With the rapid development of mobile technology, cell phones have become indispensable in people’s lives. However, although cell phones enable people to communicate with others at any time and enhance long-distance social connections, they also disrupt face-to-face interaction (Kneidinger-Müller, 2017). A recent survey conducted in the US showed that 90% of participants used cell phones during their latest social event, and 86% of their friends used cell phones at the same time (Rainie & Zickuhr, 2015). People are often seen using cell phones and ignoring others, a phenomenon that researchers refer to as phubbing (Ugur & Koc, 2015).

Mobile technology has also promoted the growth and development of mobile games (Yi et al., 2019). Mobile games are games played on mobile devices (J.-L. Wang et al., 2019). Most are multiplayer, stand-alone style games. As mobile games are free of charge, they are more popular than pay-to-play online games. The China Internet Network Information Center’s (2019) 44th Statistical Report on the Development of Internet in China showed that the number of Chinese mobile game users had reached 494 million as of June that year, which accounted for 57.8% of overall Internet users. However, excessive playing of mobile games causes game addiction (Esposito et al., 2020), which has become a widespread problem (J.-L. Wang et al., 2019). Although phubbing and mobile game addiction are common phenomena related to cell phone use, few researchers have linked phubbing to mobile game addiction. We aimed to fill this gap in the literature by examining peer phubbing and its relationship with mobile game addiction.

Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

Peer Phubbing

Phubbing is a portmanteau of the words “phone” and “snubbing” (David & Roberts, 2017; Karadağ et al., 2015). Peer phubbing is when an individual (the phubber) looks at their cell phone during a conversation or social interaction and snubs others (the phubbees; Haigh, 2015). Recent researchers have suggested that cell phone addiction (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2016; Karadağ et al., 2015), along with other factors such as fear of missing out, Internet addiction, boredom, and low self-control, are antecedents of phubbing (Al-Saggaf et al., 2019; Balta et al., 2018; Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2016; Davey et al., 2018; Karadağ et al., 2015).

The question remains whether this phenomenon has become a social norm. Chotpitayasunondh and Douglas (2016) proposed that, on the basis of the concept of reciprocity, phubbing may cause phubbees’ retaliatory reciprocity, thus leading to a vicious self-reinforcing cycle, making phubbing a behavioral norm. Phubbing has been shown to have a negative effect on social life and to induce dissatisfaction in a phubbee. For example, in a romantic relationship, phubbees feel depressed, and are dissatisfied with the quality of the relationship, leading to conflict (Roberts & David, 2016). Rainie and Zickuhr (2015) found that phubbing affects perceived communication quality, which results in communication dissatisfaction (Vanden Abeele et al., 2016). Negative feelings of phubbees have been found to occur in relationships between employees and bosses (Roberts & David, 2017, 2019), spouses (X. Wang et al., 2017), children and parents (Xie et al., 2019), and children and caregivers (Radesky et al., 2014).

Avatar Identification

Avatars are two- or three-dimensional digital graphic representations of players in the virtual world (Messinger et al., 2019). On the basis of the role of identification (Cohen, 2001), scholars believe that the relationship between players and their avatar involves a type of identification (Anderson et al., 2003; Dini, 2012). In traditional media, viewers and characters are isolated from one another, whereas in video games there is a blurred boundary between players and avatars (Klimmt et al., 2010). In comparison to traditional media users, video game players are more likely to identify with their avatars (Klimmt et al., 2010) because, by manipulating their avatars as they interact in a virtual world, players establish a close connection with them, and experience victory and failure through them (Klimmt et al., 2007). Therefore, avatar identification is a mental process that occurs when players interact with avatars, during which they empathize and merge with them (Klimmt et al., 2009), and change their cognitions about their avatars (Lewis et al., 2008).

