Digital Addiction

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Allcott, Hunt; Gentzkow, Matthew; Song, Lena
• 署名单位: Microsoft; National Bureau of Economic Research; Stanford University; New York University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20210867
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 2424-2463
• 关键词: habit formation; self-control; empirical-analysis; field experiment; Projection bias; COMMITMENT; incentives; demand; preferences; welfare

摘要

Many have argued that digital technologies such as smartphones and social media are addictive. We develop an economic model of digital addiction and estimate it using a randomized experiment. Temporary incentives to reduce social media use have persistent effects , sug-gesting social media are habit forming. Allowing people to set lim-its on their future screen time substantially reduces use , suggesting self-control problems. Additional evidence suggests people are inattentive to habit formation and partially unaware of self-control problems. Looking at these facts through the lens of our model sug-gests that self-control problems cause 31 percent of social media use.