Self-Esteem Modulates the Time Course of Self-Positivity Bias in Explicit Self-Evaluation
Open accessAbstract
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.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Individuals with low self-esteem often harbor a pessimistic outlook towards their own self-image, leading to more negative online interactions and making it harder for them to receive acceptance from online communities, thus hindering their ability to develop a robust online social support system.
“On the contrary, individuals who possess low self-esteem often harbor a pessimistic outlook towards their own self-image, leading to more negative online interactions and making it harder for them to receive acceptance from online communities, thus hindering their ability to develop a robust online social support system [128].”
From How social media usage affects psychological and subjective well-being: testing a moderated mediation model (2023) · cites this paper as [128]
Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Rosenberg, M. (1965) · doi:10.1515/9781400876136 · Cited by 30,126 · see citing works
Depression. Clinical, Experimental, and Theoretical Aspects.
(1968) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-68-2-502 · Cited by 5,232 · see citing works
A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifact
Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., & Donchin, E. (1983) · Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology · doi:10.1016/0013-4694(83)90135-9 · Cited by 5,055 · see citing works
The nature and function of self-esteem: Sociometer theory
Leary, M. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(00)80003-9 · Cited by 2,521 · see citing works
Is there a universal need for positive self-regard?
Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1999) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.106.4.766 · Cited by 2,247 · cited 1× · see citing works
“people in the America [29].”
Finding the self? An event-related fMRI study
Kelley, W. M., Macrae, C. N., Wyland, C. L., Caglar, S., Inati, S., & Heatherton, T. F. (2002) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/08989290260138672 · Cited by 1,606 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results have shown that the medial prefrontal (ventral and dorsal) and medial parietal/posterior cingulate (anterior and posterior) cortices are engaged during tasks which require making specific judgments about one’s own traits compared to judgments of others or semantic j…”
BackgroundNeural correlates of self-reflection
Johnson, S. C. (2002) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awf181 · Cited by 930 · see citing works
Personal contact, individuation, and the better-than-average effect.
Alicke, M. D., Klotz, M. L., Breitenbecher, D. L., Yurak, T. J., & Vredenburg, D. S. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.5.804 · Cited by 914 · see citing works
Evaluations of Self and Others: Self-Enhancement Biases in Social Judgments
Brown, J. D. (1986) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.1986.4.4.353 · Cited by 911 · see citing works
Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., & Toguchi, Y. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.1.60 · Cited by 885 · see citing works
Narcissism, Self-Esteem, and the Positivity of Self-Views: Two Portraits of Self-Love
Campbell, W. K., Rudich, E. A., & Sedikides, C. (2002) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167202286007 · Cited by 866 · see citing works
Motivational and emotional aspects of the self
Leary, M. R. (2007) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085658 · Cited by 838 · see citing works
Emotion, attention, and the ‘negativity bias’, studied through event-related potentials
Carretié, L., Mercado, F., Tapia, M., & Hinojosa, J. A. (2001) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/s0167-8760(00)00195-1 · Cited by 648 · see citing works
In search of the self: a positron emission tomography study
Craik, F. I. M., Moroz, T. M., Moscovitch, M., Stuss, D. T., Winocur, G., Tulving, E., & Kapur, S. (1999) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00102 · Cited by 600 · see citing works
The neural correlates of direct and reflected self-knowledge
Ochsner, K. N., Beer, J. S., Robertson, E. R., Cooper, J. C., Gabrieli, J. D. E., Kihsltrom, J. F., & D'Esposito, M. (2005) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.06.069 · Cited by 562 · see citing works
P300 as an index of attention to self-relevant stimuli
Gray, H. M., Ambady, N., Lowenthal, W. T., & Deldin, P. J. (2003) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0022-1031(03)00092-1 · Cited by 552 · see citing works
Neuroanatomical evidence for distinct cognitive and affective components of self
Moran, J. M., Macrae, C. N., Heatherton, T. F., Wyland, C. L., & Kelley, W. M. (2006) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2006.18.9.1586 · Cited by 501 · see citing works
Self-referential reflective activity and its relationship with rest: a PET study
D’Argembeau, A., Collette, F., der Linden, M. V., Laureys, S., Fiore, G. D., Degueldre, C., Luxen, A., & Salmon, É. (2005) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.11.048 · Cited by 489 · see citing works
Dijksterhuis, A. (2004) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.345 · Cited by 315 · see citing works
Allocation of attention to self-name and self-face: An ERP study
Tacikowski, P., & Nowicka, A. (2010) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.03.009 · Cited by 269 · see citing works
Timecourse of neural signatures of object recognition
Johnson, J. S., & Olshausen, B. A. (2003) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/3.7.4 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
Estimation of the coherence spectrum and its confidence interval using the fast Fourier transform
Benignus, V. A. (1969) · IEEE Transactions on Audio and Electroacoustics · doi:10.1109/tau.1969.1162046 · Cited by 196 · see citing works
High self-esteem buffers negative feedback: Once more with feeling
Brown, J. D. (2010) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699930903504405 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Self‐enhancement in Japan and America
Brown, J. D., & Kobayashi, C. (2002) · Asian Journal Of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/1467-839x.00101 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
Herbert, C., Pauli, P., & Herbert, B. M. (2010) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsq082 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
It's All About You: An ERP Study of Emotion and Self-Relevance in Discourse
Fields, E. C., & Kuperberg, G. R. (2012) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.05.003 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Edwards, E., Soltani, M., Kim, W. B., Dalal, S. S., Nagarajan, S. S., Berger, M. S., & Knight, R. T. (2009) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.90954.2008 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Seeing yourself in a positive light: Brain correlates of the self-positivity bias
Watson, L. A., Dritschel, B., Obonsawin, M. C., & Jentzsch, I. (2007) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2007.03.049 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
His or mine? The time course of self–other discrimination in emotion processing
Herbert, C., Herbert, B., Ethofer, T., & Pauli, P. (2011) · Social Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17470919.2010.523543 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Burden, M. J., Andrew, C. M., Saint‐Amour, D., Meintjes, E. M., Molteno, C. D., Hoyme, H. E., Robinson, L. K., Khaole, N., Nelson, C. A., Jacobson, J. L., et al. (2009) · Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research · doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2009.01038.x · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Valence, Comparison Focus and Self-Positivity Biases
Pahl, S., & Eiser, J. R. (2005) · Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) · doi:10.1027/1618-3169.52.4.303 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Pleasant mood intensifies brain processing of cognitive control: ERP correlates
Yuan, J., Xu, S. J., Yang, J., Liu, Q., Chen, A., Zhu, L., Chen, J., & Li, H. (2011) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.01.004 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Self-citationBigman, Z., & Pratt, H. (2004) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2003.10.003 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Neuroimaging self-esteem: a fMRI study of individual differences in women
Frewen, P., Lundberg, E., Brimson-Théberge, M., & Théberge, J. (2012) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nss032 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Avoiding Anxiety, Being in Denial, or Simply Stroking Self‐Esteem: Why Self‐Positivity?
Lin, Y., Lin, C., & Raghubir, P. (2003) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp1304_13 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
The neural correlates of implicit self-relevant processing in low self-esteem: An ERP study
Yang, J., Guan, L., Dedovic, K., Qi, M., & Zhang, Q. (2012) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2012.06.033 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Self-citationChanges in the relationship between self‐reference and emotional valence as a function of dysphoria
Watson, L. A., Dritschel, B., Jentzsch, I., & Obonsawin, M. C. (2008) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1348/000712607x248689 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Event-related potential component associated with the recognition of three-dimensional objects
Wang, G., & Kameda, S. (2005) · Neuroreport · doi:10.1097/00001756-200505120-00022 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Li, H., Zeigler‐Hill, V., Luo, J., Yang, J., & Zhang, Q. (2012) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2012.02.010 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Self-citationModulation of self-esteem in self-and other-evaluations primed by subliminal and supraliminal faces
Tao, R., Zhang, S., Li, Q., & Geng, H. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0047103 · Cited by 20 · cited 1× · see citing works
“with mildly positive or ambivalent feelings toward oneself [6,7].”
Background
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [8]Sinha RR, Krueger J (1998) Ideographic self-evaluation and bias. Journal of Research in Personality 32.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Schindler, S., Wegrzyn, M., Steppacher, I., & Kissler, J. (2015) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3346-14.2015 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Zhang, C., Tang, L., & Liu, Z. (2023) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-023-01311-2 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zhang, H., Guan, L., Qi, M., & Yang, J.
- Affiliations
- Southwest University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Yang, Juan
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-12-05
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e81169
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3855207
- OpenAlex
- W1985227945
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 2.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Southwest University
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- self-esteem, self-positivity bias, self-relevance, positive personality traits, negative personality traits, N1, late positive component, P2, event-related potentials, attentional processes, self-enhancement
- MeSH terms
- Behavior, Female, Humans, Male, Prejudice, Self-Assessment, Time Factors, Electrophysiological Phenomena, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
