Judging me and you: Task design modulates self-prioritization

• Main Authors: Marius Golubickis, C. Neil Macrae
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-07-01
• Series: Acta Psychologica
• Subjects: Self-relevance; Self-prioritization; Task design; Blocked vs. mixed; Social cognition
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691821001001

An extensive literature has revealed the benefits of self-relevance during stimulus processing. Compared to material associated with other persons (e.g., friend, mother), self-relevant information elicits faster and more accurate responses (i.e., the self-prioritization effect). Probing the boundary conditions of this effect, recent research has sought to identify whether the advantages of self-relevance can be attenuated (or even eliminated) under certain circumstances. Continuing in this tradition, here we explored the extent to which basic aspects of the task design modulate self-prioritization. The results of two experiments demonstrated just such an effect. During both simultaneous (i.e., Expt. 1) and sequential (i.e., Expt. 2) versions of a standard shape-label matching task, self-prioritization was reduced when stimulus presentation was blocked (i.e., self- or friend-relevant items) compared to intermixed (i.e., self- and friend-relevant items). These findings highlight both the persistence of self-prioritization and its sensitivity to task-related variation.