Self-control makes the difference: The psychological mechanism of dual processing model on internet addicts’ unusual behavior in intertemporal choice

People may often encounter a dilemma where they have to choose between smaller but immediate benefits and larger but delayed rewards, which is termed intertemporal choice. To explore the unusual behavior in intertemporal choice among those who are addicted to internet, a dual processing model, which is at present limited to the neural science, is tested and further extended to behavioral domain through a series of laboratory experiment. Study 1 tested and supported the dual processing model on intertemporal choice, showing that the hot processing and cold processing systems displayed an interacting effect on internet addicts' behaviors in intertemporal choice. Study 2 examined different features of processing type among internet addicts and common people, finding that internet addicts did not show preference over any kind of three processing types as common people did. Moreover, we found that level of self-control displayed a mediating effect on internet addicts and healthy control's different behavior in intertemporal choice. At last, study 3 manipulated the level of self-control to explore the mediator effect on internet addicts' unusual behavior in intertemporal choice, showing that self-control mediated the relationship between subject type and intertemporal choice. The findings indicated that the self-control as the psychological mechanism in the intertemporal choice.