Cell Phones Encourage Selfishness, Study Says

Study participants at the University of Maryland were less likely to exhibit "prosocial" behavior, like accepting volunteer positions and solving word problems for charity, after using their phones for a short period.

These selfish behavior patterns reappeared even after participants simply drew pictures of absent phones, leading researchers to conclude just thinking about the devices often satisfied a need for connection.

"The cell phone directly evokes feelings of connectivity to others, thereby fulfilling the basic human need to belong", explained study author Rosellina Ferraro.

In other words, strong social connections through mobile devices may preclude kindness to those outside one's contact list.

"Social connection is sort of like eating. When you are hungry, you seek out food. When you are lonely, you seek social connection. When the experience of social connection is elevated, we feel socially 'full' and have less desire to seek out other people and see them in a way that treats them as essentially human", said Adam Waytz, author of a similar social study at Northwestern University.

Cell phone-induced rudeness is undeniably abundant. For example, in an extreme instance, Amtrak authorities removed passenger Lakeysha Beard from a train last May for conducting a 16-hour long phone conversation in a "quiet car".

Cell phone addicts generally prefer handsets to real-life interactions with other humans, even naming their phones and buying them outfits.

But on the flip side, cell phone users raised over $43 million to assist Haitians in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, and Vodafone says over one thousand charities sign on each week for mobile fundraising programs.

In addition, the Salvation Army, Apple and even Egyptian activists now use mobile donation programs to raise funds, leveraging social media apps like Facebook and Twitter to do so.

Handsets seem increasingly adept at facilitating digital donations, despite encouraging socially selfish behavior in the real world. This may highlight the notion that complex technological innovations can bring out both positive and negative aspects of complicated social behaviors.