Problematic Social Media Use Is Associated With Increased Risk-Aversion After Negative Outcomes in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task

Around the world, people display maladaptive, problematic use of online social networking sites (SNSs), like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. The symptoms of this problematic SNS use are similar to symptoms of substance use and behavioral addictive disorders, such as relapse when attempting to quit. Individuals with substance use and behavioral addictive disorders also display increased risk-taking when making decisions, but little research has investigated decision making with respect to problematic SNS use. We therefore assessed risky decision making and problematic SNS use by utilizing the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). In line with previous research on behavioral addictive disorders, we hypothesized that greater problematic SNS use would be linked with greater risk-taking. To address our hypothesis, we conducted three studies in which we administered the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale to assess problematic SNS use and related scores to BART performance. Collectively, and counter to our initial hypothesis, we found a negative association between problematic SNS use and risk-taking. Specifically, the more problematic one's SNS use, the less risk they took, but this risk aversion only occurred after receiving negative feedback on previous decisions and then encountering a situation with less actual risk. Implications of this novel finding are discussed.