphone users. British Psychological Society. 2016.
[Source:-Medical Daily]
