Dark triad personality traits and online impulsive buying: the mediating role of social media addiction.

The growing popularity of streaming platforms, driven by increased internet access, has significantly facilitated the consumption of series across age and socioeconomic groups, enabling quick, flexible, on-demand access devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers (). This shift has led to more frequent and prolonged consumption of films and series, increasing screen time at home, at work, during commutes, and in leisure settings (). In countries such as Brazil and Canada, this digital landscape has achieved high penetration. In Brazil, 93.6% of households had internet access in 2024, and 32.7 million households had paid subscriptions to video streaming services (). In Canada, official industry reports indicate a more consolidated ecosystem: the proportion of households exclusively connected to streaming increased from 23% in 2023 to 29% in 2024 (). This contrast between the two countries suggests that widespread connectivity does not uniformly explain how individuals from diverse sociodemographic and cultural contexts engage in series watching. More intense and prolonged series-watching patterns have also been associated with the reward system, reduced inhibitory control, executive functioning, and behavioral regulation—features common in behavioral addictions and substance use (; ). Accordingly, this series-watching pattern has attracted increasing research attention, particularly since 2013, as streaming platforms consolidated and audiovisual consumption patterns shifted (). In this context, terms such as “marathon viewing” and, particularly, “binge-watching” began to be used widely to describe watching multiple episodes of the same series, either sequentially or in a single session (; ). Despite its widespread use, no consensus exists regarding the definition of “binge-watching.” For example, a systematic review reported variability across studies in the number of episodes considered, session duration, behavior frequency, and content type (). Furthermore, binge-watching is not part of any formal diagnostic category in the main mental health classification systems and is better conceptualized as an evolving theoretical and behavioral construct (; ; ). Therefore, in the present study, series-watching intensity (SWI) refers to the frequency and duration of consecutive episode viewing, whereas intensive series watching (ISW) is an operational behavioral classification rather than a clinical diagnosis. In this context, series-watching intensity (SWI) can be examined without relying on a rigid diagnostic definition; therefore, it may provide relevant evidence on its health-related correlates (; ; ). For example, growing evidence links series-watching to physical complaints (PCSW), particularly eye pain, blurred vision, tearing, dry eyes, and headaches (; ; ). In the psychological domain, studies have associated SWI with symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, and loneliness (; ; ). SWI has also been linked to sleep problems and sedentary lifestyles (). Furthermore, studies link SWI to emotion-regulation difficulties and impulsivity, especially when consumption is more intense and frequent ().