1
|
Dalmaso M, Vicovaro M, Sarodo A, Watanabe K. The self can be associated with novel faces of in-group and out-group members: A cross-cultural study. Conscious Cogn 2024; 125:103764. [PMID: 39341133 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103764] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2024] [Revised: 09/18/2024] [Accepted: 09/22/2024] [Indexed: 09/30/2024]
Abstract
The self can be associated with arbitrary images, such as geometric figures or unknown faces. By adopting a cross-cultural perspective, we explored in two experiments whether the self can be associated with faces of unknown people from different ethnic groups. In Experiment 1, Asian Japanese participants completed a perceptual matching task, associating Asian or White faces with themselves. The same task was used in Experiment 2 with White Italians. Both experiments showed a reliable association between the self and facial stimuli. Importantly, this association was similar for both Asian and White faces. Additionally, no correlations were found between the strength of this association and an index of implicit bias towards Asian and White individuals. These results suggest that the self is malleable and can incorporate social stimuli from different groups.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mario Dalmaso
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
| | - Michele Vicovaro
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Akira Sarodo
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Katsumi Watanabe
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Jalalian P, Svensson S, Golubickis M, Sharma Y, Macrae CN. Stimulus valence moderates self-learning. Cogn Emot 2024; 38:884-897. [PMID: 38576360 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2331817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/06/2024]
Abstract
Self-relevance has been demonstrated to impair instrumental learning. Compared to unfamiliar symbols associated with a friend, analogous stimuli linked with the self are learned more slowly. What is not yet understood, however, is whether this effect extends beyond arbitrary stimuli to material with intrinsically meaningful properties. Take, for example, stimulus valence an established moderator of self-bias. Does the desirability of to-be-learned material influence self-learning? Here, in conjunction with computational modelling (i.e. Reinforcement Learning Drift Diffusion Model analysis), a probabilistic selection task was used to establish if and how stimulus valence (i.e. desirable/undesirable posters) impacts the acquisition of knowledge relating to object-ownership (i.e. owned-by-self vs. owned-by-friend). Several interesting results were observed. First, undesirable posters were learned more rapidly for self compared to friend, an effect that was reversed for desirable posters. Second, learning rates were accompanied by associated differences in reward sensitivity toward desirable and undesirable choice selections as a function of ownership. Third, decisional caution was greater for self-relevant (vs. friend relevant) responses. Collectively, these findings inform understanding of self-function and how valence and stimulus relevance mutually influence probabilistic learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Parnian Jalalian
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Saga Svensson
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Marius Golubickis
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Yadvi Sharma
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - C Neil Macrae
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Liu Q, Su F, Mu A, Wu X. Understanding Social Media Information Sharing in Individuals with Depression: Insights from the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Schema Activation Theory. Psychol Res Behav Manag 2024; 17:1587-1609. [PMID: 38628982 PMCID: PMC11020237 DOI: 10.2147/prbm.s450934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2023] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Purpose How individuals engage with social media can significantly impact their psychological well-being. This study examines the impact of social media interactions on mental health, grounded in the frameworks of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Schema Activation Theory. It aims to uncover behavioral differences in information sharing between the general population and individuals with depression, while also elucidating the psychological mechanisms underlying these disparities. Methods A pre-experiment (N=30) and three experiments (Experiment 1a N=200, Experiment 1b N=180, Experiment 2 N=128) were executed online. These experiments investigated the joint effects of information quality, content valence, self-referential processing, and depression level on the intention to share information. The research design incorporated within-subject and between-subject methods, utilizing SPSS and SPSS Process to conduct independent sample t-tests, two-factor ANOVA analyses, mediation analyses, and moderated mediation analyses to test our hypotheses. Results Information quality and content valence significantly influence sharing intention. In scenarios involving low-quality information, individuals with depression are more inclined to share negative emotional content compared to the general population, and this tendency intensifies with the severity of depression. Moreover, self-referential processing acts as a mediator between emotional content and intention to share, yet this mediation effect weakens as the severity of depression rises. Conclusion Our study highlights the importance of promoting viewpoint diversity and breaking the echo chamber effect in social media to improve the mental health of individuals with depression. To achieve this goal, tailoring emotional content on social media could be a practical starting point for practice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Qiang Liu
- School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China
| | - FeiFei Su
- School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China
| | - Aruhan Mu
- School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China
| | - Xiang Wu
- School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Service Computing, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, 650221, People’s Republic of China
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Zhang P, Song Y, Tadesse E, Khalid S, Gao C, Li W. An EPR study of the cognitive processes underlying the impact of self-relevant information on emotional word processing. BMC Psychol 2024; 12:90. [PMID: 38389094 PMCID: PMC10885381 DOI: 10.1186/s40359-024-01586-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique, this study successively presented names (in either a supra- or subthreshold manner) and emotional words to examine how self-relevant cue (self-name) affects emotional word processing in word class judgment task (to determine whether an emotional word is a noun or adjective) and valence judgment task (to determine whether an emotional word is positive or negative). At the suprathreshold condition, self-relevant positive words elicited a more significant Early posterior negativity (EPN) than negative words only in the valence judgment task. In contrast, at the subthreshold condition, self-relevant negative words elicited an enhanced Late positive potential (LPP) than positive words only in the word class judgment task. These results indicate that self-relevant cue affects emotional word processing at both suprathreshold and subthreshold conditions; nevertheless, the effect manifests as self-positive bias at the suprathreshold condition and self-negative bias at the subthreshold condition. The experimental task modulates these dynamics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ping Zhang
- Shanghai Urban Construction Vocational College, Shanghai, China
| | - Yidan Song
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Endale Tadesse
- Faculty of Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China
| | - Sabika Khalid
- Faculty of Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China
| | - Chunhai Gao
- Faculty of Education, Shenzhen University, 3688 Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China.
