Ever lied about your mobile running out of battery to skip out on an event?
According to research released by Motorola in celebration of the launch of its Motorola Razr HD (see our review here), more than a quarter of the United Kingdom’s population, or 26 per cent, have.
The survey was commissioned by Motorola and carried out online by YouGov between 19th and 22nd April by 2,196 adults, designed to be representative of UK adults over 18 years old. The figures for population were then extrapolated by Weber Shandwick based on the percentage that selected a choice in the survey and the UK adult population figure as according to the Office for National Statistics.
Twenty six per cent of respondents said they had lied to avoid attending an event, and one fifth of those (18 per cent) said their alarm had failed to go off as a result, in order to sleep in, according to the survey.
Thirty seven per cent said they regularly used a dead battery as an excuse for forgetting to text or ring someone on an important date, the survey found, although whether this or the ‘I was out of cell phone reception, plus I had this thing the President of Hawaii asked me to do. Also, my phone got eaten by bears’ excuse ever really flies these days is another question to ask.
The top five situations people lied about their dead battery for were to avoid speaking to family members (for those garrulous uncles) at 41 per cent, as an excuse for forgetting a birthday, as an excuse for running late at 31 per cent (which begs the question whether any winner has ever tried ringing work to report that their battery is dead), to avoid an event and at number five, pretending the alarm didn’t go off.
One per cent of respondents, or 21 people, missed out on a wedding due to a dead phone battery and two per cent, or 42 people, missed out on a date (for which the ‘dead battery’ excuse is never going to fly.
Extrapolating on survey answers,almost half a million UK adults had missed a wedding due to a dead battery and roughly the same amount had missed a date (for which the ‘dead battery’ excuse will never fly), with nearly one tenth late to meet a friend.
Men were late for work meetings more often than women at five per cent compared with 1 per cent due to a dead battery. The survey claimed that 36 per cent of women would pick their phone as the emergency item to take from their handbag, and seemed surprised only two per cent would pick their make-up, although why on Earth it was expected that women would choose make up as an emergency item, I can’t fathom.
