According to a British study by the Center for Economic Learning and Social Evolution, “Mobile Phones [are being used] as Lekking Devices Among Human Males.” A lek is a place where animals gather and mate.

There, females and males can assess each other and pick the best mate. Sometimes, that means having brightly colored feathers coming out of your butt (like the peacock) or a 2-baht gold chain (ah siah). But what the study revealed is that, in your average present day Liverpool Pub, it is phones that men use to send signals they believe increase there desirability: I’m connected, I have money, I need to be reachable, I’m busy. What researchers observed to reach this conclusion is that while men were fiddling around with their phones, displaying them, taking them in and out of their pockets or leaving them on the bar, women kept their phones hidden unless they were making a call.