Partner ‘phubbing' could destroy your marriage
The frustrating habit, with its name a contraction of ' phone snubbing ', involves looking down at your mobile phone while your partner is trying to talk to you.
Researchers from Anna University in Chennai, India, explained that by concentrating on your phone, you are not maintaining regular eye contact with your partner.
This impacts how affectionate people feel towards them and affects levels of physical contact.
As part of a study, researchers surveyed 300 people aged 45 or under who had been in committed relationships for up to 15 years. They were asked about their phone use and their partnerships.
It found that couples who use their mobiles the most saw a decline in eye contact and sexual activity.
'As a subtle but persistent form of partner neglect, phubbing may contribute to declining reproductive intent by eroding emotional foundations,' the study said.
Writing in the peer-reviewed African Journal of Reproductive Health, the researchers added: 'It disrupts human intimacy by reducing face-to-face attention, emotional closeness, and sexual desire.
'Our findings provide strong evidence that phubbing, frequently dismissed as a trivial annoyance, may have deeper evolutionary and relational consequences.
'Those who experienced frequent phubbing were over three times more likely to express hesitation or disinterest in having children with their partner.
'It may seem like a minor social slight, but repeated occurrence can undermine the emotional and physiological mechanisms that sustain romantic bonds and reproductive motivation.'
A previous study published in Computers in Human Behaviour in 2016 found that texting during a conversation made the talk less satisfying for the people having it, compared with people who interacted without phones.
Meanwhile, in a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology in 2018, 'phubbing' was found to threaten four 'fundamental needs' – belongingness, self-esteem, meaningful existence, and control – by making 'phubbed' people feel excluded and ostracised.
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