The Mere Presence Effect Applied to General Practitioner Consultations

Abstract

Recent psychological research has found that the mere presence of a mobile phone can negatively impact perceptions of face-to-face communication, interpersonal trust, and conversation satisfaction. This study aimed to explore whether the 'Mere Presence Effect' occurred in doctor-patient consultations. Both the presence of a non-functioning anonymous mobile phone and the presence of the patient's own mobile phone were investigated. 104 patients attending their general practitioner (GP) consultations were randomized to two conditions: phone-present condition (n = 68) or phone-absent condition (control group) (n = 36). For the phone-present condition the researcher placed an anonymous mobile phone on the GP's desk, visible to the patient. The control condition had a notebook placed in the same position. After the consultation patients answered a five-minute patient satisfaction questionnaire, which measured patient demographics, mood, patient satisfaction, trust, perceptions of physician confidentiality and eye contact. In addition, patients reported whether or not they had their own phone with them during their consultation. The effects of age and noticing the anonymous mobile phone were also investigated. There were no differences between the anonymous phone-present and phone-absent conditions for patient satisfaction, trust, perceptions of physician confidentiality or eye contact. There were also no differences in these outcomes when the phone-present group was separated, by being asked if they recalled seeing the anonymous mobile phone into 'yes' or 'no' groups and compared to the phone-absent group. Similarly, when participants in the phone-present group were separated into two age groups- under and over 50 years-of-age- there were no differences in outcomes. However, participants who had their own mobile phone present during their consultation reported significantly greater satisfaction, perceptions of physician confidentiality and eye contact, compared to participants who did not have their own phone present. These results suggest that the mere presence of an anonymous mobile phone does not affect patient trust or satisfaction. However, the patient's own mobile phone may act as a digital security blanket that makes them feel more comfortable and satisfied during their consultation. Further research is required to replicate these effects and determine the exact mechanism through which patient phone presence may increase patient satisfaction. Overall, the results add to the limited literature on the Mere Presence Effect. The findings suggest that doctors can have a mobile phone visible to patients and allow the mere presence of patient mobile phones during consultations, without detrimental effects.