Proactive engagement of cognitive control modulates implicit approach-avoidance bias

Social approach and avoidance in language: N400-like ERP negativity indexes congruency and theta rhythms the conflict

Motivational congruency has been examined using tasks where participants perform approach or avoidance movements towards socially positive or negative faces. Language is tightly intertwined with interpersonal cognition. Thus, similar situations could be represented by means of language in interpersonal contexts: adjectives furnish valence to people (e.g. someone is cordial or arrogant), and attitudinal verbs define direction to relationship-actions: approach-avoidance (e.g. accept vs. reject). In an Electroencephalography (EEG) study, 40 participants were presented with sentences where a character was valenced (e.g. "Arthur is cordial/arrogant") before being the target of a relationship-actions ("Grisela welcomed/ignored Arthur at the party"). We analyzed both Event-related potential (ERP) amplitude and time-frequency power in response to the attitudinal verb. For ERP amplitudes, we found a significant cluster between 280 and 370 ms, covering part of the development of a N400-like ERP component. This cluster reflects an interaction driven by congruency between motivational direction and target valence. Likewise, time-frequency power analysis revealed an enhancement of theta rhythms under incongruent conditions, most likely indexing conflict processing. Results support that relationship-actions are represented as approach and avoidance and thus involve conflict processing and resolution of incongruent situations. Implications for the interweaving of affective language and social cognition within Embodiment Simulation Theory are discussed.

Who avoids being involved in personal carbon trading? An investigation based on the urban residents in eastern China

Personal carbon trading scheme has been pulled into the public eye with the increasing urgency of downstream carbon emission reduction, and its feasibility largely depends on public acceptability. This study established a hierarchical framework for urban residents' approach-avoidance responses to personal carbon trading; adopted Likert scale and manikin task methods to assess the current states of residents' responses by investigating 1892 respondents in eastern China; employed one-way analysis of variance to identify the demographic differences of their responses; and used regression analysis to explore the influences of psychological factors on their responses. The findings showed that urban residents' responses to personal carbon trading scheme and participation could be classified into five response hierarchies: deep avoidance, shallow avoidance, uncertain, shallow approach, and deep approach. The average of residents' responses denoted a shallow approach, with the characteristics of median stability, duration, and noise. Moreover, residents holding deep approach responses to the scheme and participation respectively accounted for 42.365% and 34.275% of the total, which indicated a gap between attitude and behavior. Urban residents' responses exhibited significant differences with respect to demographic characteristics. Most of the residents with the most avoidance response were young males (i.e., 18-20 years old), older first-line employees (i.e., older than 50 years old), and those on subsistence incomes (i.e., annual individual or household income was RMB 30,000-50,000 yuan). Additionally, residents who held egoistic values, had low senses of social responsibility, knew little about carbon reductions, and preferred comfortable life were likely to avoid the scheme and participation. Finally, policy suggestions are proposed for the enhancement of urban residents' attitudes towards personal carbon trading, thereby providing valuable references for its implementation.