Everything Seems Further Away on the Smartphone: The Effect of Mobile Attachment on the Perception of Psychological Distance: An Abstract

Mobile is emerging as the dominant platform on which consumers spend most of their time. Unlike the PC, many consumers form an emotional attachment relationship with their mobile (Vincent 2006). Consequently, these attached consumers demonstrate unique behaviors with and without their mobile (e.g., Kolsaker et al. 2009; Konok et al. 2016; Melumad and Pham 2020). Research to date has focused mainly on the consequence of separating from mobile while paying little attention to other aspects of mobile attachment. This study aims to uncover the impact of mobile attachment on their perception and the underneath mechanism. The context of our research is based on climate change communication. Through three laboratory experiments based on a combination of Attachment Theory and Construal Level Theory, we highlight the importance of psychological distance, attachment styles, and gender for the perceived credibility of an ad.

Our results suggested that attached to mobile consumers tend to have a more psychological distant perspective on their mobile than when they are on PC. This is achieved by a heightened level of anxiety when attached to mobile consumers are away from their device, which leads to a more proximal psychological distance perception. This change in perception directly impacts the perceived credibility of the ad. This effect is moderated by their personal attachment style and by their gender. However, the actual differences between conditions are marginal, albeit statistically significant. The reported level of anxiety also seems high across our sample, which could be attributed to the ongoing pandemic at the time of data collection. Our findings have important implications for effective communication planning in climate-related subjects and various others within the emerging context of mobile. A dedicated approach should be made for heavy mobile users. And climate change ad should be described abstractly to match the consumers’ viewpoint on mobile. Further studies are recommended to address our limitations and validate the results externally.