Marketplace All-in-One New study reveals a "smartphone penalty" that distorts survey results
Feb 9, 2026
Carly Urban, an economics professor at Montana State University who studies household behavior, explains how smartphones can skew survey results. She discusses a randomized test forcing device type, finds a “smartphone penalty” with more wrong and don’t-know answers, and explores fatigue, response effort, changing sample composition, and risks from future tech like AI.
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Successful GoFundMe Story
- Mackenzie described a GoFundMe she started for an adoptive mother who lost her job caring for a nonverbal autistic child.
- The campaign raised about $10,000 in a couple of months after telling a clear, specific story.
Apparent Decline May Be A Measurement Issue
- Financial knowledge scores fell 15% between 2009 and 2021, but device change likely distorts that trend.
- Carly Urban's working paper shows smartphone respondents answer harder knowledge questions worse and choose "don't know" more often.
Randomized Test Reveals A Smartphone Penalty
- Randomized device assignment in the Understanding America Survey showed a clear smartphone penalty.
- Respondents forced to use smartphones did worse than those on desktops, tablets, or laptops.