The essential role of theory in minimizing harm from emerging technologies. Lost in committee?. •

Abstract

A coherent framework for addressing risk arising from new technologies is needed. In proposing a framework of broad application and future focus, where empirical evidence is scarce, reliance on strong theory becomes all the more important. Some technologies are more prone to excessive engagement than others (i.e. more addictive). Some users are also more susceptible to excessive engagement than others. Impulsivity theory emphasises the importance of reinforcement magnitude in determining the risk associated with a new technology, and that an individual's sensitivity to reinforcement (reward drive) and capacity to inhibit previously reinforced behaviour (rash impulsiveness) determines their susceptibility to problematic engagement. Online gaming provides a good example of how such theory can be applied to facilitate intervention efforts and develop policy.

Criteria for the establishment of a new behavioural addiction •

“…However, impulse-control disorders can also be characterised by repetitive rewarding behaviour meeting these criteria, raising the question of what defining features make a disorder an “addictive” disorder? One of these must be the heightened valuation of the reward received from the behaviour, the nature of which changes over time ( Gullo & Saunders, 2020 ; Koob & Le Moal, 2001 ).…”