ArticlePsychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors2018
Applying behavioral economic theory to problematic Internet use: An initial investigation.
Article in Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Experimental manipulations of behavioral economic demand for addictive commodities: a meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Pooled it
- The seven deadly sins: measuring overvaluation of social media with the Plan-net 25 scale.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) use and dependence: an approach from behavioral economics.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Social Media's Lessons for Clinical Decision Support: Strategies to Improve Engagement and Acceptance.Applied clinical informatics · 2024Article
- A study of impulsivity as a predictor of problematic internet use in university students with disabilities.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Social media sites users' choice between utilitarian and informational reinforcers assessed using temporal discounting.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The Mediating Role of Selfitis in the Associations between Self-Esteem, Problematic Social Media Use, Problematic Smartphone Use, Body-Self Appearance, and Psychological Distress among Young Ghanaian Adults.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Reinforcer pathology of internet-related behaviors among college students: Data from six countries.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Behavioral economic measurement of cigarette demand: A descriptive review of published approaches to the cigarette purchase task.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2020Review
- Pilot trial investigating a brief behavioral economic intervention as an adjunctive treatment for alcohol use disorder.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2020Article
- The Hotel Room Purchase Task: Effects of Gender and Partner Desirability on Demand for Hypothetical Sex in Individuals with Disordered Cocaine Use and Controls.Archives of sexual behavior · 2020Article
- How has Internet Addiction been Tracked Over the Last Decade? A Literature Review andInternational journal of preventive medicine · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The widespread availability of the Internet has had profound social, educational, and economic benefits. Yet, for some, Internet use can become compulsive and problematic. The current study seeks to apply a behavioral economic framework to Internet use, testing the hypothesis that, similar to other addictive behaviors, problematic Internet use is a reinforcer pathology, reflecting an overvaluation of an immediately acquirable reward relative to prosocial and delayed rewards. Data were collected through Amazon's Mechanical Turk data collection platform. A total of 256 adults (Mage = 27.87, SD = 4.79; 58.2% White, 23% Asian; 65.2% had an associate degree or greater) completed the survey. Measures of delay discounting, consideration of future consequences, Internet demand, and alternative reinforcement all contributed unique variance in predicting both problematic Internet use and Internet craving. In aggregate models controlling for all significant predictors, alternative reinforcement and future valuation variables contributed unique variance. Individuals with elevated demand and discounting were at greatest risk for problematic Internet use. Consistent with behavioral economic research among substance abusing samples, individuals engaging in heavy Internet use report elevated motivation for the target behavior coupled with diminished motivation for other potentially rewarding activities, especially those associated with delayed reward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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