Situational changes in self-awareness influence 3- and 4-year-olds’ self-regulation

Resting-state functional connectivity of social brain regions predicts motivated dishonesty

Motivated dishonesty is a typical social behavior varying from person to person. Resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) is capable of identifying unique patterns from functional connectivity (FC) between brain regions. Recent work has built a link between brain networks in resting state to dishonesty in Western participants. To determine and reproduce the relevant neural patterns and build an interpretable model to predict dishonesty, we analyzed two conceptually similar datasets containing rsfMRI data with different dishonesty tasks. Both tasks implemented the information-passing paradigm, in which monetary rewards were employed to induce dishonesty. We applied connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) to build a model among FC within and between four social brain networks (reward, self-referential, moral, and cognitive control). The CPM analysis indicated that FCs of social brain networks are predictive of dishonesty rate, especially FCs within reward network, and between self-referential and cognitive control networks. Our study offers an conceptual replication with integrated model to predict dishonesty with rsfMRI, and the results suggest that frequent motivated dishonest decisions may require the higher engagement of social brain regions.

Young Children Selectively Hide the Truth About Sensitive Topics

Starting in early childhood, children are socialized to be honest. However, they are also expected to avoid telling the truth in sensitive situations if doing so could be seen as inappropriate or impolite. Across two studies (total N = 358), the reasoning of 3- to 5-year-old children in such a scenario was investigated by manipulating whether the information in question would be helpful to the recipient. The studies used a reverse rouge paradigm, in which a confederate with a highly salient red mark on her nose asked children whether she looked okay prior to having her picture taken. In Study 1, children tended to tell the truth only if they were able to observe that the mark was temporary and the confederate did not know it was there. In Study 2, children tended to tell the truth only if they were able to observe that the mark could be concealed with makeup. These findings show that for children as young as age 3, decisions about whether to tell the truth are influenced by the likelihood that the information would be helpful to the recipient.

Functional connectivity between the caudate and medial prefrontal cortex reflects individual honesty variations in adults and children

Deception emerges in early childhood and prevails in adults. Activation patterns in previous adults' task-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), though sensitive to state honesty on a specific decision, are less reliable reflecting trait honesty. Besides of state honesty, most previous neuroimaging studies about dishonesty suffer the generalization problem due to the major focus on adults with children unexplored. To investigate honesty associated functional brain networks variations, 98 healthy adults (Age: 18-28 y.o.; 49 males and 49 females) were invited to participate in a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rfMRI) study (Study 1). We investigated how functional connections between the caudate and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) change among adults who differ in self-reported trait honesty. Results showed that adults with higher trait honesty have increased functional connectivity from the caudate to the mPFC, which is identified as an honesty-related hub region in global brain connectivity analysis and connects more tightly to a wide range of brain regions including the amygdala. Study 2 compared functional connectivity between children with high vs. low lying frequencies (Age: 6-16 y.o.; 61 males and 39 females) based on a publicly accessible database of rfMRI. Consistent with findings in adults, increased functional connectivity from the caudate to the mPFC was found in less frequently lying children. Despite different honesty indicators of self-reported honesty trait in adults and parent-reported lying patterns in children, consistent findings have been noted in the two samples with regards to functional connectivity variations between reward-related and self-related brain regions. These findings suggest functional connectivity alterations between the caudate and the mPFC contribute to honesty variations in both adults and children.

Imitation in one's own presence: No specific effect of self-focus on imitation

Previous studies have reported that imitative responses may be modulated by top-down social factors such as self-focus. However, growing evidence suggests that such social factors may actually modulate domain-general processes such as spatially compatible responding, rather than specifically social processes such as imitation. In this study, we aimed to identify the cognitive processes being modulated under conditions of heightened or diminished self-focus. Participants performed a stimulus-response compatibility task which independently measures both spatial and imitative response tendencies, under two conditions: heightened self-focus, where the task was performed in the presence of two mirrors; and diminished self-focus, where the mirrors were covered. While participants were faster to respond to compatible trials than to incompatible trials, both imitatively and spatially, there was no significant modulation of either spatial or imitative compatibility by self-focus; although the magnitude of the modulation of spatial compatibility was numerically similar to the effect of self-focus on imitation found in previous studies. These results provide no evidence for an effect of self-focus on either social-specific, or domain-general, processes.

