Only 25% of pedestrians talking on their phones noticed the clown on the unicycle.
The study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology compared individuals walking alone, in pairs, listening to their ipod, and cell phone users.
Cell phone users were the group most prone to oblivious behavior: only twenty-five percent of them noticed the unicycling clown.
Pedestrians not using a cell phone noticed the clown most of the time.
The cell phone users even had difficulty performing the simple task of walking. They walked more slowly, changed direction more often, were prone to weaving, and acknowledged other individuals more rarely.
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