Avatar identification has been shown to be an antecedent of game addiction. From a neurological perspective, Ganesh et al. (2012) found that long-term (vs. short-term) online game players show greater activation in the left angular gyrus of their brain. This influences identification processing, indicating that avatar identification is related to players’ game addiction. Klimmt et al. (2009) suggested that avatar identification can reduce self-discrepancies between players’ actual and ideal selves, and the enjoyment produced by this process may increase players’ risk of game addiction (Hussain et al., 2015). In addition, when a player has a higher level of conscious identification with the avatar (vs. ideal self), there is more addictive–compulsive use of games (Dieter et al., 2015). Previous studies have shown that avatar identification positively predicts game addiction (Liew et al., 2018; Mancini et al., 2019; Sioni et al., 2017; You et al., 2017).

Expectancy Violation Theory

Expectancy violation theory (Burgoon, 1993) can help in understanding the relationships among peer phubbing, avatar identification, and mobile game addiction: According to this theory, interpersonal communication outcomes can be explained by considering individuals’ expectations and their response to violation of these expectations (Burgoon, 1993). Negative expectancy violations can lead to less favorable interpersonal evaluations and poor-quality interpersonal relationships. Phubbing is a typical negative expectancy violation behavior (Kadylak, 2020; Kelly et al., 2017). In social interaction, individuals expect others to pay attention to them; thus, phubbing makes them feel ostracized (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2018). In comparison to traditional media, such as newspapers, phubbing diverts individuals’ attention from an actual person to virtual others (Vanden Abeele & Postma-Nilsenova, 2018), which has a more negative effect on social interaction (Hales et al., 2018).

In addition, according to expectancy violation theory (Burgoon, 1993), peer phubbing makes phubbees feel excluded owing to the violation of their expectation of another’s responsiveness. David and Roberts (2017) proposed that, to regain a sense of inclusion, phubbees tend to interact with others online, thus spending more time online than they used to, and increasingly replying on social media. The amount of time spent on mobile games has been found to be positively related to avatar identification (Song & Fox, 2016). Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: Peer phubbing will positively predict avatar identification, avatar identification will positively predict mobile game addiction, and peer phubbing will indirectly affect mobile game addiction through the mediator of avatar identification.

Social Exclusion and Perception of Belonging

Inclusion or affiliation is a basic human need (Bernstein et al., 2010). Social exclusion is the act of ensuring that another person feels ignored, isolated, and rejected, which threatens that person’s need for inclusion. After experiencing social exclusion, individuals desire to regain inclusion (Derfler-Rozin et al., 2010). David and Roberts (2017) found a positive relationship between phubbing and social exclusion: They pointed out that as phubbing induces a feeling of being ignored and excluded during social interaction, phubbees may resort to social media to regain a sense of inclusion. In addition, when a phubbee has strong feelings of social exclusion, they tend to play mobile games more frequently, which may induce high avatar identification. Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: Social exclusion will moderate the effect of peer phubbing on phubbees’ avatar identification, and the mediating effect of avatar identification in this relationship. That is, stronger feelings of social exclusion will induce higher avatar identification, the mediating effect of which will be significant when a phubbee’s feelings of social exclusion are stronger.

Social exclusion also threatens individuals’ perception of belonging (Walasek et al., 2015). To compensate for these feelings of threat, excluded individuals may make more effort to regain a sense of belonging, which will help to relieve their negative emotions. A reminder of friendship can also offset the decline in their social needs satisfaction caused by rejection (McConnell et al., 2011). In most mobile games, players engage in social interaction through avatars, during which players may experience a sense of community and belonging (Grinberg et al., 2014). Thus, we addressed the following research questions:
Research Question 1: Does the perception of belonging influence the interaction of peer phubbing and feelings of social exclusion on phubbees’ avatar identification?
Research Question 2: How does perception of belonging influence the moderating effect of feelings of social exclusion on phubbees’ mobile game addiction through the mediator of avatar identification?

