The authors investigated whether self-knowledge has a function to reduce conflict by biasing one of two choices during occupational choice (e.g., Which occupation do you think you could do better?-dancer or chemist). In the three experiments, event-related brain potentials were recorded. Experiment 1 revealed that the amplitude of the conflict-related negativity (CRN) reflects strength of conflict during occupational choice. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that the CRN amplitude during occupational choice was smaller when self-knowledge was activated than when other-knowledge was activated. Experiment 3 showed that the CRN amplitude during occupational choice was decreased more when self-knowledge that biases one choice of occupation was activated than when self-knowledge that does not bias was activated. These results suggest that self-knowledge reduces conflict by biasing one of multiple choices in situations where two or more possible correct answers can be given.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.