Attentional inhibitory control interference related to videogames, pornography, and TV series exposure: An experimental study in three independent samples

Attentional inhibitory control (AIC) is responsible for ignoring salient yet irrelevant stimuli (i.e., distractors) to focus cognitive resources on goal-oriented demands. While the relevance of this cognitive process is well established when it comes to explaining the etiopathogenesis of substance use disorders, few studies have investigated AIC in the context of non-substance-related addictive behaviors. This experimental study focused on exploring the contribution of AIC to understanding problematic engagement in videogames, pornography, and TV series. The main aim of this study was to compare AIC when exposed to these contents and their correlates with different indicators of Gaming Disorder (GD), Problematic Pornography Use (PPU), and binge-watching (BW). Participants from three independent samples (40 men from Luxembourg; 91 men from Spain; and 108 women from Spain) completed an adapted version of the Stroop task designed to measure AIC when exposed to pornography, videogames, and TV series, as well as different self-reports assessing problematic engagement in these activities. Participants experienced more AIC problems -i.e., increased reactions times- when answering the Stroop task while presented with TV series and pornography as distractors, but not when presented with videogames. Furthermore, we only found few anecdotal results supporting the relationship between individual differences in the level of AIC when confronted with these contents and an increased risk of displaying GD, PPU, or BW symptoms. Although preliminary, our results question the notion that AIC may constitute a central process in explaining the initiation and/or maintenance of non-substance-related addictive behaviors.