Cognitive psychology

Philosophy

Comparability

Psychoanalysis

Construct (python library)

Human factors and ergonomics

Social psychology

Computer science

Medical emergency

Environmental health

Poison control

Psychology

Mathematics

Binge drinking

Psychotherapist

Epistemology

Geometry

Combinatorics

Medicine

Programming language

Clinical psychology

Operationalization

Consistency (knowledge bases)

Current Addiction Reports

Along with the expansion of on-demand viewing technology, the practice of binge-watching (i.e., watching multiple episodes of TV series back-to-back) has recently gained increasing research interest, given its potential harmfulness and presumed addictive characteristics. The present article provides the first systematic review of the evidence regarding this increasingly widespread behavior. The results of this systematic review (including 24 studies and 17,545 participants) show that binge-watching remains an ill-defined construct as no consensus exists on its operationalization and measurement. Although such methodological disparities across studies hinder the comparability of results, the preliminary findings gathered here mainly point to the heterogeneous nature of binge-watching which covers at least two distinct realities, i.e., high but non-harmful engagement and problematic involvement in TV series watching. In these early stages of research, there is a major need for more consistency and harmonization of constructs and their operationalizations to move forward in the understanding of binge-watching. Just as important, future research should maintain the distinction between high and problematic involvement in binge-watching to avoid overpathologizing this common behavior.

Binge-Watching: What Do we Know So Far? A First Systematic Review of the Evidence