Elucidating the neural correlates of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement

The ugly truth: negative gossip about celebrities and positive gossip about self entertain people in different ways

“…However, further study found that the role of the sMPFC in self-enhancement was exclusively for egoistic (i.e., more self-related) but not moralistic (i.e., more interactive) evaluation (Barrios et al, 2008). For example, during the self-evaluation task (judge whether the personality words describe participants themselves), TMS applied to the sMPFC selectively reduced selfenhancement for egoistic words, which described personalities related to talent or social prominency (e.g., ambitious, popular), but not for moralistic words which described personalities related to observance of social norms (e.g., considerate, moral) (Barrios et al, 2008). Besides, other studies suggested that the sMPFC was generally involved in self-evaluation, but not specific to positive self-evaluation (e.g., Beer, Lombardo, & Bhanji, 2010;Fossati et al, 2003;Moran et al, 2006).…”

“…Moreover, a MPFC- OPFC circuit was proposed to be involved in the selfenhancement bias (Kwan et al, 2007). However, further study found that the role of the sMPFC in self-enhancement was exclusively for egoistic (i.e., more self-related) but not moralistic (i.e., more interactive) evaluation (Barrios et al, 2008). For example, during the self-evaluation task (judge whether the personality words describe participants themselves), TMS applied to the sMPFC selectively reduced selfenhancement for egoistic words, which described personalities related to talent or social prominency (e.g., ambitious, popular), but not for moralistic words which described personalities related to observance of social norms (e.g., considerate, moral) (Barrios et al, 2008).…”

Neural activation pattern in self-deceivers

“…A comparative studies of self-enhancement bias (Kwan et al, 2007), egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement (Barrios et al, 2008) have indicated the involvement of specifi c brain region i.e., MPFC. In addition, few studies have also demonstrated the activation of ACC (Okado & Stark, 2003) and occipital areas in the false memories of self (Slotnick & Schacter, 2004).…”

“…In addition to the previous work of deception, few neuroscientists have reported the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC) activation during self-evaluation (Craik, Moroz, Moscovitch, Stuss, Wincour, Tulving & Kapur, 1999;Fossati, Hevenor & Graham, 2003;Johnson, Baxter, Wilder, Pipe, Heiserman & Prigatano, 2002;Lou, Luber, Crupain, Keenan, Nowak, Kjaer, Sackeim & Lisanby, 2004;Ochsner, Beer, Robertson, Cooper, Gabrieli, Kihsltrom & D'Esposito, 2005). Further studies have applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the MPFC and other related structures and found MPFC signifi cant involvement in the process of self-enhancement bias (Kwan, Barrios, Ganis, Gorman, Lange, Kumar, Shepard & Kenan, 2007) and egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement (Barrios, Kwan, Ganis, Gorman, Romanowski & Keenan, 2008).…”

Neural correlates of self-deception and impression-management

“…As well as being shown to play a general role in deception, the mPFC has also been associated with self-identity, emotional processing and when attention is directed at the self (Vogeley et al, 2004;Phan et al, 2002). The mPFC may also be important for producing self-enhancing and overly positive personal responses (Kwan et al, 2007;Barrios et al, 2008), though these findings were reported in studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The role of the mPFC in deception has also been investigated using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS; Karim et al, 2010).…”