Lack of attention, self-control predict dangerous texting behaviors

ANN ARBOR-Texting while driving or walking can be dangerous, but people still engage in the behavior without thinking. A new study suggests that individuals can resist the lure of dangerous texting if they become mindful of their surroundings, have the self-control to focus on one task and not have it as an automatic behavior. This behavior, described as "automaticity," is the limited conscious attention or awareness of one's behavior, the researchers said. "Our study underlines the importance of considering the automaticity of a specific technology behavior in combination with self-regulating personality traits," said Elliot Panek, the study's lead author and former University of Michigan researcher who now works at the University of Alabama. Texting presents a high risk to drivers and pedestrians because cell phones-especially multi-use smartphones-offer users many options to occupy their time and many cognitive triggers that cue their use automatically, oftentimes with little awareness of what they are doing. "The attention required by text messaging is intermittent, focused and visual, and at the same time requires individuals to divide attention between the immediate physical space and an imagined social space," Panek said. "It is easily embedded in daily activities that fail to fully engage individuals' attention with novel stimuli, such as driving or walking, while drawing attention away from important aspects of those activities." The data included responses from 925 college students and adults who were asked about the extent they text "without thinking" and other dimensions of habit automaticity, the psychological term for behaviors occurring with limited conscious attention or awareness.