Study: cell phone users don't notice clowns

Jake Widman
Thursday, 22 October 2009 04:11

Your IT - Entertainment

Research by a psychology professor shows that people talking on cell phones are more than twice as oblivious to their surroundings as those not on the phone -- so much so that they failed to notice a clown on a unicycle.

The research by Professor Ira Hyman of Western Washington University attempted to determine just how distracted cell phone users are by being on the phone.

To test their awareness, Hyman sent a clown on a unicycle riding past pedestrians, figuring that would be an attention-getting sight.

He found that only 25% of people on the phone noticed the clown, while more than half of the rest of the walkers saw the clown -- even those listening to portable music players.

Hyman also found that familiarity with the environment didn't change the results.

"Cell phone use causes people to be oblivious to their surroundings while engaged in even a simple task such as walking," Hyman said.

"Cell phone users walk more slowly, change directions and weave more often and fail to notice interesting and novel objects. The effect appears to be caused by the distraction of a cell phone conversation, because people walking in pairs did not display the same range of problems."

"Just think of what this means when put into the context of driving safety," he added.