Yifan Wang,1,2,* Lei Zhang,3,* Chenggong Wang,4 Min Lin,1 Li Zheng,5,6 Xiuyan Guo5,6 

1Mental Health Education Center, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Physical Education (Main Campus), Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4College of Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, People’s Republic of China; 5Fudan Institute on Ageing, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 6Ministry of Education (MOE) Laboratory for National Development and Intelligent Governance, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Li Zheng, Fudan Institute on Ageing, Ministry of education (MOE) Laboratory for National Development and Intelligent Governance, Fudan University, No. 220 Handan Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, People’s Republic of China, Email zheng_l@fudan.edu.cn

Introduction: People are generally characterized by a self-serving bias which describes the tendency to ascribe positive outcomes or success to internal or personal causes (self-enhancement motivation) and ascribe negative outcomes or failure to external or situational causes (self-protection motivation). It has been found that the individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD) who have low self-esteem and high depression exhibit an attenuated self-serving bias. However, the relationships among self-esteem, depression and self-serving bias are not clearly identified.
Methods: A sample of 138 IGD participants completed self-esteem and depression scales and a causal attribution task (Study 1) to examine the relationships among self-esteem, depression and self-serving bias (both self-enhancement and self-protection). In follow-up Study 2, 28 IGD participants were recruited to undertake self-affirmation intervention which can affirm one’s sense of global self-view and bolster self-esteem to explore whether self-affirmation would trigger a reduction of depression and a raise of self-serving bias.
Results: The results of path analysis in Study 1 showed that the self-serving bias was predicted by self-esteem and depression, and the depression played a mediating role between self-esteem and self-serving bias. The results of Study 2 showed that the IGD participants reported higher self-esteem, lower depression and engaged in more self-protection motivation after affirming-self manipulation as compared with affirming-other manipulation.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that self-esteem predicts self-serving bias through depression and self-affirmation could trigger an increase of self-esteem, further decrease depression and improve self-serving bias for the individuals with IGD. The present article clearly identified the relationships among these factors and provided a new approach to promote positive self-concept in individuals with IGD. Future research is warranted to explore the lasting benefits of self-affirmation on domains of education, relationships and gaming withdrawal for the individuals with IGD among different populations.

Keywords: internet gaming disorder, self-serving bias, self-esteem, depression