{"id":71112,"date":"2026-07-23T23:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=71112"},"modified":"2026-07-23T23:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:04:34","slug":"how-infinite-scrolling-hijacks-the-brains-reward-system-like-slot-machines-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=71112","title":{"rendered":"How infinite scrolling hijacks the brain\u2019s reward system like slot machines do"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/07\/22\/8efb18b1-c83f-41c1-bce6-b64f69c2424c_4f6c59fe.jpg?itok=X16YbcEV&amp;v=1784691294\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">We all know how easy it is to get hooked on scrolling, but what does this endless activity actually do to our brains?<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The core mechanism of infinite scrolling is similar to slot machines, explains Matteo Parissi, a registered and chartered forensic psychologist and head of psychology at Cygnet Hospital Harrow in the UK.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cOur brain does not know when the next rewarding piece of content will appear, so each swipe while scrolling has the possibility of getting a reward,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cFor our brain this is quite detrimental because, from a dopamine perspective, the anticipation of getting rewarding content matters even more than the rewarding content itself, and this is the reason why this behaviour persists.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cFor example, when we\u2019re scrolling on Instagram and the content is only mediocre and we don\u2019t really see what we want to see, we continue scrolling because our brain and reward system is hijacked by this mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He highlights how unlike books, there are no natural stopping points with social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3361410\/how-infinite-scrolling-hijacks-brains-reward-system-slot-machines-do?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know how easy it is to get hooked on scrolling, but what does this endless activity actually do to our brains? The core&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[938,10545,26308,17884,4724,16408,6771,2020],"class_list":["post-71112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-brains","tag-hijacks","tag-infinite","tag-machines","tag-reward","tag-scrolling","tag-slot","tag-system","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}