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Easily Hypnotized People More Likely To Be Addicted To Their Phones, Study Finds

Updated September 8, 2021

We've all seen people so entranced by what's on their phone's screen that they completely miss out on the world around them. They might even walk into telephone poles or wander into traffic if they're trying to walk and scroll at the same time. They're basically modern world zombies when they're absorbed by their screens. And, whether we admit it or not, many of us have been those zombies from time to time.

As it turns out, there's something to the trance-like state of phone scrolling, and it's backed up by science.

If you're easily hypnotized, you're more prone to becoming addicted to your phone.

Unsplash | Štefan Štefančík

That's according to research published in Frontiers of Psychology, conducted through McGill University's Culture, Mind, and Brain lab.

Researchers at the lab noticed that smartphone use and hypnotic trances shared some common traits, like the way people automatically and mindlessly scroll and browse to the point of losing track of time, and wondered if there might be a link.

So, the researchers set about hypnotizing a bunch of students to see if they could find a correlation between hypnotizability and phone addiction.

Hypnotizability - how susceptible a person is to hypnotic suggestion - is a personality trait like any other, study contributor Samuel Paul Veissière explained in Psychology Today. Not everybody is easily hypnotized - in fact, according to research out of Stanford, up to 25% of all people can't be hypnotized at all.

For the study, however, the researchers found 641 student volunteers and hypnotized them to measure how susceptible they were, and then analyzed their smartphone use.

And, indeed, those who were more susceptible to being hypnotized were also more likely to be addicted to their phones.

Unsplash | Zoe Holling

"The correlation held across many samples of the same procedure over the course of many months; it is very unlikely to be spurious," wrote Veissière.

It's worth noting, however, that the researchers couldn't say exactly why there was a correlation. "Surprisingly little is [known] on why humans are so prone to smartphone addiction, and on the precise mechanisms (cognitive, affective, behavioural) that underpin this phenomenon," Veissière explained.

The study also had some surprising findings.

The big one being just how prevalent smartphone addiction was among the study's participants.

"Our average was higher than some of the samples from Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, and the midwestern United States, but similar to adolescent samples in Turkey and China," Veissière wrote.

The researchers also noted that smartphone addiction was more prevalent among women than men, with 51% of women versus 39% of men at higher risk of phone addiction.

Smartphone addiction has serious implications, especially among young people.

Previous studies have linked screen time and social media use with mental health issues among adolescents, particularly depression, and this study's authors are hopeful that their work can help prevent some of that.

"Our study may help clinicians, educators, and policy makers better understand the involuntary nature of smartphone use, and plan for protective and promotive measures (like cognitive behavioural therapy or mindfulness-based interventions) that target the automaticity of smartphone use," Veissière wrote.

h/t: Psychology Today

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