| | - Weijun Li
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Liu T, Sui J, Hildebrandt A. To see or not to see: the parallel processing of self-relevance and facial expressions. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2023; 8:70. [PMID: 37991559 PMCID: PMC10665284 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-023-00524-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023] Open
Abstract
The self, like the concept of central "gravity", facilitates the processing of information that is directly relevant to the self. This phenomenon is known as the self-prioritization effect. However, it remains unclear whether the self-prioritization effect extends to the processing of emotional facial expressions. To fill this gap, we used a self-association paradigm to investigate the impact of self-relevance on the recognition of emotional facial expressions while controlling for confounding factors such as familiarity and overlearning. Using a large and diverse sample, we replicated the effect of self-relevance on face processing but found no evidence for a modulation of self-relevance on facial emotion recognition. We propose two potential theoretical explanations to account for these findings and emphasize that further research with different experimental designs and a multitasks measurement approach is needed to understand this mechanism fully. Overall, our study contributes to the literature on the parallel cognitive processing of self-relevance and facial emotion recognition, with implications for both social and cognitive psychology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tuo Liu
- Division for Psychological Methods and Statistics, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
| | - Jie Sui
- School of Psychology, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
| | - Andrea Hildebrandt
- Division for Psychological Methods and Statistics, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Lee NA, Martin D, Sui J. Accentuate the positive: Evidence that context dependent self-reference drives self-bias. Cognition 2023; 240:105600. [PMID: 37604029 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105600] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 08/23/2023]
Abstract
There is abundant evidence of a self-bias in cognition, with prioritised processing of information that is self-relevant. There is also abundant evidence of a positivity-bias in cognition, with prioritised processing of information that is positively valenced (e.g., positive emotional expressions, rewards). While the effects of self-bias and positivity-bias have been well documented in isolation, they have seldom been examined in parallel, so it is unclear whether one or other of these stimulus classes is prioritised or whether they interact. Addressing this gap, the current research aimed to establish the relative primacy of self-bias and positivity-bias using a classification task that paired self-relevant information with emotional expressions (i.e., Expt. 1) or reward information (i.e., Expt. 2). When the self was paired with relatively more positive information (i.e., smiling faces or high reward) we found evidence of a self-bias but no evidence of a positivity-bias. Whereas when the self was paired with relatively less positive information (i.e., neutral faces or low reward) we found evidence of a positivity-bias but no evidence of a self-bias. These results suggest the relative primacy of prioritised processing is flexible, context dependent and might be caused by a drive towards self-enhancement and the self-positivity bias.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Naomi A Lee
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, United Kingdom.
