Self control and smartphone use: An experimental study of soft commitment devices

Ruru Hoong

European Economic Review, 2021, vol. 140, issue C

Abstract: Public discussion and discourse amongst researchers suggest that smartphone use is excessive from an individual welfare standpoint, but evidence for this remains limited. I implement a randomized intervention encouraging a subset of 629 participants to adopt soft commitment devices limiting phone, Facebook, and Instagram usage. I find that individuals: (i) spend more time on phones and Facebook than they predict and profess to desire; and (ii) significantly reduce use after adopting these limits. This suggests that individuals may be significantly overusing smartphones due to their limited ability to exercise self-control, and that policy-makers can look to soft commitment devices as effective tools to help individuals reduce use.

Keywords: Smartphones; Commitment device; Self-control; Time-inconsistency; Social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D90 L86 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:140:y:2021:i:c:s0014292121002269

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103924

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