title: Evidence for implicit self-positivity bias: an event-related brain potential study.
abstract: We investigated the processing of self-related information under the prime paradigm using event-related potentials (ERPs) to provide evidence for implicit self-positivity bias in Chinese individuals. Reaction times and ERPs were recorded when participants made positive/negative emotional judgments to personality-trait adjectives about themselves or others. Faster responses occurred to self-related positive adjectives and other-related negative adjectives, indicating implicit self-positivity bias at the behavioral level. ERPs showed an interaction between prime and emotion at the P300 amplitude, with larger P300 amplitudes for words within the self-positivity bias, indicating that self-related information occupied more attentional resources. Larger N400 amplitudes elicited by words that were inconsistent with the self-positivity bias, suggesting that accessing non-self-relevant information is more difficult than self-relevant information. Thus, P300 and N400 could be used as neuro-indexes of the implicit self-positivity bias.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China, chenyun175030@126.com.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Shanming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qianbao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015982:Bias; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult