Smartphone ownership and screen time are increasing across the world, but there have been few attempts to quantify smartphone addiction on a global scale. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies published between 2014 and 2020 that used the Smartphone Addiction Scale, the most common measure of problematic smartphone use. We focused on adolescents and young adults (aged 15 to 35) since they tend to have the highest screen time and smartphone ownership rates. Across 24 countries, 83 samples, and 33,831 participants, we demonstrate that problematic smartphone use is increasing across the world. China, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia had the highest scores while Germany and France had the lowest. We suggest that the clinical interpretation of these scores should be updated given current global trends.

Several theories posit that creative people are able to generate more divergent ideas. If this is correct, simply naming unrelated words and then measuring the semantic distance between them could serve as an objective measure of divergent thinking. To test this hypothesis, we asked 8,914 participants to name 10 words that are as different from each other as possible. A computational algorithm then estimated the average semantic distance between the words; related words (e.g., cat and dog) have shorter distances than unrelated ones (e.g., cat and thimble). We predicted that people producing greater semantic distances would also score higher on traditional creativity measures. In Study 1, we found moderate to strong correlations between semantic distance and two widely used creativity measures (the Alternative Uses Task and the Bridge-the-Associative-Gap Task). In Study 2, with participants from 98 countries, semantic distances varied only slightly by basic demographic variables. There was also a positive correlation between semantic distance and performance on a range of problems known to predict creativity. Overall, semantic distance correlated at least as strongly with established creativity measures as those measures did with each other. Naming unrelated words in what we call the Divergent Association Task can thus serve as a brief, reliable, and objective measure of divergent thinking.

Smartphone ownership and screen time are increasing across the world, but there have been few attempts to quantify smartphone addiction on a global scale. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies published between 2014 and 2020 that used the Smartphone Addiction Scale, the most common measure of problematic smartphone use. This scale measures whether smartphone use interferes with one’s daily life. We focused on studies of teenagers and young adults (aged 15 to 35) since they show the highest screen time and smartphone ownership rates. Across 85 samples, 24 countries, and 39,292 participants, we demonstrate that problematic smartphone use is increasing across the world. China, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia had the highest scores while Switzerland, Germany, and France had the lowest. Our results provide global norms for researchers and can help identify countries that could benefit from targeted interventions.

Several theories posit that creative people are able to generate more divergent ideas. If this is correct, the simple act of naming unrelated words and then measuring the semantic distance between them could serve as an objective measure of creativity. To test this hypothesis, we asked 8,892 participants to name 10 words that are as different from each other as possible. A computational algorithm then estimated the average semantic distance between the words; related words (e.g., “cat” and “dog”) have shorter distances than unrelated ones (e.g., “cat” and “thimble”). We predicted that people producing greater semantic distances would also score higher on traditional creativity measures. In Study 1, there were moderate to strong correlations between semantic distance and two other creativity measures (the Alternative Uses Task and the Bridge-the-Associative-Gap Task). In Study 2, with participants from 98 countries, semantic distances varied only slightly by demographic variables which suggests that the measure can be used without modification across diverse populations. There was also a positive correlation between semantic distance and performance on problem solving tasks known to predict creativity. Overall, semantic distance correlated at least as strongly with established creativity measures as those measures did with each other. Naming unrelated words in what we call the Divergent Association Task can thus serve as a brief, reliable, and objective measure of creativity.