Method

Participants and Procedure

We conducted a survey through the Chinese online survey platform Wenjuanxing. As mobile games users are mainly young adults (China Internet Information Center, 2019), we contacted 578 students from five universities (including Fuzhou University, Xiamen University, and Quanzhou University) in Fujian, China, by posting a survey link or a quick response code on the students’ QQ or WeChat groups. There were 530 valid surveys returned (response rate = 91.7%), and all participants had experience of mobile games use. Among the respondents, 48.6% were men and 51.4% were women; 92.6% were undergraduate students and 7.4% were graduates; and their ages ranged from 18 to 25 years (M_age = 20.57, SD = 2.95). Participants were assured that the survey process was anonymous and that their data would be kept confidential. Ethical approval was obtained from the Academic Ethics Committee of Huaqiao University.

Measures

We followed Brislin’s (1970) translation/back-translation process. Associate professors of English translated the measures into Chinese and other associate professors of English then translated them back into Chinese. Three long-term mobile games users with more than 5 years’ experience playing mobile games, and two coauthors of this study evaluated the content validity and finalized the content of survey items.

Peer Phubbing
We revised the nine-item Partner Phubbing Scale (Roberts & David, 2016) to assess perceived peer phubbing. We deleted two items, one ideographic repeat item and one reverse-scored item, because of low factor loadings, resulting in a seven-item scale. Participants rated the items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = never to 5 = always. Sample items are “During a conversation with my peers, they pull out and check their cell phones” and “My peers place their cell phones where they can see them when we are together.” The total score indicates the level of perceived peer phubbing. Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .84 and the scale also had good construct validity, chi-square/degrees of freedom ratio (χ²/df) = 2.94, comparative fit index (CFI) = .98, goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = .98, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = .97, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = .061.

Avatar Identification
We adapted the 15-item Player–Avatar Identification Scale (Li et al., 2013) to assess player–avatar identification in the context of massively multiplayer online role-playing games. To improve the response rate, we simplified the scale (Heggestad et al., 2019). Following the advice of senior mobile game users, we adopted two dimensions (feelings during play and importance to identity) from the original scale. After deleting ideographic repeat items, we derived five items and modified the phrasing to fit our study context, for example, “When my avatar wins the game, I feel happy” and “My avatar and I are one and the same during the game.” Participants rated the items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = disagree to 5 = agree. The higher the total score, the higher the avatar identification. Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .81 and the scale also had good construct validity, χ²/df = 1.36, CFI = .99, GFI = .99, TLI = .99, RMSEA = .026.

Perception of Belonging
The Need for Affiliation Scale (Krishnan & Atkin, 2014) was used to assess participants’ perception of belonging. This scale comprises 10 items designed to measure the need for social networking site users’ affiliation. After modifying the phrasing of the items in discussion with senior mobile gamers, we removed those not conforming to the mobile game context, and retained six items. Participants rated the items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = disagree to 5 = agree. Sample items are “Playing mobile games with others makes me happy” and “While playing mobile games, I have the desire to be noticed and appreciated.” The total score indicates the level of perception of belonging. Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .86 and the scale also had good construct validity, χ²/df = 3.68, CFI = .99, GFI = .99, TLI = .97, RMSEA = .071.

Social Exclusion
We used the three-item Feelings of Social Exclusion Scale (David & Roberts, 2017) to assess the extent to which, when spending time with their peers, participants experience feelings of being ignored, left out, and rejected. Responses are made on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = not at all to 5 = very much. Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .91.

Mobile Game Addiction
We revised the nine-item Problematic Videogame Playing Scale (Lopez-Fernandez et al., 2014) to assess mobile game addiction. Participants rated the items on a dichotomous scale (1 = yes, 0 = no) according to their experience. Sample items are “When I am not playing mobile games, I keep thinking about them, remembering games, planning the next game” and “When I lose in a mobile game, I need to play again to win.” The total score indicates the level of mobile game addiction. Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .79.

