Can Everyday Smartphone Behaviours Predict Life Outcomes?

Blog-post co-authored by BSc (Hons) Psychology student Luiza Quinn and Professor Linda Kaye

With individuals spending up to 90% of their time with or near their devices, smartphones can provide an intimate and discreet lens into human behaviour, enabling direct connections between observed behaviours and life outcomes. A recent study which is now available in pre-print format by Digutsch et al. (2025) indicates the extent to which smartphone behaviours might help predict life outcomes.

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What did they do?

In this study, the researchers evaluated the predictive power of smartphone-tracked behaviours in comparison to self-reported Big Five personality traits, which is often used in these research areas and has strong support.  The Big Five is typically a robust predictor of variouslLife outcomes, including life satisfaction (r= .43), depression (r= .34), and substance abuse (r = .25), across diverse populations. However, personality traits are typically assessed through self-reports, which are susceptible to various biases, including social desirability. Therefore, the use of objective data such as from smartphone devices presents an intriguing opportunity in this regard.

The researchers used data from the Smartphone Sensing Panel Study (SSPS), and assessed self-reported personality traits based on the German Big-Five Structure Inventory.

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So what did they find?

Models based on smartphone behaviour predicted outcomes better than self-reported personality traits in 10% of cases and performed just as well in another 50%.

Smartphone data was especially effective at predicting outcomes that have clear behavioural signals—like compulsive phone use, substance abuse, and socioeconomic status, and or socio-demographic nature (e.g., income, education level). However, more subjective outcomes, such as well-being, were better predicted by self-reported personality traits.

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How can this be beneficial to future research?

Smartphone behaviour data can meaningfully enhance traditional personality measures when predicting life outcomes. They also point to potential uses in behavioural interventions, though future work must address ethical concerns and explore causal relationships.

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References

Digutsch, J., Sust, L., Schoedel, R., Bühner, M., Koch, T. K., Bergmann, M., … Stachl, C. (2025, May 15). Everyday Smartphone Behaviors Predict Life Outcomes. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/x95em_v2