Thread by @SBMost

New research by @NRMA observed that 36% of pedestrians in the Sydney area crossed the street while distracted by their smartphones (i.e., in a "smombie", or "smart phone zombie", state). Kudos to them for raising awareness of the dangers: mynr.ma/2JCSY2p
(thread, 1/9)

As road safety expert @dimitra__V notes, "distracted walking is a form of inattentional blindness" (IB). This is a well documented, common phenomenon where people who are distracted fail to see things that should otherwise be obvious (e.g., an oncoming car).
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The most famous demonstration of IB comes from a paper by @profsimons & @cfchabris (bit.ly/2XMiScA). The demo can be found here: bit.ly/32wEk48
If that didn't work (bc you're too familiar with it), try this one: bit.ly/30tIt74
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I've done my own share of research on inattentional blindness...
bit.ly/32tHJkb
bit.ly/2XNnrDx
bit.ly/2Z47Wnr
bit.ly/2XM8VvT
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...as have many others around the world. In Australia & New Zealand, for example, check out work by Kristen Pammer (bit.ly/2JPK8No) and @VanessaBeanland (bit.ly/2XQjBo7), as well as emerging work by @hayleycullen_ (bit.ly/2SjsXI4).
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Inattentional blindness among drivers is known to be a common cause of road accidents. These are often called "looked-but-failed-to-see" accidents or SMIDSY (sorry, mate, I didn't see you) accidents.
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And IB has been found to be prevalent among distracted pedestrians too, as in this study by @ira_hyman & colleagues, where mobile phone users failed to see something as striking as a unicycling clown: bit.ly/2XJ3u0B
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Notably, the dangers of crossing the street while distracted by your phone are become so recognized that places such as New York are looking to make it illegal: yhoo.it/2JJQH4i (also see Honolulu: nyti.ms/30yF7j1).
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People are often overconfident in their ability to handle distraction (also see this recent piece by @DTWillingham: nyti.ms/2Z2mJ1y). Legislation may help increase public safety. Another way is to increase awareness about how attention shapes what we see (and don't).
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Tagging in case of interest: @StudentSARMAC @OfficialSARMAC @ACNS_ECR @ACNS_Official @TransportforNSW @Psych_Review @epc20191