Data Analysis

We used SPSS 21.0 to analyze the data, and conducted Harman’s single-factor test to investigate possible common method bias. We found that the explained variance of the first factor was 19.60%, indicating that common method bias was not a concern in this study (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the significance of the correlations between variables. We then conducted a mediation model analysis with avatar identification as a mediator in the relationship between peer phubbing and mobile game addiction. When a significant mediation model was demonstrated, we investigated if the effect of peer phubbing on mobile game addiction was moderated by feelings of social exclusion, and if perception of belonging interacted with feelings of social exclusion to influence avatar identification and its indirect effect (see Figure 1). Hayes’s (2017) PROCESS macro Models 4, 7, and 11 were selected to test the hypotheses. According to Hayes, if the 95% confidence interval (CI) does not include zero, the model is significant.

Results

The correlation results were consistent with our expectations (see Table 1). Although the relationship between peer phubbing and mobile game addiction was not significant, peer phubbing was significantly and positively related to avatar identification, and avatar identification was significantly and positively related to mobile game addiction.

PROCESS Model 4 was used to test for the simple mediation effect of avatar identification. The results show that peer phubbing positively predicted avatar identification (see Table 2), and the indirect effect was significant. Thus, Hypothesis 1 was supported.

The results from PROCESS Model 7 show there was a significant interaction between social exclusion and peer phubbing (see Table 3). This shows that the relationship between peer phubbing and avatar identification was moderated by social exclusion. Conditional effects of peer phubbing on avatar identification at different levels of social exclusion are shown in Figure 2.

The results also show that under the condition of feeling high levels of social exclusion, the indirect effect of peer phubbing on mobile game addiction was stronger and significant when avatar identification was greater (see Table 3). Under the condition of feeling low levels of social exclusion, the indirect effect of peer phubbing on mobile game addiction was weaker and not significant. Therefore, Hypothesis 2 was supported.

When we applied PROCESS Model 11, we found a significant three-way interaction (β = .09, p < .05). The interaction effect of peer phubbing and feelings of social exclusion on avatar identification was significant among participants with a strong perception of belonging (β = .09, p < .05), but not significant among participants with a moderate (β = .02, p > .05) or low (β = −.06, p > .05) perception of belonging (see Table 4). Results of a Johnson–Neyman test show that when the value of belonging was above 4.23, the interaction effect of peer phubbing and feelings of social exclusion on avatar identification was significant. As this value was statistically above the overall sample mean (M = 3.41), and 13.02% of the participants scored above 4.23, our results indicate that feeling excluded increased phubbees’ avatar identification, but only among those with a strong perception of belonging in a game (see Figure 3).

The PROCESS Model 11 results (see Table 4) show that only two of the conditional indirect effects were significant: When participants experienced a high level of feelings of social exclusion and had a strong perception of belonging, β_{indirect effect} = .074, SE = 0.041, 95% CI [0.005, 0.170], and when participants experienced a low level of feelings of social exclusion and had a low perception of belonging, β_{indirect effect} = .062, SE = 0.035, 95% CI [0.008, 0.140].

Discussion

We explored the relationship between peer phubbing and mobile game addiction, and extended research on phubbing in an analysis of the role of avatar identification and its connection to feelings of social exclusion and perception of belonging. There are two major findings: First, to our knowledge, we are the first to explore the relationship between peer phubbing and avatar identification, and our study results show that peer phubbing positively predicted avatar identification. The interaction between players and avatars is the prerequisite for avatar identification (Klimmt et al., 2010). Previous researchers of the antecedents of avatar identification have mainly focused on avatar attraction (Dolgov et al., 2014; Kim et al., 2012), avatar customization (Dolgov et al., 2014), player–avatar similarity (Soutter & Hitchens, 2016), and self-discrepancy (Bessière et al., 2007). Sioni et al. (2017) drew attention to players’ social psychological factors and showed that social phobia induced players’ avatar identification. We explored another social issue, that is, peer phubbing, as an antecedent of avatar identification, and used expectancy violation theory (Burgoon, 1993) to explain the outcome that violation of the expectation of peers’ responsiveness by phubbing may lead phubbees to spend more time playing mobile games and interacting with an avatar. Thus, those who have (vs. have not) been phubbed are more likely to identify with their avatar during a game.

