Tech Spotlight
Posted Mar 10, 2015 12:37:58 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
1:30 PM – TECH SPOTLIGHT
Gord Pennycook, co-lead author of the study, and a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo.
Our smartphones help us find a phone number quickly, provide us with instant directions and recommend restaurants, but new research indicates that this convenience at our fingertips is making it easy for us to avoid thinking for ourselves. The study, from researchers at the University of Waterloo and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, suggests that smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers – more prone to relying on gut feelings and instincts when making decisions – frequently use their device’s search engine rather than their own brainpower. Smartphones allow them to be even lazier than they would otherwise be. In contrast, analytical thinkers second-guess themselves and analyze a problem in a more logical sort of way. Highly intelligent people are more analytical and less intuitive when solving problems.
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