Are online games a blessing or evil? The moderating role of self-worth

Abstract

Online games have gained prominence in people's lives. While some studies have demonstrated that online games damage students’ cognitive flexibility, others have illustrated that they improve players’ cognitive flexibility. From the perspective of self-worth orientation theory, this study hypothesized that self-worth moderates the relationship between online game use and cognitive flexibility. To explore this hypothesis, 110 participants were recruited to report online game use, self-worth, and cognitive flexibility using E-prime software. The results showed that self-worth moderated the relationship between online game use and generalization, conceptual insight, cognitive focus, and conceptual plasticity. In the case of high self-worth, playing online puzzle games can improve students’ conceptual plasticity. In the case of low self-worth, playing online puzzle games reduces generalization, cognitive focus, and conceptual plasticity, while playing online shooter games reduces conceptual insight. These results indicate that self-worth moderates the impact of online games on cognitive flexibility, and high self-worth enhances this effect, while low self-worth weakens this effect, providing a basis for improving the cognitive flexibility of youths. This also provides a new perspective for teachers and parents to evaluate the influence of online games on children's cognitive flexibility development.