Nearly everyone drives poorly when talking on the phone

Nearly everyone—97.5% of us—is pretty bad at multitasking behind the wheel, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Utah. Most of us get a lot more sloppy with our driving when also carrying on a phone conversation: an analysis of about 200 people asked to talk on the phone (on a hands-free device) while also driving (in a simulator) showed that practically everyone takes an average of 20% longer to hit the brakes when chatting, and also fails to keep up with the pace of traffic. Yet while those findings confirm what most of us already knew about talking on the phone and driving, the more interesting aspect of the study (PDF), the authors say, was that a handful of people are such efficient multitaskers that they can chat and drive without impairment at either task. The results, slated for publication later this year in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, suggest that one out of every 40 or so people may be a “supertasker,” as the researchers dub them. (Odds are, you aren’t one. The vast majority of us exhibit impairment akin to that of drunk drivers when attempting to juggle too many tasks behind the wheel.)