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Updated: Nov 9, 2025
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Online Gamers
Published on: November 9, 2019
Reward-related decision-making deficits in internet gaming disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Yuan-Wei Yao1,2,3, Jin-Tao Zhang4,5, Xiao-Yi Fang6
1Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Aims:
To estimate the aggregated effect sizes of reward-related decision-making deficits in internet gaming disorder (IGD) and to explore potential moderators on the variability of effect sizes across studies.
Design:
Review of peer-reviewed studies comparing reward-related decision-making performance between IGD and control participants identified via PubMed, Web of Science and ProQuest databases. Random-effects modeling was conducted using Hedge's g as the effect size (ES). The effects of decision-making situation, valence, sample type, testing environment, IGD severity and self-reported impulsivity on decision-making differences were examined by moderator analyses.
Setting:
No restrictions on location.
Participants:
Twenty-four studies (20 independent samples) were included in the meta-analysis, resulting in 604 IGD and 641 control participants and 35 ESs.
Measures:
Reward-related decision-making differences between IGD and control groups.
Findings:
The overall ES for decision-making deficits in IGD was small (g = -0.45, P < 0.01). The effects were comparable across risky, ambiguous and inter-temporal decision-making. Larger aggregate ESs were identified for pure-gain and mixed compared with pure-loss decision-making. Studies based on clinical and community samples showed similar effects. No significant difference between behavioral studies and those with extra measurements was observed. Decision-making alterations were not closely associated with IGD severity or self-reported impulsivity differences at the study level.
Conclusions:
Internet gaming disorder appears to be consistently associated with reward-related decision-making deficits.
