Perspective taking modulates positivity bias in self-appraisals: Behavioral and event-related potential evidence

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that when people self-reflect--they typically judge the self as more positive (or less negative) compared to others on a range of dimensions (such as health, social skills, or achievement). In the present study, we investigated whether viewing the self through the eyes of other people reduces this egocentric (self-centered) bias. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were examined in 17 subjects who performed judgments of adjectives in positive or negative valences from either self-perspective or other-perspective. Reaction times revealed an interaction between the factors perspective and emotional valence. Faster responses occurred after positive words in the self-perspective condition. A similar interaction was observed in the ERP waveforms in the time range of the N400 component: smaller N400 amplitudes were elicited by positive stimuli compared to negative stimuli in the self-perspective condition, but not in the other-perspective condition. Similarly, a reversed pattern was found in the late positive component (LPC) at 415-815 ms. The present study suggests that shifts in perspectives between self and others can change self-appraisal, which in turn reduces egocentric biases of the self. On a neural level, this modulation may be associated with an increase in self-monitoring processes.

Self-Reference Emerges Earlier than Emotion during an Implicit Self-Referential Emotion Processing Task: Event-Related Potential Evidence

“…There was an interaction between self-reference and emotion observed in both the behavioral RT and late LPP in the left anterior brain. The results are generally consistent with the findings in previous studies using an implicit paradigm (Herbert et al, 2011a , b ; Chen et al, 2014 ; Wu et al, 2014 ), but the time courses are later than those with the explicit paradigm (Zhang et al, 2013 ; Zhou et al, 2013 ; Yang et al, 2014a ; Cai et al, 2016 ; Li et al, 2016 ). These patterns indicate that the increased specificity of the self-reference would bring forward the combination of self-reference and emotion information.…”

“…ERP analysis showed that emotion was rapidly discriminated in an early time window of early posterior negativity (EPN, 200–300 ms), regardless of whether the preceding words were self-referential or other-referential, while emotion was modulated by self-reference in the later stage of LPP (450–600 ms; Herbert et al, 2011b ). The later interaction between self-reference and emotion is consistent with findings in the self-referential emotion task without discrimination of self- and other-relevant (Zhou et al, 2013 ; Cai et al, 2016 ; Li et al, 2016 ) and further suggest that self-reference interacts with emotion to categorize information, but after emotional discrimination. Nevertheless, the self-discrimination effect was not reported.…”

“…Our study mainly focused on the temporal dynamics on the self- and other-referential emotion. However, the other pronoun was not defined to a specific person such as a friend, a stranger or mother, which would affect the processing for self-referential emotion (Zhou et al, 2013 ; Li et al, 2016 ). Finally, some results seem to be related to specific culture-related features.…”

“…Self-relevant emotional information often entails positively biased processing (Fields and Kuperberg, 2015 ). For example, when participants are asked to judge which emotional trait words describe the self from one’s own perspective, a friend’s perspective, or a stranger’s perspective, the N400 (200–400 ms) amplitude is reduced by positive relative to negative words, both in the self-respective and friend-perspective conditions (Zhou et al, 2013 ; Li et al, 2016 ). The results from a cross-cultural study suggested that such self-positivity biases are similar in both Eastern Asian and Western populations in the late positive potential (LPP) component (350–850 ms; Cai et al, 2016 ).…”

Is it always me first? Effects of self-tagging on third-person perspective-taking.

“…In the symbolic interactionist tradition, the ability to perceive oneself from a third-person perspective is considered integral to the development of the self (Goffman, 1959;Mead, 1934). Indeed, considering oneself from the third-person perspective is linked to future prosocial behavior (Leary, Estrada, & Allen, 2009;Libby, Shaeffer, Eibach, & Slemmer, 2007) and improved perspective taking (Stephenson & Wicklund, 1983;Zhou et al, 2013), eliciting greater activity in brain regions related to emotion and memory (e.g., Ochsner et al, 2005).…”