Your mobile phone indeed means your social network: Priming mobile phone activates relationship related concepts

Mobile phones have become an integral part of life, drawing researchers' attention to their behavioral consequences. Yet, we know little about the psychological associations of mobile phones. It has been proposed that due to their role in maintaining social relationships, the mobile phone, as an object, has become the representation of a person's social network. This paper empirically investigates this idea. A sample of 154 university students participated in an experiment that tested the cognitive consequences of activating the concept of a mobile phone. We primed the concept of a mobile phone and measured the accessibility of thoughts related to social relationships with a word fragment completion task. People reminded of their mobile phones (vs. neutral personal objects) found significantly more words related to social networks, demonstrating the association between social relationships and the idea of mobile phones. Additionally, priming people with their mobile phones was associated with lower need to belong. •Examined the psychological associates of the object of mobile phone.•Tested if representations of mobile phone and social relationships are associated.•After thinking about mobile phone, relationship related concepts were more accessible.•After activating the idea of mobile phone, the need to belong was lower.