Silent Influence: How Phone Presence Undermines Persuasiveness
Start Date
April 2026
Location
3rd floor - Library
Abstract
Smartphones have become essential companions in our daily lives, becoming deeply embedded in our routines. However, this relationship with our devices may influence how we think and process information. Research indicates that the mere presence of smartphones can reduce cognitive capacity and working memory (Ward et al., 2017; Kaminske et al., 2022). However, the effects of phone presence might extend to complex functions, such as persuasion. Our research examined whether the presence of smartphones and persuasive language influences the perceived persuasiveness of video content. We hypothesized that participants exposed to the persuasive message with the presence of their phones would be more persuaded than participants whose phones were absent. Sixty-seven participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: phone condition (present vs. absent) and video type (persuasive vs. non-persuasive). In the phone-present condition, participants placed their phone face down on the desk; in the phone-absent condition, participants stored their phones in their backpacks or out of sight. Participants watched a short, 1-min video about 3-D printed and lab-grown foods. The videos were designed using AI-generated narration and edited video clips from the public domain. Language for the persuasive video condition was developed using The Evaluative Lexicon (Rocklage & Fazio, 2015). After watching the video, participants completed the Perceived Author Trustworthiness and Expertise Scale (Lombardi et al., 2014), with higher scores indicating that the author would likely be perceived as more persuasive. A phone (present or not) x message (persuasive or not) Analysis of Variance revealed no statistically significant main effects of phone condition, F(1, 107) = 3.401, p = .061, or message condition, F(1, 107) = 1.517, p = .221, on message persuasiveness. The interaction effect was also non-significant, F(1, 107) = 0.152, p = .697. Our findings indicate that the message did not impact perceived persuasiveness of the video content. However, there was a nonsignificant trend indicating that participants in the phone-present group reported slightly higher persuasive scores than the phone-absent group. This finding indicates that in some situations, phone presence may enhance susceptibility to persuasive messaging, potentially due to reductions in cognitive capacity due to the phone presence (Ward et al., 2017).. Future work should examine the effects of real-time notifications or phone-related distractions on persuasiveness to better understand how digital presence shapes cognitive processing.
Silent Influence: How Phone Presence Undermines Persuasiveness
3rd floor - Library
Smartphones have become essential companions in our daily lives, becoming deeply embedded in our routines. However, this relationship with our devices may influence how we think and process information. Research indicates that the mere presence of smartphones can reduce cognitive capacity and working memory (Ward et al., 2017; Kaminske et al., 2022). However, the effects of phone presence might extend to complex functions, such as persuasion. Our research examined whether the presence of smartphones and persuasive language influences the perceived persuasiveness of video content. We hypothesized that participants exposed to the persuasive message with the presence of their phones would be more persuaded than participants whose phones were absent. Sixty-seven participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: phone condition (present vs. absent) and video type (persuasive vs. non-persuasive). In the phone-present condition, participants placed their phone face down on the desk; in the phone-absent condition, participants stored their phones in their backpacks or out of sight. Participants watched a short, 1-min video about 3-D printed and lab-grown foods. The videos were designed using AI-generated narration and edited video clips from the public domain. Language for the persuasive video condition was developed using The Evaluative Lexicon (Rocklage & Fazio, 2015). After watching the video, participants completed the Perceived Author Trustworthiness and Expertise Scale (Lombardi et al., 2014), with higher scores indicating that the author would likely be perceived as more persuasive. A phone (present or not) x message (persuasive or not) Analysis of Variance revealed no statistically significant main effects of phone condition, F(1, 107) = 3.401, p = .061, or message condition, F(1, 107) = 1.517, p = .221, on message persuasiveness. The interaction effect was also non-significant, F(1, 107) = 0.152, p = .697. Our findings indicate that the message did not impact perceived persuasiveness of the video content. However, there was a nonsignificant trend indicating that participants in the phone-present group reported slightly higher persuasive scores than the phone-absent group. This finding indicates that in some situations, phone presence may enhance susceptibility to persuasive messaging, potentially due to reductions in cognitive capacity due to the phone presence (Ward et al., 2017).. Future work should examine the effects of real-time notifications or phone-related distractions on persuasiveness to better understand how digital presence shapes cognitive processing.
