Investigating Attention Contagion Between Students in a Lecture Hall

Extending prior attention contagion research (Forrin et al., 2021; Kalsi et al., 2022), we investigated whether (in)attentive states spread between undergraduate psychology students (n = 180) during a simulated lecture in a lecture hall. In each of four experimental sessions conducted in January 2020, 45 participants and 15 research confederates watched a 30-min lecture video that was immediately followed by a content quiz. We experimentally manipulated two factors while controlling for peer distraction: (a) whether all confederates were attentive or inattentive during the lecture and (b) the proximity of participants relative to confederates (seated between two confederates vs. one row behind confederates vs. far away from confederates). Although we hypothesized that both confederate attentiveness and inattentiveness would be contagious, we only found evidence of the latter. Specifically, inattentiveness spread to participants seated between two inattentive confederates, as evidenced by lower self-reported attentiveness during the lecture, fewer pages of notes, and worse quiz performance (relative to participants in the other conditions). These results demonstrate that inattention contagion is an ecologically valid phenomenon that is distinct from peer distraction. Moreover, instructors and students should be aware that inattention may be particularly contagious when students are seated beside (vs. behind) inattentive peers. To assess the generalizability of these results, future attention contagion research should recruit diverse student samples in real classrooms with varied seating configurations.