| | - Douglas Martin
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, United Kingdom
| | - Jie Sui
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Yankouskaya A, Lovett G, Sui J. The relationship between self, value-based reward, and emotion prioritisation effects. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2023; 76:942-960. [PMID: 35543595 PMCID: PMC10031635 DOI: 10.1177/17470218221102887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
People show systematic biases in perception, memory, attention, and decision-making to prioritise information related to self, reward, and positive emotion. A long-standing set of experimental findings points towards putative common properties of these effects. However, the relationship between them remains largely unknown. Here, we addressed this question by assessing and linking these prioritisation effects generated by a common associative matching procedure in three experiments. Self, reward, and positive emotion prioritisation effects were assessed using cluster and shift function analyses to explore and test associations between these effects across individuals. Cluster analysis revealed two distinct patterns of the relationship between the biases. Individuals with faster responses showed a smaller reward and linear positive association between reward and emotion biases. Individuals with slower responses demonstrated a large reward and no association between reward and emotion biases. No evidence of the relationship between self and value-based reward or positive emotion prioritisation effects was found among the clusters. A shift function indicated a partial dominance of high-reward over low-reward distributions at later processing stages in participants with slower but not faster responses. Full stochastic dominance of self-relevance over others and positive over neutral emotion was pertinent to each subgroup of participants. Our findings suggest the independent origin of the self-prioritisation effect. In contrast, commonalities in cognitive mechanisms supporting value-based reward and positive emotion processing are subject to individual differences. These findings add important evidence to a steadily growing research base about the relationship between basic behavioural drivers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Gemma Lovett
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
| | - Jie Sui
- The School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Self-prioritization with unisensory and multisensory stimuli in a matching task. Atten Percept Psychophys 2022; 84:1666-1688. [PMID: 35538291 PMCID: PMC9232425 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02498-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
A shape-label matching task is commonly used to examine the self-advantage in motor reaction-time responses (the Self-Prioritization Effect; SPE). In the present study, auditory labels were introduced, and, for the first time, responses to unisensory auditory, unisensory visual, and multisensory object-label stimuli were compared across block-type (i.e., trials blocked by sensory modality type, and intermixed trials of unisensory and multisensory stimuli). Auditory stimulus intensity was presented at either 50 dB (Group 1) or 70 dB (Group 2). The participants in Group 2 also completed a multisensory detection task, making simple speeded motor responses to the shape and sound stimuli and their multisensory combinations. In the matching task, the SPE was diminished in intermixed trials, and in responses to the unisensory auditory stimuli as compared with the multisensory (visual shape+auditory label) stimuli. In contrast, the SPE did not differ in responses to the unisensory visual and multisensory (auditory object+visual label) stimuli. The matching task was associated with multisensory ‘costs’ rather than gains, but response times to self- versus stranger-associated stimuli were differentially affected by the type of multisensory stimulus (auditory object+visual label or visual shape+auditory label). The SPE was thus modulated both by block-type and the combination of object and label stimulus modalities. There was no SPE in the detection task. Taken together, these findings suggest that the SPE with unisensory and multisensory stimuli is modulated by both stimulus- and task-related parameters within the matching task. The SPE does not transfer to a significant motor speed gain when the self-associations are not task-relevant.
Collapse
|
9
|
Feldborg M, Lee NA, Hung K, Peng K, Sui J. Perceiving the Self and Emotions with an Anxious Mind: Evidence from an Implicit Perceptual Task. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:ijerph182212096. [PMID: 34831851 PMCID: PMC8622160 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182212096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Anxiety disorders cause mental distress and low wellbeing in many people worldwide. Theories of anxiety describe negative worldviews and self-views as maintaining factors of the disorders. Recent research in social cognition has found a link between depression and altered perceptual biases to emotions, but the same research on anxiety is still missing. In this study, we measured perceptual biases to emotional and self-related stimuli in sub-clinically anxious participants and healthy controls using a self-emotional shape-label matching task. Results demonstrate that anxious participants had a diminished perceptual self-bias compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, the severity of anxiety was related to an emotional bias towards valanced other-related stimuli. The findings confirm the hypothesis that anxious individuals display an altered self-prioritisation effect in comparison with healthy individuals and that anxiety severity is linked to altered responses to emotionally valanced others. These findings have potential implications for early diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michella Feldborg
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK; (M.F.); (N.A.L.); (J.S.)
| | - Naomi A. Lee
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK; (M.F.); (N.A.L.); (J.S.)
| | - Kalai Hung
- Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;
- Correspondence:
| | - Kaiping Peng
- Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;
| | - Jie Sui
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK; (M.F.); (N.A.L.); (J.S.)
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Woźniak M, Knoblich G. Self-prioritization depends on assumed task-relevance of self-association. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 86:1599-1614. [PMID: 34491432 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01584-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 08/19/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
We conducted three experiments to test the effect of assumed task-relevance of self-association on the self-prioritization effect (SPE). Participants were first performing the standard matching task, and then a pseudo-word matching task, in which familiar labels from the standard task were replaced with pseudo-words. In the pseudo-words task, the association between stimuli and the self was, in fact, task-irrelevant. Learning instructions were varied to make participants believe that the self-association was task-relevant (Experiments 1 and 3) or task-irrelevant (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we told participants that geometrical shapes represent specific identities (self, friend, none) and pseudo-words' meanings reflect each of these identities to make participants believe that semantic associations of pseudo-words were task-relevant. In this experiment, a SPE was present in the pseudo-words task. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, but participants were told to form association pairs between pseudo-words and shapes, and not pseudo-words and identities. Thus, because the matching task presented only shapes and pseudo-words, participants were led to correctly believe that associations were task-irrelevant. Under these conditions, we did not observe a SPE in the pseudo-words task. Finally, in Experiment 3, participants were told that pseudo-words are "paired with" identities, making their relations with identities weaker than in Experiment 1, but still task-relevant. The SPE in the pseudo-word task reappeared. Together, the results suggest that a SPE can be observed in the absence of any stimuli with established self-associations, but only if self-associations are represented as task-relevant.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mateusz Woźniak
- Social Mind and Body Group, Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. .,Cognition and Philosophy Lab, Department of Philosophy, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. .,Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
| | - Guenther Knoblich
- Social Mind and Body Group, Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
| |
Collapse
|