Neural dynamics of pride and shame in social context: an approach with event-related brain electrical potentials

Outcome Evaluation in Social Comparison: When You Deviate from Others

Individuals often measure their performance through social comparison. With the increase in the deviation degree between the self and others, the outcome evaluation of individuals' abilities in the social comparison context is still unknown. In the current study, we used a two self-outcomes × three others' outcomes within-participant design to investigate the effect of the deviation degree of the self versus others in the social comparison context. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while participants performed a three-person dot estimation task with two other people. When participants received positive results, the amplitudes of feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 showed a significant gradient change in the degree of deviation between the self and others (even win vs. better win vs. best win conditions). However, we did not find a similar progressive effect when participants received negative results (even loss vs. worse loss vs. worst loss conditions). These findings suggest that the deviation degree affects the primary and later processing stages of social comparison outcomes only when individuals received positive outcomes, which may reflect how people develop an empathic response to others. In contrast, people tended to avoid deeper social comparison that threatened their self-esteem when they received negative outcomes.

Effects of acute psychosocial stress on source level EEG power and functional connectivity measures

The usage of EEG to uncover the influence of psychosocial stressors (PSSs) on neural activity has gained significant attention throughout recent years, but the results are often troubled by confounding stressor types. To investigate the effect of PSSs alone on neural activity, we employed a paradigm where participants are exposed to negative peer comparison as PSS, while other possible stressors are kept constant, and compared this with a condition where participants received neutral feedback. We analyzed commonly used sensor level EEG indices (frontal theta, alpha, and beta power) and further investigated whether source level power and functional connectivity (i.e., the temporal dependence between spatially seperated brain regions) measures, which have to our knowledge not yet been used, are more sensitive to PSSs than sensor level-derived EEG measures. Our results show that on sensor level, no significant frontal power changes are present (all p's > 0.16), indicating that sensor level frontal power measures are not sensitive enough to be affected by only PSSs. On source level, we find increased alpha power (indicative of decreased cortical activity) in the left- and right precuneus and right posterior cingulate cortex (all p's < 0.03) and increased functional connectivity between the left- and right precuneus (p < 0.001), indicating that acute, trial based PSSs lead to decreased precuneus/PCC activity, and possibly indicates a temporary disruption in the self-referential neural processes of an individual.

Electrophysiological, emotional and behavioural responses of female targets of sexual objectification

Sexual objectification and the interiorized objectifying gaze (self-objectification) are dangerous phenomena for women's psychological wellness. However, their specific effects on women's socio-affective reactions are still poorly understood, and their neural activity has never been explored before. In the present study, we investigated women's emotional and electrophysiological responses during simulated computer-based objectifying social interactions, and we examined consequent punishing behaviours towards the perpetrator using the ultimatum game. Behavioural results (N = 36) showed that during objectifying encounters women generally felt angrier/disgusted and tended to punish the perpetrator in later interactions. However, the more the women self-objectified, the more they felt ashamed (p = 0.011) and tended to punish the perpetrators less (p = 0.008). At a neural level (N = 32), objectifying interactions modulated female participants' neural signal elicited during the processing of the perpetrator, increasing early (N170) and later (EPN, LPP) ERP components. In addition, only the amplitude of the LPP positively correlated with shame (p = 0.006) and the level of self-objectification (p = 0.018). This finding provides first evidence for the specific time-course of sexual objectification, self-objectification and its associated shame response, and proves that emotional and social consequences of sexual objectification in women may depend on their tendency to self-objectify.