An investigation of the antecedents and consequences of "phubbing": how being snubbed in favour of a mobile phone permeates and affects social life

Smartphones have changed the way people interact with each other in modern society. However, while they are becoming more omnipresent in human life, there is increasing concern that they are often used at inappropriate times during social interactions, and that people often ignore others in favour of their phones. In this thesis, we explore the phenomenon of "phubbing" - the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by concentrating on one's mobile phone. In a series of ten empirical studies, we demonstrate that Internet addiction, fear of missing out, and self-control predict smartphone addiction, which in turn predicts the extent to which people phub. This path also predicts the extent to which people feel that phubbing is normative, both via (a) the extent to which people are phubbed themselves, and (b) independently. Phubbing also significantly dampens perceived communication quality and relationship satisfaction in dyadic conversation. These effects are mediated by reduced feelings of belonging and both positive and negative affect. In addition, the results indicate that the degree to which someone is affected by phubbing is not determined by the relationship status between phubber and phubbee. We also develop and validate the Generic Scale of Phubbing (GSP) to assess phubbing behaviour, and the Generic Scale of Being Phubbed (GSBP) to assess the experience of being phubbed. Both scales reveal good psychometric properties. In conclusion, the results of the current research allow us to better understand how phubbing permeates and affects human social life.