Do smartphones alter what people are willing to disclose about themselves?
It appears so, according to a new study in the Journal of Marketing conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.
The research suggests people are more willing to reveal personal information about themselves online using their smartphones compared to desktop computers.
For example, Tweets and reviews composed on smartphones are more likely to be written from the perspective of the first person, to disclose negative emotions, and to discuss the writer’s private family and personal friends.
Likewise, when consumers receive an online ad that requests personal information (such as phone number and income), they are more likely to provide it when the request is received on their smartphone compared to their desktop or laptop computer.
Given that around 3.5 billion people in the world owned a smartphone last year as opposed to just over 1.3 billion personal computers (which includes both desktops and laptops), the trend is worth taking note of. Of course, many users simultaneously use multiple devices–PCs and smartphones. But they mostly use smartphones when mobile.
How did they arrive at this conclusion?
The authors–Shiri Melumad and Robert Meyer–analysed thousands of social media posts and online reviews, responses to web ads, and controlled laboratory studies, for this research.
For example, initial evidence comes from analyses of the depth of self-disclosure, revealed in 369,161 Tweets and 10,185 restaurant reviews posted on TripAdvisor.com, with some posted on PCs and some on smartphones.
Using both automated natural-language processing (NLP) tools and human judgements of self-disclosure, the researchers find robust evidence that smartphone-generated content is indeed more self-disclosing.
Perhaps even more compelling is evidence from an analysis of 19,962 “call to action” web ads, where consumers are asked to provide private information.
But why do smartphones have this effect on behavior?
“Writing on one’s smartphone often lowers the barriers to revealing certain types of sensitive information for two reasons,” Melumad explains. “One stems from the unique form characteristics of phones, and the second from the emotional associations that consumers tend to hold with their device.”
First, one of the most distinguishing features of phones is the small size–something that makes viewing and creating content generally more difficult compared with desktop computers.
Because of this difficulty, when writing or responding on a smartphone, a person tends to narrowly focus on completing the task and become less cognizant of external factors that would normally inhibit self-disclosure, such as concerns about what others would do with the information.
Smartphone users know this effect well–when using their phones in public places, they often fixate so intently on its content that they become oblivious to what is going on around them, the authors explain.
The second reason people tend to be more self-disclosing on their phones lies in the feelings of comfort and familiarity people associate with their phones.
Melumad adds, “Because our smartphones are with us all of the time and perform so many vital functions in our lives, they often serve as ‘adult pacifiers’ that bring feelings of comfort to their owners.” It’s estimated that an average person casually checks his/her phone more than 60 times a day.
Conclusions
The findings, according to the authors, have clear and significant implications for firms and consumers.
One is that if a firm wishes to gain a deeper understanding of the real preferences and needs of consumers, it may obtain better insights by tracking what they say and do on their smartphones than on their desktops.
Likewise, because more self-disclosing content is often perceived to be more honest, firms might encourage consumers to post reviews from their personal devices.
But therein lies a potential caution for consumers–these findings suggest that the device people use to communicate can affect what they communicate. This should be kept in mind, the authors say, when thinking about the device one is using when interacting with firms and others.
