The Impact of Mere Exposure Effect on Smartphone Addiction

Compared with other information technologies (e.g., desk computers), smartphones are being used anytime anywhere, which shows the unique phenomenon of extensive exposure. However, to date, the information system literature still doesn’t fully understand the association between extensive exposure and information technology usage. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and how extensive exposure motivates users to use smartphone addictively from the lens of mere exposure effect. Particularly, we propose convenience, habit and enjoyment to describe the mere exposure effect, as well as incorporating concentration into our research model. Results of an online survey with 384 respondents suggest that convenience facilitates the formation of habit and drives higher degrees of concentration and enjoyment. Habit also generates users’ reactions of concentration and enjoyment, which further result in smartphone addiction. We believe that this study opens up new avenues for a better understanding of smartphone addiction. Implications and limitations are discussed. © 2016 IEEE.