Snooping through your partner's phone might break your relationship

New study looks at snooping in relationships, the impact it may have on those involved

Snooping through someone’s phone is not only disliked by most people but it can break a relationship as well. Mind you, some relationships may survive snooping though, as a new study investigating the motivation behind such behaviour has found. The study will be presented at the ‘ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems’ meeting, reported Hindustan Times.

Researchers recruited 102 people and asked them to recall a past situation wherein they accessed the phone of someone they know or someone they know accessed theirs. The participants were asked to describe the events that led up to this, how they snooped and what happened to their relationship afterwards.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Out of 46 participants who provided information, 21 said that the relationship eventually ended while 25 said theirs survived. “In cases where the relationship ended, it was either because the phone owner felt their trust was betrayed or the relationship was experiencing other difficulties also,” said study author Ivan Beschastnikh. Another main reason was the relationship was not that strong or important to begin with, as was the case with two work friends where one stole valuable contact information from the other’s cellphone.”



If the relationship survived, it was because the friendship was mostly solid and the victim considered it important enough to overlook the offence, Beschastnikh added. “In such cases, the victim explained away the snooping by considering it as a sign that they should reassure their romantic partner of their commitment to the relationship. The latter ended up excusing the behaviour and, in some cases, continued to give the other person access to their phone.”

The participants also mentioned a few different motivations for snooping on their friends’ or partner’s phones. Many cited jealousy and a desire to “control their relationships with others.” Others wanted to pull a prank or to use the stolen information for financial gain or other such purposes. Most of these participants hailed from Europe, Canada or the United States, and about 60% of them were women.

A man uses a smartphone. PHOTO: REUTERS

The study, while small, is the first to highlight motives and outcomes of phone snooping from the point of view of those who were directly involved. “The fact that people snoop is widely known but we know much less about exactly why they do what they do and about the eventual impact on their relationships,” said Beschastnikh. “This study contributes new insights to that discussion straight from those who have experienced snooping and hopefully prompts more research down the line.”

The findings also highlight the role of human factors in digital security, added co-author Konstantin Beznosov. “It all comes down to who you allow to use your phone, whether you trust them or they trust you, and what the parameters for your relationship with them are,” he explained.

Not too surprisingly, the findings show that the prime time for snooping is when the owner takes a shower or bathroom break.

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