Are you addicted to your iPhone? 

New research from the University of Missouri found that being separated from one’s iPhone can have serious psychological and physiological effects on iPhone users. 

According to the research, iPhone users who were parted from their beloved device did poorly on activities that require a great deal of attention, such as taking tests, sitting in conferences or meetings, or completing important work assignments. 

“Our findings suggest that iPhone separation can negatively impact performance on mental tasks,” Russell Clayton, a doctoral candidate at the MU School of Journalism and lead author of the study, said. “Additionally, the results from our study suggest that iPhones are capable of becoming an extension of our selves such that when separated, we experience a lessening of ‘self’ and a negative physiological state.”

The research also found that iPhone users are unable to answer their ringing iPhones while solving simple word search puzzles, and that their heart rates and blood pressure levels increased, as did feelings of anxiety and unpleasantness.

Specifically, performance on word searchs of iPhone users without their phone (number of words found on word search puzzles) decreased as compared to when iPhone users completed similar word search puzzles while in possession of their iPhones.

For their study, the MU researchers asked iPhone users to sit at a computer cubicle in a media psychology lab. The researchers told the participants that the purpose of the experiment was to test the reliability of a new wireless blood pressure cuff. Participants completed the first word search puzzle with their iPhone in their possession and the second word search word puzzle without their iPhone in their possession or vice versa while the researchers monitored their heart rates and blood pressure levels.

A full copy of the study can be viewed HERE.