Do you suffer from 'ringxiety'? Feeling insecure leads people to hear 'phantom calls', researchers say

Phantom ringing is the perception that your mobile phone is vibrating or ringing, when it isn't

Do you hear phantom alert tones?

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Liz Connor26 February 2016

If you ever find yourself reaching to answer your phone, only to find that you have no new notifications, you could be suffering from ‘ringxiety’, experts say.

Psychologists believe that people who are insecure about their relationships or crave constant contact are most vulnerable to hearing phantom ringtones and message alerts on their smartphones.

Dr Daniel Kruger and Jaikob Djerf of the University of Michigan evaluated such occurrences among 411 volunteers, finding that individuals who exhibited higher 'attachment anxiety' in their relationships were more likely to experience the non-existent message tones.

Eight in 10 of the volunteers who had either attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance said they had experienced phantom vibrations while almost half said they had ‘heard’ ringing.

“Mobile cell phone users have reported experiencing ringing and/or vibrations associated with incoming calls and messages, only to find that no call or message had actually registered,” said Dr Kruger.

“Phantom ringing and phantom notifications in one sample were significantly predicted by attachment anxiety.”

The alarming study was recently published in the journal Cyberspychology, Behaviour and Social Networking.

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"There is a growing awareness that ringxiety may result in both immediate and longer term negative health effects, including headache, stress, and sleep disturbances," said the journal’s Editor-in-Chief Dr Brenda Wiederhold.

While the sample size of the study is too small to confirm the findings on a large scale, the researchers say that phantom ringing and phantom notifications were largely linked to attachment anxiety.

“As predicted, those who sought reassurance of partner's interests in their relationship were more likely to experience phantom ringing,” the authors write.

So if you’re hearing phantom noises from your phone, there may be a deeper meaning behind it - and the nerrdier you are, the more ‘ringxiety’ you’re likely to get.

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