ArticleExperimental and clinical psychopharmacology2022
Reinforcer pathology of internet-related behaviors among college students: Data from six countries.
Article in Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Internet addiction and mind-wandering in Chinese college students: chain mediation roles of physical activity and self-control.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The seven deadly sins: measuring overvaluation of social media with the Plan-net 25 scale.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Contextual and psychosocial factors influencing drug reward in humans: The importance of non-drug reinforcement.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2024Review
- Biopsychosocial factors of gaming disorder: a systematic review employing screening tools with well-defined psychometric properties.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Delay Discounting in Established and Proposed Behavioral Addictions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution.
Funding
Abstract
Research has demonstrated that repeated engagement in low-effort behaviors that are associated with immediate reward, such as Internet use, can result in a pathological reinforcement process in which the behavior is increasingly selected over other activities due, in part, to a low availability of alternative activities and to a strong preference for immediate rather than delayed rewards (delay discounting). However, this reinforcer pathology model has not been generalized to other Internet-related behaviors, such as online gaming or smartphone use. Given the widespread availability of these technologies, it is also important to examine whether reinforcer pathology of Internet-related behaviors is culturally universal or culture-specific. The current study examines relations between behavioral economic constructs (Internet demand, delay discounting, and alternative reinforcement) and Internet-related addictive behaviors (harmful Internet use, smartphone use, online gaming, and Internet sexual behavior) in a cross-sectional sample of college students (N = 1,406) from six different countries (Argentina, Australia, India, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Using structural equation modeling, Internet demand was associated with harmful Internet use, smartphone use, and online gaming; delay discounting was associated with harmful smartphone use; and alternative reinforcement was associated with harmful Internet and smartphone use. The models were partially invariant across countries. However, mean levels of behavioral economic variables differed across countries, country-level gross domestic product, person-level income, and sex at birth. Results support behavioral economic theory and highlight the importance of considering both individual and country-level sociocultural contextual factors in models for understanding harmful engagement with Internet-related behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.