Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
Published on: September 28, 2018
Self-knowledge reduces conflict by biasing one of plural possible answers
Takashi Nakao1, Mayo Mitsumoto, Hitomi Nashiwa
1Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan. takana818@lit.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
The authors investigated whether self-knowledge has a function to reduce conflict by biasing one of two choices during occupational choice (e.g., Which occupation do you think you could do better?-dancer or chemist). In the three experiments, event-related brain potentials were recorded. Experiment 1 revealed that the amplitude of the conflict-related negativity (CRN) reflects strength of conflict during occupational choice. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that the CRN amplitude during occupational choice was smaller when self-knowledge was activated than when other-knowledge was activated. Experiment 3 showed that the CRN amplitude during occupational choice was decreased more when self-knowledge that biases one choice of occupation was activated than when self-knowledge that does not bias was activated. These results suggest that self-knowledge reduces conflict by biasing one of multiple choices in situations where two or more possible correct answers can be given.
Related Concept Videos
Self-Schemas
Self-Serving Bias
Hindsight Biases
Cognitive Dissonance
Confirmation Biases
Fundamental Attribution Error