Roberts and David (2017) proposed that the effect of peer phubbing on avatar identification should be considered in relation to feelings of social exclusion and perception of belonging. Our results show that feelings of social exclusion moderated this relationship: Phubbees who had a higher (vs. lower) level of feelings of social exclusion identified more closely with their avatar. According to David and Roberts (2017), phubbees who feel socially excluded are more heavily involved in the use of social media. From this perspective, our results are consistent with their findings. In addition, we found that phubbees’ perception of belonging in a game can compensate for the negative effect of feelings of social exclusion, because the combined interaction effect of peer phubbing and feelings of social exclusion on avatar identification was significant only among phubbees with a strong perception of belonging.

Second, we drew a link between peer phubbing and mobile game addiction, with avatar identification as a mediator. As expected, avatar identification positively predicted mobile game addiction, which is consistent with previous results (Liew et al., 2018; Mancini et al., 2019; Sioni et al., 2017; You et al., 2017). Our finding of a significant indirect effect indicates that avatar identification mediated the relationship between peer phubbing and mobile game addiction. Our findings show that the peer phubbing–avatar identification–mobile game addiction link is a possible mechanism in mobile game addiction formation.

Our findings also show that the peer phubbing–avatar identification–mobile game addiction link was conditional upon feelings of social exclusion and perception of belonging. In a single moderator test we found that the mediating effect of avatar identification was significant only if phubbees experienced a high level of feelings of social exclusion. We then introduced a three-way interaction model test by adding perception of belonging as a moderator. The results show that phubbees feeling only a low level of social exclusion and a strong perception of belonging had a higher level of mobile game addiction through avatar identification. This indicates that perception of belonging can offset feelings of social exclusion, and this can affect the indirect effect of avatar identification.

There are some limitations in this study. First, we used Chinese college students who were mobile game users as the participants in our cross-sectional sample. As this approach lacks external validity, future researchers could expand the sociodemographic range of participants and investigate the relationship between peer phubbing and game addiction in different game genres. Second, the scales that we used to measure peer phubbing, avatar identification, and perception of belonging were developed from English versions. Although the three scales showed good construct validity and acceptable internal consistency in our participants, the development of more effective Chinese versions of the scales is essential. Third, as we did not find a direct relationship between peer phubbing and mobile game addiction, future researchers could introduce different moderators to explore the direct effect in various conditions. Fourth, in line with McConnell et al.’s (2011) finding, we hypothesized that perception of belonging would offset the effect of feelings of social exclusion. Although the results supported our prediction, the mechanism involved in this study could not be explained precisely. Future researchers could further examine the influence of perception of belonging and feelings of social exclusion on phubbing and mobile game addiction.

Whereas previous researchers have proposed that mobile game addiction can cause phubbing, we found that peer phubbing can indirectly induce mobile game addiction. These path effects occurred because peer phubbing increased avatar identification, which mediated the effect of peer phubbing on mobile game addiction. The effects were especially pronounced among phubbees with high levels of feelings of social exclusion and a strong perception of belonging. In addition to making theoretical contributions, our findings suggest that phubbing should be considered as a new perspective in the prevention of mobile game addiction.

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This work was supported by the Social Science Foundation of Fujian Province (FJ2018B062

FJ2019B101)

the Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology

the Soft Science Research Plan Project (2019R0093

2019R0094)

and the Outstanding Young Academic Cultivation Plan Project of Fujian (JYTJQ201804).

Xiaosan Zhang, Research Center for Belt and Road Financial and Economic Development, Xiamen National Accounting Institute, Island-Coast Express, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China. Email: [email protected], or Qingquan Jiang, School of Economics and Management, Xiamen University of Technology, No. 600 Ligong Road, Jimei, Xiamen 361024, People’s Republic of China. Email: [email protected]