Psychology explains why you keep unlocking your phone even when there are no notifications

You finish replying to an email, instinctively reach for your phone, unlock it, glance at the screen, and then lock it again. No messages. No notifications. No clear reason why you picked it up in the first place. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. According to a 2021 study published in Computers in Human Behavior, many smartphone checks aren't triggered by notifications at all.

Instead, they are automatic habits people perform almost unconsciously. In their paper, "Why are smartphones disruptive? An empirical study of smartphone use in real-life contexts," London School of Economics (LSE) researchers Dr. Maxi Heitmayer and Saadi Lahlou examined how people actually use their smartphones in everyday life, exploring how users perceive notifications, manage them, and the situations in which phones interrupt daily activities.

Your phone may not be distracting you as much as you think

For years, smartphones and social media have been blamed for constantly interrupting our attention. But research led by Dr. Maxi Heitmayer suggests the relationship may be more complicated.

"Our research shows that, actually, users are distracting themselves," Heitmayer said while discussing the findings. The study found that 89% of smartphone interactions were initiated by users themselves, while only 11% happened because of a notification or alert from the device.

In other words, most people aren't responding to their phones; they're choosing to check them, often without realizing it.

The habit happens almost automatically

To understand how people really use their phones, researchers equipped 37 adults aged 21 to 29 with small cameras mounted on glasses that recorded more than 200 hours of everyday smartphone use.

When participants later watched the footage, many were surprised. "I watched the videos back with the participants and saw their honest and frequent surprise at how often they were checking their phones," Heitmayer said while speaking with the media relations manager at LSE. "Often, they had no idea why they were picking them up."

The findings suggest that checking a smartphone has become a deeply ingrained habit rather than a deliberate action.

Your brain likes checking during "in-between" moments

The research found that people were especially likely to unlock their phones during transitions between activities.

For example, they often checked their devices after sending an email before starting the next task, while waiting for something to load, during a commute, or in the middle of stressful work as a brief mental break.

These short pauses create moments where the brain looks for something familiar and effortless to do, and reaching for the phone often becomes the default response.

Even the lock screen becomes a habit

The study also found that around one-quarter of smartphone interactions happened while the phone remained on the lock screen.

Rather than opening apps, many people simply picked up their phones, glanced at the screen to see whether anything had changed, and put the device back down.

That behavior suggests the action itself, not necessarily the information on the screen, has become habitual.

What the research suggests

Rather than notifications controlling our attention, the study suggests that everyday routines, moments of boredom, stressful situations, and transitions between tasks often trigger unconscious smartphone checks.

Recognizing those triggers may be the first step toward breaking the habit.

As Heitmayer puts it, smartphones are unlikely to disappear; they have become essential tools for modern life. The challenge, according to the research, is not simply designing less distracting phones but understanding why we reach for them even when they have nothing new to tell us.