Nonprofessionals' perceptions of the causes of behavioral and substance addictions

Journal of Addictive Diseases
Brent Lang, Harold Rosenberg

Abstract

We assessed nonprofessionals' perceptions of etiological explanations of behavioral and substance addictions in a nationwide sample. A total of 612 adults (51% male) residing in the United States were recruited using Mechanical Turk. Participants rated the perceived likelihood of seven psychosocial and biological etiologies for one of five randomly assigned types of "addiction" (i.e., alcohol, marijuana, heroin, gambling, or pornography). Significantly fewer participants rated social pressure a likely cause of addiction to pornography (31%) than to marijuana (53%), alcohol (55%), and heroin (64%); significantly fewer rated traumatic childhood events a likely cause of addiction to gambling (33%) and marijuana (36%) than to pornography (56%), heroin (57%), and alcohol (64%); significantly fewer rated the way a person was raised a likely cause of addiction to marijuana (37%) than to heroin (55%) and alcohol (65%); and significantly more rated genetics a likely cause of an addiction to alcohol (65%) than to pornography (26%), marijuana (33%), gambling (41%), and heroin (45%). The proportions who rated stressful circumstances and character problem as likely causes were not significantly associated with type of addiction. In addition...Continue Reading

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Software Mentioned

Mechanical Turk
SPSS

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This feed focuses mechanisms underlying addiction and addictive behaviour including heroin and opium dependence, alcohol intoxication, gambling, and tobacco addiction.

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