Partner phubbing - snubbing your partner by constantly checking your phone when you are with them - can damage your romantic relationship, and lead to depression, US researchers have warned.

A survey asking 450 adults about the relational effects of phubbing found that "when someone perceived that their partner phubbed them, this created conflict and led to lower levels of reported relationship satisfaction," said James A. Roberts, a marketing professor at Baylor University in Texas.

Phubbing: Even President Obama does it. Credit:Facebook/Stop Phubbing

That meant lower levels of life satisfaction "and, ultimately, higher levels of depression."

FOMO, or fear of missing out, makes you check and recheck your phone for updates, notifications and news. It's a difficult impulse to control, and no wonder. It comes from the most primitive part of your brain: the amygdala, whose job is to detect whether your life is under threat and activate the fight or flight response.