Bigger smartphone screens can change your buying habits: Study

WASHINGTON: Simply tweaking the screen size of a smartphone can change how much users trust advertisements, as well as their buying behaviours, researchers including one of Indian-origin have found.
"While people are using smartphones -- and these days, smartphone screen sizes are becoming bigger and bigger -- they may think that the larger screen sizes are actually enhancing their experience and increasing the amount of information they can take in, but this subtle difference in screen size can also affect them in ways that they may not realize," said professor S Shyam Sundar, co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University.
"Our study sheds light on how they may be processing information on these new larger screens," said Sundar.
In a study, people who viewed video ads on large screens tended to experience feelings of affective trust, whereas reading text ads on smaller screens created greater cognitive trust, researchers said.
Participants who viewed video ads on larger screens were more likely to want to purchase a product, researchers said.
"When users have a large screen, people are processing heuristically, which means they are processing information in a less systematic manner, which may make them more prone to influences from cues in the surroundings and, in general, more open to persuasion," said Sundar.
The feeling of immersion may prompt users who are watching videos on bigger screens to experience a media presentation as if they were inside it.
"If you feel like you're there, you may be more inclined to trust things more. You feel like you're almost in the environment, so it must be real," said Sundar.
The researchers said this higher sense of immersion tended to change how people processed the information.
Sundar, who worked with Ki Joon Kim from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, said it only takes small differences in the size of screens to change trust levels and buying intentions.
The study suggests that while one screen size may not be better than the other, consumers may want to reflect on how the screen sizes and types of media are affecting them before they buy a product or sign up for a service.
"If you are using a large screen you may be more likely to trust the vendor and impulsively purchase a product," Sundar added.
The research was published in the journal Human Communication Research.