Cognitive bias
Can Playing Table Tennis Reduce Short Video Addiction?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Engaging in a 16-week table tennis program significantly reduced college students' addiction to short videos by correcting negative cognitive biases and boosting self-control.
How this study connects
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Where an effect appeared, it depended on intensity — and both trials used passive controls.
Bias measures respond to intervention, but the dose and the outcome both matter. Moderate-intensity cycling significantly reduced immediate and general anxiety, perceived stress and depressive symptoms, while low-intensity walking lowered general anxiety without changing negative cognitive biases; a table-tennis programme reduced negative cognitive bias, which mediated a reduction in short-video addiction.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
The exercise trials here cannot be pooled into a single 'exercise reduces bias' claim. They differ in intensity, duration, outcome measure and control condition — a single session of walking or cycling against a within-subject baseline versus a multi-week table-tennis programme against a passive control that matched neither activity nor social contact.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
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From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
The exercise trials here cannot be pooled into a single 'exercise reduces bias' claim. They differ in intensity, duration, outcome measure and control condition — a single session of walking or cycling against a within-subject baseline versus a multi-week table-tennis programme against a passive control that matched neither activity nor social contact.
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Can Playing Table Tennis Reduce Short Video Addiction?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
60 college students completed the experiment
Three students dropped out due to academic reasons before the start of the experiment, and finally, 60 students completed the entire experimental process.
16-week table tennis program
The experimental group undergoes a 16-week table tennis exercise intervention three times a week (; ).
Key findings
The table tennis group showed significant reductions in short video addiction and negative cognitive biases, alongside improved self-control, whereas the control group showed no change. Path analysis revealed that table tennis directly lowered addiction levels and also worked indirectly by decreasing negative cognitive biases and boosting self-control. Combined, these two psychological improvements accounted for over 68% of the intervention's total beneficial effect.
Methodology
Researchers recruited 60 Chinese college students diagnosed with severe short video addiction and randomly split them into two groups. The experimental group completed a 16-week table tennis program consisting of three 60-minute sessions per week, while the control group maintained their normal routine without extra exercise. Both groups completed self-report scales measuring video addiction, cognitive bias, and self-control before and after the 16-week study.
Limitations
The study cannot rule out whether the benefits were unique to table tennis or simply due to increased social interaction and attention, as the control group was passive rather than active. Additionally, because all outcomes were measured using self-report surveys, the results may be subject to social desirability bias rather than representing actual changes in real-world screen time. Finally, because the sample was drawn from a single university in China, the findings may not generalize to other populations or cultural contexts.
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