Self-esteem modulates beneficial causal attributions in the formation of novel self-beliefs

Healthy individuals typically attribute successes to internal causes, such as their abilities, and failures to external factors, like bad luck. In contrast, individuals with depression and low self-esteem are more likely to attribute failures to internal causes and successes to external causes. At the same time, depression and low self-esteem are associated with negatively biased self-related learning and self-beliefs. Although causal attributions have been shown to influence belief formation and updating, the dynamic interaction between real-time attributions and self-related learning remains poorly understood. In this study, we used a validated self-related learning task to investigate how internal versus external attributions of performance feedback affect the formation of self-beliefs and how these processes relate to depressive symptoms and self-esteem. Drawing on a computational model that incorporates prediction error valence and causal attributions, we found that participants updated their self-beliefs less when feedback was attributed to external causes. Furthermore, individuals with higher levels of depression and lower self-esteem showed a stronger negativity bias in learning. Lower self-esteem was also linked to a reduced self-serving bias in attributions. These findings provide insight into the cognitive mechanisms that may contribute to the development and maintenance of negative self-beliefs commonly observed in depression.