Effects of a mirror on young children's transgression in a gift-delay task

While the development of self-recognition in a mirror by toddlers is well documented, less is known about how the presence of a mirror affects young children's behaviour. Here, we explored how the presence of a mirror affected 2.5- to 3.5-year-olds' behaviour in a gift-delay task. Behaviour was assessed for a five-minute test period during which children sat in front of a gift bag that was not to be touched until an experimenter returned. Transgressive behaviour by adults is reduced in the presence of a mirror, so we hypothesized that children faced with a mirror would be less likely to touch the gift than children tested without a mirror. We found that the mirror reduced transgressions in children starting from around 3 years of age. We conclude that the presence of a mirror facilitated self-monitoring in 3-year-old children, such that deviations from a behavioural standard are noticed and corrected immediately. Statement of contribution What is already known on the subject? Children's self-recognition in a mirror has been well documented. Adults' behaviour can be affected by the presence of a mirror. There is a lack of research investigating how the presence of a mirror affects young children's behaviour. What does this study add? We show that the presence of a mirror decreases young children's likelihood to transgress in a gift-delay task. This effect appears to emerge at around three years of age. These findings raise interesting questions regarding the development of self-awareness and how it relates to other mechanisms.

Thinking of me: Self-focus reduces sharing and helping in seven- to eight-year-olds

By 7-to 8-years of age, most children readily adhere to prosocial norms aimed at benefiting others through giving up time and effort (helping) or resources (sharing). Two studies explored whether sharing and helping by 7-to 8-year olds (N = 180) could be influenced by priming children's attention on themselves or their friends through a semi-structured interview. Results revealed that self-priming led to reductions in both sharing and helping compared to friendship-priming or a control condition. These findings are considered as indicative of the fragile state of prosocial behaviours at this age that can be easily shifted towards more selfish biases by simple priming.

You and me: Investigating the role of self-evaluative emotion in preschool prosociality

Self-evaluative emotions depend on internalized social standards and motivate social action. However, there is a lack of empirical research documenting the impact of self-evaluative emotion on 3- and 4-year-olds' prosociality. Extant research relates children's experiences of guilt to empathetic concern and making amends. However, the relationship between guilt and both concern and making amends is potentially reductive. Empathetic concern involves similar bodily expressions to guilt, and amend making is used to distinguish guilt from shame in children. This is the first study to relate the development of both positive and negative self-evaluative emotions to empathetic concern and prosocial choice (making amends and spontaneous help). Results confirm that the broad capacity for self-evaluative emotion is established during the preschool years and relates to empathetic concern. Moreover, these social emotions can be used to predict prosocial choice. Making amends was best predicted by empathetic concern and by children's responses to achievement (pride following success and lack of shame following failure). Alongside moral pride, pride in response to achievement and resilience to shame was also the best predictor of spontaneous help. The data support the idea that young children's prosocial choices may be partially driven by the affective drive to maintain an "ideal" self. Psychologists have emphasized that in order to be adaptive, self-evaluative emotion should be guilt oriented rather than shame oriented. However, the adaptive role of pride has been neglected. We call on future research to redress the focus on negative self-evaluation in moral development and further explore the prosocial potential of pride.

Children's reasoning about self-presentation following rule violations: the role of self-focused attention

Rule violations are likely to serve as key contexts for learning to reason about public identity. In an initial study with 91 children aged 4-9years, social emotions and self-presentational concerns were more likely to be cited when children were responding to hypothetical vignettes involving social-conventional rather than moral violations. In 2 further studies with 376 children aged 4-9years, experimental manipulations of self-focused attention (either by leading children to believe they were being video-recorded or by varying audience reactions to transgressions) were found to elicit greater attention to social evaluation following moral violations, although self-presentational concerns were consistently salient in the context of social-conventional violations. The role of rule transgressions in children's emerging self-awareness and social understanding is discussed.

Wired to Connect: Evolutionary Psychology and Social Networks

Social networks dominate modern life. Social networks have always existed and have been around in nonelectronic forms throughout the entirety of our species' history. It is only recently that the Internet has provided a venue for their electronic explosion. From a nonexistent phenomenon to an incessantly repeated buzzword that permeates the media and is the topic of a major Hollywood film, electronic social networks experience such success because human social behavior has been naturally selected to interface in such a way. Genes and culture relentlessly encourage sociality, and network structure is the grand output of countless interactions in which we engage, from winks to weddings. With the advent of technology that promotes these connections, our innate propensity to connect at a large scale is changing the way we live. From mundane communication to meeting the love of one's life to inciting political revolutions, network ties are the conduits by which information and resources are spread. Understanding the patterns and more importantly the “whys” of human connectedness can greatly impact quality of life for the better. The present article reviews the extant literature of social networks and social network analysis proper, the evolutionary foundation of social networks, the proposed psychological antecedents of network composition, the transition from traditional to online networks and how the two modes differ, the impact of social networks on popular culture, and the future of social networks.