When you have to be at your smartest, leave your phone in another room.
Research has proven that people score highest on intelligence tests when their phone isn’t nearby, neuroscientist Sahar Yousef told the AGS GameON conference at Encore Boston Harbor on Tuesday. The same test subjects scored lower when tested with their phone in their pocket or bag and lower still when their phone was face down on the table in front of them. Recent studies have shown a person’s intelligence score dips even when someone else’s dead phone is face down in front of them, she continued.
“The human brain has evolved to dedicate massive amounts of real estate to the constant scanning of both the auditory and visual environment,” said Yousef, a cognitive neuroscientist and MBA professor at the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business. Even though threats such as sabertoothed tigers no longer exist, the brain maintains its vigil. “Poor digital hygiene is the thing to avoid” when preparing to make a critical decision or facing a situation requiring your best cognitive effort, she said.
Yousef earned a degree in “human-behavior modification” through Berkeley and the U.S. Defense Department. “I’m trained to make humans do stuff they don’t otherwise want to do,” she said. “That is my specialty.” She originally went into addiction research and now focuses on improving productivity.
One quick step to better digital hygiene is hiding your image from the display on your screen during video conferences, which would more closely resemble the dynamics of an in-person conversation, when participants see one another but not themselves. A portion of the brain called the “fusiform face area” is responsible specifically for processing human faces, especially our own, she explained. Zoom, Teams, and similar video conference tools offer settings to hide your image from your screen, while allowing other participants to see it. “Twenty percent of the energy on every single video call you’re on is wasted processing your own face,” Yousef said. “You’re making yourself exhausted. It’s just not worth it.”
Because each person’s energy levels rise and fall during the day, she said, executives should understand their own “chronotype,” or circadian-rhythm pattern, and that of their key team members. Research shows that about 22 percent of people are most alert early in the day, about 18 percent are best in the evening, and the largest group is “bi-phasic” or split between the other two. Scheduling analytical work during high-energy times and administrative tasks during low-energy increases efficiency.
Consumers should understand that tech companies and app makers hire armies of neuroscientists to devise ways “to keep you on the platform (and) glued to the screen,” she said. They helped design the swoosh sound when sending an email and the frequency for the “most neurologically stimulating” phone vibration.
“The things they want (neuroscientists’) help with is to make the product more sticky and to increase engagement,” Yousef continued. “‘Sticky’ is just a politically correct word for ‘addictive.’”
The use of notifications for emails, texts, news alerts, and almost all apps is the top reason devices are so addictive, she said. “Smart people are too busy to think straight,” because their workday is filled with emails, chats, and meetings, while their most important work often gets pushed to nights and weekends.
She offered two other tips for reclaiming personal time from the phone.
- Review notification settings for all apps. The default setting typically allows notifications, because that increases time on the app. She suggested that users allow notifications only for something “more important or more urgent than what I’m doing in the moment,” such as a family emergency or immediate workplace need.
- Switch the home-screen display of apps from color to grayscale and keep the new look for six to eight works to get used to it.
“Turning your phone from color to gray should win you back about an hour a day,” she said. “Whatever you choose, you’re in control of your life – not the (tech) companies and not the systems they have in place.”
