ERP evidence suggests that confrontation with deterministic statements aligns subsequent other- and self-relevant...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Error processing is crucial for adaptive behavior.
• Social contexts can influence cognitive processes, including error monitoring.
• Deterministic thinking, the belief that events are pre-determined, may impact self-other distinctions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if deterministic thinking modulates error processing in social contexts.
• To examine the neural underpinnings of these modulations using event-related potentials (ERPs).

Main Methods:

• Participants were exposed to deterministic or neutral statements.
• A choice-reaction task assessed performance for self and others.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured to analyze neural responses to errors.

Main Results:

• Deterministic thinking reduced differences in error processing between self- and other-relevant trials.
• Control participants showed enhanced post-error slowing for other-relevant errors, which was absent in the deterministic group.
• Neural error signals (ΔERN, ΔPe amplitudes) were diminished or undifferentiated in the deterministic group compared to controls.

Conclusions:

• Confrontation with deterministic beliefs reduces self-centered processing biases in error evaluation.
• This effect may have implications for social evaluation and intergroup dynamics by mitigating egocentric biases.