Unpacking Digital Hoarding: Psychological Mechanisms and Parallels with Physical Hoarding

Abstract

Digital hoarding, defined as the excessive accumulation and difficulty discarding digital files, is a growing concern in the digital age, yet its psychological underpinnings remain underexplored. This study examined whether digital hoarding shares psychological mechanisms with physical hoarding, focusing on attachment insecurity, emotion dysregulation, perfectionism, and indecisiveness. A total of 225 participants (57.3% female, 36.9% male, 5.8% non-binary; aged 18–63 years) completed measures assessing digital hoarding, attachment, perfectionism, and indecisiveness. Data were analyzed using PROCESS model 80 to test mediation effects. Results revealed that digital file hoarding was significantly positively correlated with attachment to objects, perfectionism, and indecisiveness, but not with the anxiety and avoidance dimensions of attachment. Notably, attachment anxiety demonstrated significant positive correlations with all other variables, with effect sizes ranging from small (r = .16) to large (r = .56). Mediation analyses indicated that both attachment to objects and indecisiveness individually mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and digital file hoarding, but not when tested sequentially. Furthermore, perfectionism and indecisiveness sequentially mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and digital hoarding. No significant indirect effects were found for attachment avoidance. These findings support the applicability of the cognitive-behavioral model of physical hoarding to digital hoarding, highlighting the roles of attachment anxiety, perfectionism, and indecisiveness. The study underscores the importance of understanding digital hoarding as a distinct yet related phenomenon to physical hoarding, with implications for assessment, prevention, and intervention strategies in digital environments.