According to a study, choosing mobile phone cases and customizing phones with charms and decorations may reveal a lot about a person's culture, as well as increase attachment to the devices.
Researchers claim that people from the Eastern cultures tend to be more motivated to change the look and sound of their mobile phones, than their counterparts hailing from the Western nations, Eureka reported.
S. Shyam Sundar, distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, Penn State said that people who live in collectivist cultures are often more other-directed, who, want to know how others might look at them and also look to others as a way of influencing their own behaviors.
Sundar further added that the surveys revealed that Koreans were more focused on how to fit into social situations and Americans, on the other hand, valued self-expression more and were less worried about how others perceived them.
This could be why Americans customize less, while Koreans accessorize their phones to a greater degree.
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The study also reinforces previous research that showed how people are becoming more connected with their mobile phones, according to Sundar.
He further added that tools for aesthetic customization can enhance people's attachment to a device, regardless of culture, and said that though in this study they looked at phones, but it could also apply to other information technology products that people use in public, such as iPads.
A total of 400 American students from a U.S. university and 205 Korean students from various South Korean universities were asked to fill out a survey with 112 questions. Approximately 49 of the respondents did not have any customization.
This study was published in 'Media Psychology' that is now available online.
