@article{ref1,
title="Mental logout: behavioral and neural correlates of regulating temptations to use social media",
journal="Psychological science",
year="2021",
author="Sternberg, Nurit and Luria, Roy and Sheppes, Gal",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Individuals sometimes use social media instead of sleeping or while driving. This fact raises the crucial need for-and challenge of-successfully self-regulating potent social-media temptations. To date, however, empirical evidence showing whether social-media temptations can be self-regulated and how self-regulation can be achieved remains scarce. Accordingly, the present within-participants study (N = 30 adults) provided causal evidence for self-regulation of social-media content and identified a potential underlying neural mechanism. We tested the premise that successful self-regulation requires limiting the mental representation of temptations in working memory. Specifically, we showed that loading working memory with neutral contents via attentional distraction, relative to passively watching tempting social-media stimuli, resulted in reduced self-reported desire to use social media, reduced initial attention allocation toward social-media stimuli (reduced late-positive-potential amplitudes), and reduced online representation of social-media stimuli in working memory (reduced contralateral-delay-activity amplitudes). These results have important implications for successfully navigating a social-media-saturated environment.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0956-7976",
doi="10.1177/09567976211001316",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09567976211001316"
}