Bicultural Minds: A Cultural Priming Approach to the Self-Bias Effect

Accentuate the positive: Evidence that context dependent self-reference drives self-bias

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.

Decoding individual differences in self-prioritization from the resting-state functional connectome

Although the self has traditionally been viewed as a higher-order mental function by most theoretical frameworks, recent research advocates a fundamental self hypothesis, viewing the self as a baseline function of the brain embedded within its spontaneous activities, which dynamically regulates cognitive processing and subsequently guides behavior. Understanding this fundamental self hypothesis can reveal where self-biased behaviors emerge and to what extent brain signals at rest can predict such biased behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the association between spontaneous neural connectivity and robust self-bias in a perceptual matching task using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 348 young participants. By decoding whole-brain connectivity patterns, the support vector regression model produced the best predictions of the magnitude of self-bias in behavior, which was evaluated via a nested cross-validation procedure. The out-of-sample generalizability was further authenticated using an external dataset of older adults. The functional connectivity results demonstrated that self-biased behavior was associated with distinct connections between the default mode, cognitive control, and salience networks. Consensus network and computational lesion analyses further revealed contributing regions distributed across six networks, extending to additional nodes, such as the thalamus, whose role in self-related processing remained unclear. These results provide evidence that self-biased behavior derives from spontaneous neural connectivity, supporting the fundamental self hypothesis. Thus, we propose an integrated neural network model of this fundamental self that synthesizes previous theoretical models and portrays the brain mechanisms by which the self emerges at rest internally and regulates responses to the external environment.

The relationship between self, value-based reward, and emotion prioritisation effects

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.