The Psychological Impact of Smartphones: The Effect of Access to One's Smartphone on Psychological Power, Risk Taking, Cheating, and Moral Orientation.

Egan and Larson (2015) found that access to one’s smartphone resulted in an increase in one’s sense of psychological power. Psychological power is associated with a variety of behavioral outcomes, many of them moral in nature (Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003). This dissertation attempted to conceptually replicate the findings obtained by Egan and Larson (2015) and to extend them by testing whether smartphone-induced power had moral implications. Specifically, Study 1 tested whether access to one’s smartphone increased psychological power, and in turn promoted risk taking and a shift in moral orientation. Study 2 tested whether access to one’s smartphone increased psychological power, and in turn cheating. Further, both studies also investigated the possible moderating role played by smartphone psychological ownership (how psychologically attached an individual is to his or her smartphone). Results failed to replicate the effect of smartphone access on psychological power but did show that smartphone psychological ownership played a significant role in psychological power.