Smartphone use decreases trustworthiness of strangers:
In our experiment, we had participants wait in groups of six for approximately 20 minutes, allowing them to interact as they wished. In one treatment, participants could use their smartphones during the wait time, while in the other they did not have access to their phones. We then randomly paired participants within each group to play a trust game and answer a brief survey. As predicted, we find that limiting phone access resulted in higher levels of trustworthiness.