A new study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Bath has found that texting while walking makes people more cautious. They slow down their pace, take smaller steps and make grand, exaggerated movements.
The UK team explained that the change happens automatically and is meant to help people avoid accidents. As their brains are focused on writing and reading messages, their bodies adopt a much more protective gait in order to compensate.
Dr. Conrad Earnest, senior author and researcher on the project, gave a statement explaining that the study was born out of his dislike of people who text and walk at the same time.
He said that “annoys the hell out of everybody walking behind you. If I’m trying to walk around you and you veer to the right, then I have to counter even further to the right rather than bump into you, and then that puts me at risk”.
But he also admitted that he is not above this type of behavior and that the study has helped him realize that he often falls victim to it himself. However, he advises people to try to be cognizant of it and “pull over to the side” to write their messages.
For their project, the researchers picked out 30 subjects with an age ranging from 18 to 50 years, and built an obstacle course for them to walk under three different circumstances.
The subjects were first asked to go through the obstacle course walking normally, then go through it while walking and texting, and then go through it while walking, texting and solving a math test that served as a “cognitive distraction”.
Dr. Earnest and his team examined the walking gait of the subjects by using 3D motion analysis and found that people subconsciously slowed down their pace while walking and texting or walking, texting and solving the math test, and took longer to finish the obstacle course.
However, the subjects did not get in any more accidents than they did while walking the obstacle course without texting. They did not trip, and they did not walk into any dummies.
But despite the small steps, slowed down pace and general cautious behavior, there was one side effect – the subject seemed incapable of walking a straight line. They constantly veered right and left, looking like they were drunk.
The researched team also informed that their test subjects may have been used to walk while texting and that much older or much younger subject might find it more difficult. There are after all reported incidents of people getting hit by cars and trains and falling inside fountains or manholes simply because they weren’t paying attention to where they were going.
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