Dr. Laurie Santos
Dr. Laurie Santos is Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Professor and podcast host Dr. Laurie Santos is an expert on human cognition and the…
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The world is full of people and things that can make you happy, but you have to notice them to get the full effect. Smartphones are technological marvels, but the hold they have over our limited attention is causing us to miss out on more than we realize.
Dr. Laurie Santos finds that even having a phone nearby can reduce how happy you feel. Laurie chats with Catherine Price, a science journalist, founder of ScreenLifeBalance.com and author of How to Break Up With Your Phone.
• Catherine’s ScreenLifeBalance.com
“I’m testing some of the students in my residential college at Yale on an experiment that has become famous in the history of modern psychology.”
“When researchers Dan Simons and Chris Chabris originally ran the study, more than half of the subjects failed to spot something right in front of their eyes.”
“And Brian’s work on inattentional blindness has shown that we’re missing gorillas all over the place.”
“ Psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert showed this in a clever study.”
“Over the last decade and a half, chewing gum sales have dropped by double digits.”
“One study found that 62% of people pulled out a device while waiting in line, and more than 80% of those people whipped that device out in less than 20 seconds.”
“So with a bunch of undergrads here at Yale, we repeated this experiment but we had half of the subjects talk on a cell phone and it was wonderfully awkward.”
“But Liz is actually more worried about the less hurtful ways we use our phones when around other people.”
“We were able to get a local restaurant to let us come in and basically take over one of their tables for many months.”
“Other researchers tested whether the simple buzz of a text message interrupts how fun a situation is, even if you don’t pick up your cellphone to take a look.”
“What we see in our data is that when people have access to their phones during the meal, they do report feeling significantly more distracted.”
“In this study we went out to a science museum in Vancouver, called Science World.”
“We basically just stuck strangers together in a room for about 10 minutes, kind of like a mock waiting room. And either we took their phones away or left them with their phones.”
“I’m talking to the person the New York Times called “The Marie Kondo of Brains”
“I am Catherine Price. I’m a freelance science journalist and the author of:
How To Break Up With Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan To Take Back Your Life
“And there were a fascinating series of studies done by this guy, Judson Brewer, where he basically trained a group of smokers in a mindfulness based technique”
Dr. Laurie Santos is Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Professor and podcast host Dr. Laurie Santos is an expert on human cognition and the…