Related publications
Technology addiction
Understanding the connection: technology, addictions, and mental health
Investigating the role of technology in addictive behaviours and mental health. Our world-first research works with stakeholders to increase awareness of risks and minimise harms.
About our research
The Technology Addiction team works across disciplines and engages with stakeholders to contribute to a greater conceptual understanding of how and why people make decisions about technology use that impact mental health and may lead to behavioural addictions (e.g., online gambling and gaming). Given the dynamic nature of emerging technologies, many mental health impacts are not well understood.
Our team has expertise from a range of disciplines to consider the wide implications of technology on addictive behaviours, including understanding risky decision-making, excessive and problematic Internet use and gaming, legal and criminal issues, public health policies, psychological treatments and prevention methods.
We believe a collaborative approach is needed to address the role of technology in addictive behaviours. We aim to increase awareness of risks and encourage all stakeholders to intervene, prevent, and minimise harms.
The link between technology and addictions
Gambling and gaming disorder has been officially recognised as behavioural addictions. However, these, and other potential behavioural addictions are so new that there are no broadly accepted conceptual models or understanding of how problems are developed and maintained.
As with so many activities, technology now plays a dominant role in our daily lives, including entertainment and social pursuits. Technological products are increasingly immersive and persuasive and enable a high level of accessibility and interaction with daily life through personalized notifications. Engagement with technology, particularly at excessive levels, can lead to broad-ranging harms with significant physical, mental, social, and economic costs for individuals and communities.
Technology is changing the nature of addictive behaviours; online activities have unique risks including losing track of time and money, disrupted sleep and eating and interaction with poor mental health. Rates of problems are higher among those who gamble online and online gaming is an increasingly concerning problem. Technology is impacting social interactions and aggression, cyber-bullying, cyberchondria, sexual behaviours, impulsive behaviours, and crime.
Risky behaviours associated with emerging technologies are increasing across the population, with particular concerns regarding youth, and have been associated with negative mental health outcomes. We therefore place special focus on youth and young adults and lifespan differences in behaviour using emerging technologies.
Our approach
Our multi-disciplinary collaboration draws together perspectives from clinical psychology, public health, ethics, economics, business, social sciences (e.g., media and technology), law, neuroscience, psychiatry and beyond for a comprehensive understanding at both the conceptual and applied levels of the impact of technologies on addictions.
On the conceptual level, we aim to understand how dynamic technological changes are impacting addictions and mental health including identifying risk factors, environmental and social determinants, associated harms, and outcomes. We will consider the specific design mechanics and structural characteristics of technologies and how technology may encourage risky behaviours and decision-making.
We will apply this understanding to develop evidence-based frameworks that promote better decision-making and minimize harms. We will provide harm-minimising insights for prevention policy, inform guidelines for treatment interventions, and drive discourse in the public arena as technologies change over time.
We seek to increase awareness and responsibility among stakeholder groups including industry and governments of the risks to individuals and actions needed to minimize harms. We aim to be a leading voice to share our evidence-based expertise to advocate for and guide the implementation and evaluation of policies and practices for technologies that may impact the development and maintenance of addictions.
This group has extensive international collaborative relationships and we look forward to engaging with new colleagues internally and externally, particularly early career researchers and postgraduate students.
Our current projects
Our team’s research objectives are:
- To understand the influence of technology in behavioural addictions and harmful impacts for individuals and the community, particularly pertain ing to mental health, and economic outcomes;
- To apply this understanding to guide policy and strategies that minimise harmful behaviours and promote healthy decision-making; and
- To work collaboratively to increase awareness of and acceptance of responsibility among stakeholders to take actions to intervene, prevent, and minimise harms.
Problematic risk-taking involving emerging technologies: A stakeholder framework to minimize harms
Reducing Internet Gambling Harms Using Behavioral Science: A Stakeholder Framework
Sally Gainsbury, Nicola Black, Alex Blaszczynski, Sascha Callaghan, Garner Clancey, Vladan Starcevic, Agnieszka Tymula, Thomas Swanton, Cynthia Forlini
Robert Heirene & Sally Gainsbury – funded by Responsible Wagering Australia
Sally Gainsbury, Robert Heirene, Agnieska Tymula, Deborah Cobb-Clark, Jonathan Levy – including funding from Entain Australia and the International Center for Responsible Gaming
Thomas Swanton, Sally Gainsbury, Ellen Garbarino, Sharon Collard, Daniel Gozman – including funding from the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling and the Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group
Sally Gainsbury, Robert Heirene, Agnieska Tymula, Deborah Cobb-Clark – including funding from Entain Australia and the International Center for Responsible Gaming
Emily Shaw, Agnieszka Tymula, Sally Gainsbury
Sally Gainsbury, Elizabeth Stratton - including funding from Sportsbet, Brain and Mind Centre, International Center for Responsible Gaming
Dilushi Chandrakumar, Sibyl Lin, Sally Gainsbury, Christopher Hunt, Simone Rodda
Seungyeon Kim, Katrina Champion, Lauren Gardner, Maree Teeson, Nicola Newton, Sally Gainsbury
Vladan Starcevic, Guy Eslick, Kirupamani Viswasam, Joel Billieux, Sally Gainsbury, Daniel King, David Berle