Smartphones are more reinforcing than food for students

• Published in: Addictive behaviors Vol. 90; pp. 124 - 133
• Main Authors: O'Donnell, Sara, Epstein, Leonard H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; College students; Dietary restrictions; Eating - psychology; Female; Food; Food reinforcement; Humans; Male; Motivation; Reinforcement; Reinforcement, Psychology; Reinforcing value; Smartphone; Smartphone - statistics & numerical data; Smartphones; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Text messaging; Universities; Young Adult; Food reinforcement; Smartphone; Reinforcing value
• ISSN: 0306-4603; 1873-6327
• DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.10.018

College students engage in high-frequency smartphone use, despite potential negative consequences. One way to conceptualize this behavior is to consider it a highly reinforcing activity. Comparing motivation for smartphones to a powerful primary reinforcer, such as food, can establish their relative reinforcing value. This study investigated whether smartphones were more reinforcing than food, as well as the relationships between smartphone reinforcement, texting use, and smartphone motives. Participants were 76 college students (50% female, Mage = 18.9, SD = 0.99) who had no access to food for three hours and to their smartphones for two hours. After this modest deprivation period, participants worked for time to use their smartphones and 100-cal portions of their favorite snack food concurrently, with the work to obtain portions of both commodities increasing. The amount of smartphone use earned during the task was manipulated across groups (20, 30, 60, 120 s) to establish what amount of smartphone use was needed to motivate responding. Additionally, reinforcing efficacy of smartphones and food using a hypothetical purchase task and motivations for smartphone use was collected. Smartphones were more reinforcing than food using either measurement methodology (p's < 0.001). Smartphone reinforcement predicted number of text messages, controlling for age, sex, and family income. Positive smartphone use motives were associated with reinforcing efficacy of smartphones. These data show that smartphones are potent reinforcers, and are more reinforcing than food given modest food deprivation. These methods provide one important reason why people may use smartphones. •College students engage in high frequency smartphone use despite consequences.•Comparing smartphones to food may establish their relative reinforcing value.•Students were deprived of food and smartphones before working for both reinforcers.•Phones were more reinforcing than food, and smartphone reinforcement was related to smartphone use.•Smartphones are potent reinforcers, which may be why people use smartphones excessively.