Causal attributions shape the formation of novel ability self-beliefs

Abstract Healthy individuals typically attribute success to internal and failure to external factors, while people with depression and low self-esteem tend to do the opposite. At the same time, depression and low self-esteem are associated with negatively biased self-related learning and self-beliefs. Here, we used a validated self-related learning task to investigate how internal versus external attributions of performance feedback affect the formation of self-beliefs about ability 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 ability 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 and lower self-esteem was linked to a reduced self-serving attributional bias. These findings provide insight into cognitive mechanisms associated with negative self-related ability beliefs and may help to inform our understanding of processes linked to depressive symptoms.