p. 471-474
This study investigates the action of looking at mobile phone displays as a form of non-verbal communication in face-to-face interactions. The author designed a questionnaire asking informants about their impressions when they observed their acquaintances looking at their mobile phone displays without receiving a call sign. The results showed that the informants' impressions were divided into three groups (rejection, suspension and acceptance). And it is found that impressions of such communications can be influenced by individual experiences. Further, the situational analysis revealed that not a few informants had contradictory impressions depending on the person with whom they were interacting. The statistical analysis confirmed that such contradictory impressions were influenced by a person's own experience of acting in a similar manner. This implies that people who look at mobile phone displays during interactions with other people are more understanding toward similar actions by others.