Abstract
Although it has been proposed that problematic Internet use (PIU) may represent a dysfunctional coping strategy in response to negative emotional states, there is a lack of experimental studies that directly test how individuals with PIU process emotional stimuli. In this study, we used an emotional Stroop task to examine the implicit bias toward positive and negative words in a sample of 100 individuals (54 females) who also completed questionnaires assessing PIU and current affect states. A significant interaction was observed between PIU and emotional Stroop effects (ESEs), with participants who displayed prominent PIU symptoms showing higher ESEs for negative words compared to other participants. No significant differences were found on the ESEs for positive words among participants. These findings suggest that PIU may be linked to a specific emotional interference with processing negative stimuli, thus supporting the view that PIU is a dysfunctional strategy to cope with negative affect. A potential treatment implication for individuals with PIU includes a need to enhance the capacity to process and regulate negative feelings.
Highlights
In recent years, the Internet has modified our approach to work, relationships, and leisure time activities [1]
After calculating corrected emotional Stroop effects (ESEs) for positive and negative words, we divided the participants into two groups, based on the commonly used Internet Addiction Test (IAT) cut-off value of 50 for identifying people at risk for Internet addiction [4] and on several studies that effectively used this score to discriminate between individuals with and without problematic Internet use (PIU)
These analyses demonstrated that PIU significantly decreased positive affect scores (F(1,94) = 5.48, p = 0.021, partial η2 = 0.055) and increased negative affect scores (F(1,94) = 4.13, p = 0.045, partial η2 = 0.042) on the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Brief Version (PANAS)-S, while having a surprisingly significant and negative effect on the number of errors to positive words in the Stroop task (F(1,94) = 4.51, p = 0.036, partial η2 = 0.046)
Summary
The Internet has modified our approach to work, relationships, and leisure time activities [1]. We used a computerized emotional Stroop task [15,16] to assess the implicit bias toward positive and negative stimuli in a sample of individuals who completed questionnaires on Internet addiction symptoms as a measure of PIU and on current affect states. In line with a compensatory perspective on PIU that regards excessive use of the Internet as a coping strategy to deal with internal and interpersonal difficulties [10,21,22], we hypothesized that compared to individuals without PIU, those with prominent PIU symptoms would exhibit a heightened cognitive interference following the presentation of negative emotional words
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