title: Attributions, deception, and event related potentials: an investigation of the self-serving bias.
abstract: Self-serving attributions occur when negative personal outcomes are ascribed to external circumstances and when positive outcomes are ascribed to internal factors. Individuals strategically employ the self-serving bias to maintain and protect positive self-views. The current study investigated the neural correlates of the self-serving bias using dense array EEG, giving 20 participants false (success or failure) feedback during a facial working memory task. Participants made self-serving attributions during the task, primarily following failure feedback. Voltage and source analyses in response to attribution stimuli revealed that, compared to self-serving responses, non-self-serving attributions were preceded by enhanced dorsomedial frontal cortex activity. This finding suggests that unbiased attributions require greater self-control, overriding the automatic tendency for self-enhancement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, BioImaging Research Center, University of Georgia, 429 Psychology Building, Athens, GA 30602, USA. bdlisk@uga.edu
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Krusemark
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Keith Campbell
authors.forename: Brett A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Clementz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008014:Lie Detection / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology