1. Self-distancing improves interpersonal perceptions and behavior by decreasing medial prefrontal cortex activity during the provision of criticism
- Author
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Leitner, Jordan B, Ayduk, Ozlem, Mendoza-Denton, Rodolfo, Magerman, Adam, Amey, Rachel, Kross, Ethan, and Forbes, Chad E
- Subjects
Biological Psychology ,Cognitive and Computational Psychology ,Social and Personality Psychology ,Psychology ,Brain Disorders ,Behavioral and Social Science ,1.1 Normal biological development and functioning ,Underpinning research ,Adult ,Blacks ,Electroencephalography ,Female ,Humans ,Interpersonal Relations ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Male ,Mentors ,Prefrontal Cortex ,Prejudice ,Psychological Distance ,Race Relations ,Self Concept ,Signal Processing ,Computer-Assisted ,Social Behavior ,Social Perception ,Whites ,Young Adult ,intergroup dynamics ,prejudice ,racial and ethnic attitudes and relations ,electrophysiology ,mentorship ,White People ,Black People ,Neurosciences ,Cognitive Sciences ,Experimental Psychology ,Biological psychology ,Clinical and health psychology - Abstract
Previous research suggests that people show increased self-referential processing when they provide criticism to others, and that this self-referential processing can have negative effects on interpersonal perceptions and behavior. The current research hypothesized that adopting a self-distanced perspective (i.e. thinking about a situation from a non-first person point of view), as compared with a typical self-immersed perspective (i.e. thinking about a situation from a first-person point of view), would reduce self-referential processing during the provision of criticism, and in turn improve interpersonal perceptions and behavior. We tested this hypothesis in an interracial context since research suggests that self-referential processing plays a role in damaging interracial relations. White participants prepared for mentorship from a self-immersed or self-distanced perspective. They then conveyed negative and positive evaluations to a Black mentee while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Source analysis revealed that priming a self-distanced (vs self-immersed) perspective predicted decreased activity in regions linked to self-referential processing (medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC) when providing negative evaluations. This decreased MPFC activity during negative evaluations, in turn, predicted verbal feedback that was perceived to be more positive, warm and helpful. Results suggest that self-distancing can improve interpersonal perceptions and behavior by decreasing self-referential processing during the provision of criticism.
- Published
- 2017