What happens when we are in a restaurant and someone's cellphone starts ringing. Ten other people reach their pockets thinking the call belongs to them. Some may even feel embarrassed when they discover that it's not their call. This feeling is becoming so common that psychologist David Laramie has coined a new term to describe it - RinxietyHe describes Rinxiety as a familiar and unnerving sensation: the false belief that you can hear your mobile phone ringing or vibrating. So when we "hear" an imaginary ring, or think vibrations on a bus are a call, it is the subconscious calculating how popular we are.
There's another related term - phantom ring effect or fauxcellarm - the sensation of hearing your phone ring while you're in the shower, watching commercials or using a blow dryer. People live in a constant state of phone vigilance, and hearing sounds that seem like a telephone's ring can send an expectant brain into action.