Self-esteem modulates the time course of self-positivity bias in explicit self-evaluation

Abstract

Researchers have suggested that certain individuals may show a self-positivity bias, rating themselves as possessing more positive personality traits than others. Previous evidence has shown that people evaluate self-related information in such a way as to maintain or enhance self-esteem. However, whether self-esteem would modulate the time course of self-positivity bias in explicit self-evaluation has never been explored. In the present study, 21 participants completed the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and then completed a task where they were instructed to indicate to what extent positive/negative traits described themselves. Behavioral data showed that participants endorsed positive traits as higher in self-relevance compared to the negative traits. Further, participants' self-esteem levels were positively correlated with their self-positivity bias. Electrophysiological data revealed smaller N1 amplitude and larger late positive component (LPC) amplitude to stimuli consistent with the self-positivity bias (positive-high self-relevant stimuli) when compared to stimuli that were inconsistent with the self-positivity bias (positive-low self-relevant stimuli). Moreover, only in individuals with low self-esteem, the latency of P2 was more pronounced in processing stimuli that were consistent with the self-positivity bias (negative-low self-relevant stimuli) than to stimuli that were inconsistent with the self-positivity bias (positive-low self-relevant stimuli). Overall, the present study provides additional support for the view that low self-esteem as a personality variable would affect the early attentional processing.

Figure 1. The grand average ERPs for the negative-low self-relevant processing (blue line), the negative-high self-relevant processing (red line), the positive-low self-relevant processing (grey line), and the positive-high self-relevant processing (yellow line) in the low self-esteem group and in the high self-esteem group.

The topographic maps of the frontal N1 component in the positive-low self-relevant condition and the frontal P2 component in the negative-low self-relevant condition at electrode of Fz are also shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2. The N1 amplitudes (Top), the latencies of P2 component (Middle) and the LPC amplitudes (Bottom) for positive-high self-relevant words, for positive-low self-relevant words, for negative-high self-relevant words, and for negative-low self-relevant words.

Error bars indicate standard deviation of the mean.