Social status level and dimension interactively influence person evaluations indexed by P300s

Mothers' and fathers' neural responses toward gender-stereotype violations by their own children

Gender stereotypes facilitate people's processing of social information by providing assumptions about expected behaviors and preferences. When gendered expectations are violated, people often respond negatively, both on a behavioral and neural level. Little is known about the impact of family kinship on the behavioral and neural reactions to gender-stereotype violations. Therefore, we examined whether parents show different responses when gender stereotypes are violated by their own children vs unknown children. The sample comprised 74 Dutch families with a father (Mage = 37.54), mother (Mage = 35.83), son, and daughter aged 3-6 years. Electroencephalography measurements were obtained while parents viewed pictures of their own and unknown children paired with toy or problem behavior words that violated or confirmed gender stereotypes. In half of the trials, parents evaluated the appropriateness of toy-gender and behavior-gender combinations. Parents showed stronger late positive potential amplitudes toward gender stereotype-violating behaviors by own children compared to unknown children. Moreover, parents' P1 responses toward gender stereotype-violating child behaviors were stronger for boys than for girls and for parents who evaluated gender-stereotype violations as less appropriate than gender-stereotype confirmations. These findings indicated that gender-stereotype violations by parents' own children are particularly salient and viewed as less appropriate than gender-stereotype confirmations.

Hierarchical status is rapidly assessed from behaviourally dominant faces

Recognition of social hierarchy is a key feature that helps us navigate through our complex social environment. Neuroimaging studies have identified brain structures involved in the processing of hierarchical stimuli, but the precise temporal dynamics of brain activity associated with such processing remains largely unknown. In this investigation, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the effect of social hierarchy on the neural responses elicited by dominant and nondominant faces. Participants played a game where they were led to believe that they were middle-rank players, responding alongside other alleged players, whom they perceived as higher or lower-ranking. ERPs were examined in response to dominant and nondominant faces, and low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) was used to identify the implicated brain areas. The results revealed that the amplitude of the N170 component was enhanced for faces of dominant individuals, showing that hierarchy influences the early stages of face processing. A later component, the late positive potential (LPP) appearing between 350-700 ms, also was enhanced for faces of higher-ranking players. Source localisation suggested that the early modulation was due to an enhanced response in limbic regions. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence for enhanced early visual processing of socially dominant faces.

ERPs responses to dominance features from human faces

Social dominance is an important feature of social life. Dominance has been proposed to be one of two trait dimensions underpinning social judgments of human faces. Yet, the neural bases of the ability to identify different dominance levels in others based on intrinsically facial cues remains poorly understood. Here, we used event-related potentials to determine the temporal dynamics of facial dominance evaluation based on facial features signaling physical strength/weakness in humans. Twenty-seven participants performed a dominance perception task where they passively viewed faces with different dominance levels. Dominance levels did not modulate an early component of face processing, known as the N170 component, but did modulate the late positive potential (LPP) component. These findings indicate that participants inferred dominance levels at a late stage of face evaluation. Furthermore, the highest level of dominant faces and the lowest level of submissive faces both elicited higher LPP amplitudes than faces with a neutral dominance level. Taken together, the present study provides new insights regarding the dynamics of the neurocognitive processes underlying facial dominance evaluation.

Neural responses to social partners' facial expressions are modulated by their social status in an interactive situation

Recently, several studies have found a recognition advantage for facial expressions, particularly angry expressions, when they appear on high-status faces rather than low-status faces. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the influence of social status on the neural responses to others' facial expressions in a context of performance monitoring. Specifically, we used an interactive rank-inducing task (i.e., time estimation task) to manipulate social partners' status (high versus low) and then told participants that they would receive social feedback (i.e., happy, neutral, or angry) from social partners with high or low status after completing the task. ERP results revealed the preferential processing of high-status targets at both early (P1/N170/FRN) and late (P3) temporal stages of facial expression processing. Notably, larger FRN amplitudes elicited by feedback from high-status partners were observed in happy, neutral, and angry expression contexts, whereas larger P3 amplitudes elicited by feedback from high-status partners were only evident in both neutral and angry expression contexts but not in happy expression context. Together, the present study extended previous studies by showing that the perception of facial expressions could be modulated by target status at multiple stages.

Subliminal Priming Effects of Masked Social Hierarchies During a Categorization Task: An Event-Related Brain Potentials Study

Evidence so far shows that status detection increases attentional resources, especially for high hierarchies. However, little is known about the effects of masked social status cues on cognition. Here, we explore the masked priming effects of social status cues during a categorization task. For this purpose, we use Event-Related brain Potentials (ERP) time-locked to the presentation of two types of artworks (Christian, non-Christian) primed by masked social hierarchies sorted into two types (religious, military), and in two ranks (high, low) each. ERP results indicate early attention effects at N1, showing larger amplitudes for the processing of artworks after high and military ranks. Thereafter, the P3a increased for all artworks primed by religious vs. military figures, indicating a relevant role of task demands at this processing stage. Our results remark the automaticity of hierarchy detection and extend previous findings on the effects of social status cues on complex cognitive processes.

Racial Ingroup Bias and Efficiency Consideration Influence Distributive Decisions: A Dynamic Analysis of Time Domain and Time Frequency

Although previous studies have demonstrated that identity had effect on justice norms and behavioral decisions, the neural mechanism of that effect remains unclear. In this study, the subjects made their distributive decisions on the trade-off between equity and efficiency among Chinese and foreign children and their scalp potentials were recorded. Behavioral results showed that efficiency consideration played an important part in the distribution task. Meanwhile, participants gave preferential treatment to same-race children. Relative to the distribution within ingroup children, the distribution involving outgroup children induced higher N170 amplitude. The distribution involving outgroup children also elicited weakened P300 amplitude and enhanced delta response than the distribution within ingroup children when subjects are facing the conflict between equality and efficiency. In other words, ingroup bias affected the neural process of the trade-off between equality and efficiency. The combination of time-domain and time-frequency analyses provided spatiotemporal and spectral results for a better understanding of racial ingroup favoritism on distributive justice.

Competence-based social status and implicit preference modulate the ability to coordinate during a joint grasping task

Studies indicate that social status influences people's social perceptions. Less information is available about whether induced social status influences dyadic coordination during motor interactions. To explore this issue, we designed a study in which two confederates obtained high or low competence-based status by playing a game together with the participant, while the participant always occupied the middle position of the hierarchy. Following this status-inducing phase, participants were engaged in a joint grasping task with the high- and low-status confederates in different sessions while behavioural (i.e., interpersonal asynchrony and movement start time) indexes were measured. Participants' performance in the task (i.e., level of interpersonal asynchrony) when interacting with the low-status partner was modulated by their preference for him. The lower participants' preference for a low- relative to a high-status confederate, the worse participants' performance when interacting with the low-status confederate. Our results show that participants' performance during motor interactions changes according to the social status of the interaction partner.

How society modulates our behavior: Effects on error processing of masked emotional cues contextualized in social status

In the present study, we investigate whether subliminal complex social cues have an impact on error-monitoring processes. For this purpose, we presented two social status ranks (high and low) with three possible emotional expressions (happy, neutral, angry), using a backward masking paradigm. Participants were instructed to perform a flanker task while recording Event-Related brain Potentials. Results showed larger amplitudes for the Error-Related Negativity index after the presentation of high relative to low social ranks, only for neutral expressions. Neither the angry nor the happy faces induced significant differences in social rank processing. This indicates that subliminal high social ranks, specifically with neutral expressions, increase error processing by boosting attentional control to perform the ongoing task. Our findings extend current knowledge on the automaticity of social and emotional processing and its influence on performance monitoring mechanisms.

Regional and network neural activity reflect men's preference for greater socioeconomic status during impression formation

Evidence from social psychology suggests that men compared to women more readily display and pursue control over human resources or capital. However, studying how status and gender shape deliberate impression formation is difficult due to social desirability concerns. Using univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses (n = 65), we examined how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) may influence brain responses during deliberate but private impression formation. Men more than women showed greater activity in the VMPFC and NAcc when forming impressions of high-SES (vs. low-SES) targets. Seed partial least squares (PLS) analysis showed that this SES-based increase in VMPFC activity was associated with greater co-activation across an evaluative network for the high-SES versus low-SES univariate comparison. A data-driven task PLS analysis also showed greater co-activation in an extended network consisting of regions involved in salience detection, attention, and task engagement as a function of increasing target SES. This co-activating network was most pronounced for men. These findings provide evidence that high-SES targets elicit neural responses indicative of positivity, reward, and salience during impression formation among men. Contributions to a network neuroscience understanding of status perception and implications for gender- and status-based impression formation are discussed.

Punishing the privileged: Selfish offers from high-status allocators elicit greater punishment from third-party arbitrators

Individuals high in socioeconomic status (SES) are often viewed as valuable members of society. However, the appeal of high-SES people exists in tension with our aversion to inequity. Little experimental work has directly examined how people rectify inequitable distributions between two individuals varying in SES. The objective of the present study was to examine how disinterested third parties adjudicate inequity in the context of concrete financial allocations between a selfish allocator and a recipient who was the victim of the allocator’s selfish offer. Specifically, this study focused on whether knowing the SES of the victim or the allocator affected the participant’s decisions to punish the selfish allocator. In two experiments (N = 999), participants completed a modified third-party Ultimatum Game in which they arbitrated inequitable exchanges between an allocator and a recipient. Although participants generally preferred to redistribute inequitable exchanges without punishing players who made unfair allocations, we observed an increased preference for punitive solutions as offers became increasingly selfish. This tendency was especially pronounced when the victim was low in SES or when the perpetrator was high in SES, suggesting a tendency to favor the disadvantaged even among participants reporting high subjective SES. Finally, punitive responses were especially likely when the context emphasized the allocator’s privileged status rather than the recipient’s underprivileged status. These findings inform our understanding of how SES biases retributive justice even in non-judicial contexts that minimize the salience of punishment.

Modulation of preference for abstract stimuli following competence-based social status primes

In the present study, we measured whether competence-related high and low social status attributed to two unknown individuals affects participants' implicit reactivity to abstract stimuli associated to the identity of the same individuals. During a status-inducing procedure, participants were asked to play an interactive game with two (fake) players coded as high vs low status based on their game competence. Before and after the game, a modified version of the Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP) was administered in which the players' faces were used as primes. The evaluation target, as is typical to AMP, was a Chinese ideogram. There were two different presentation timings for the prime image: 75 ms and 17 ms. After the status-inducing procedure, the evaluation targets preceded by the high-status prime (i.e. best player's face) were rated as more pleasant than those preceded by the low-status prime (i.e. worst player's face). This effect was only found, however, for the 75 ms lasting prime. Moreover, explicit ratings of the primes showed that the high-status player was rated as more intelligent, competent and dominant than the low status one. These results indicate that implicit preference and explicit evaluation of unacquainted individuals are rapidly modulated by competence-based social status attribution, thus hinting at the plastic nature of social categorization and, relatedly, the malleability of visual preference.

Bioelectrical echoes from a career at the cutting edge: John Cacioppo's legacy and the use of ERPs in social psychology

In his many writings, John Cacioppo stressed how neural and physiological events could reveal psychological phenomena. Far from merely "physiologizing" psychology, John advocated social neuroscience in service of theory development and causal inference. These themes can be seen in his ERP work, which he began in the early 1990s to answer basic questions about attitudes. Fortuitously, his foray into ERP research overlapped with the dominance of the social cognition perspective in social psychology, which argues that complex thoughts and behaviors can be understood by breaking them into their underlying elements. ERPs are a natural methodological complement to this perspective, assuming that complex thoughts and behaviors are composed to separable information processing stages that manifest on the scalp as ERPs. Social cognitive theories, with their roots in mental chronometry, are thus fertile ground for researchers possessing a way to quantify underlying mental operations. This review illustrates John's influence by tracing its impact on our own research.

Implicit Evaluative Biases Toward Targets Varying in Race and Socioeconomic Status

Generally, White (vs. Black) and high-status (vs. low-status) individuals are rated positively. However, implicit evaluations of simultaneously perceived race and socioeconomic status (SES) remain to be considered. Across four experiments, participants completed an evaluative priming task with face primes orthogonally varying in race (Black vs. White) and SES (low vs. high). Following initial evidence of a positive implicit bias for high-SES (vs. low-SES) primes, subsequent experiments revealed that this bias is sensitive to target race, particularly when race and SES antecedents are presented in an integrated fashion. Specifically, high-SES positive bias was more reliable for White than for Black targets. Additional analyses examining how implicit biases may be sensitive to perceiver characteristics such as race, SES, and beliefs about socioeconomic mobility are also discussed. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of examining evaluations based on race and SES when antecedents of both categories are simultaneously available.

How occupational status influences the processing of faces: An EEG study

This study examines the influence of social hierarchy on the neural electrophysiological responses to faces. In contrast with earlier EEG studies that typically manipulate social rank through competitive situations, we implemented hierarchy through occupational status and thus contrasted faces associated with high- vs. low-status (e.g. lawyer vs. waiter). Since social hierarchies are largely intertwined with gender, both female and male faces were used as stimuli, and both female and male participants were tested. The procedure consisted in presenting a status label before the face it was associated with. The analyses focused mainly on two components that have been shown to be modulated by competitive hierarchies and other social contexts, namely the N170 and the Late Positive Potential (LPP). The results indicated that gender, but not status, modulated the N170 amplitude. Moreover, high-status faces elicited larger LPP amplitude than low-status faces but this difference was driven by female participants. This gender effect is discussed in line with research showing that women and men are sensitive to different kinds of hierarchy. Methodological differences are considered to account for the discrepancy between studies that find an effect of hierarchy on the N170 and those that do not.

Neural processing of gendered information is more robustly associated with mothers' gendered communication with children than mothers' implicit and explicit gender stereotypes

Processes like gender socialization (the ways in which parents convey information to their children about how girls and boys should behave) often happen unconsciously and might therefore be studied best with neuroscientific measures. We examined whether neural processing of gender-stereotype-congruent and incongruent information is more robustly related to mothers' gendered socialization of their child than mothers' implicit and explicit gender stereotypes. To this end, we examined event-related potentials (ERPs) of mothers (N = 35) completing an implicit gender-stereotype task and mothers' gender stereotypes in relation to observed gendered communication with their child (2-6 years old) in a naturalistic picture-book-reading setting. Increased N2 activity (previously related to attentional processes) to gender stimuli in the implicit gender-stereotype task was associated with mothers' positive evaluation of similar gendered behaviors and activities in the picture book they read with their child. Increased P300 activity (previously related to attention to unexpected events) to incongruent trials in the gender-stereotype task was associated with a more positive evaluation of congruent versus incongruent pictures. Compared to mothers' gender stereotypes, neural processing of gendered information was more robustly related to how mothers talk to their children about boys' and girls' stereotype-congruent and incongruent behavior, and masculine and feminine activities.