Reward value shapes the time course of self-bias

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Personal possession significantly influences decision-making, leading to faster categorization of self-owned items versus others'.
• The temporal dynamics and influencing factors of this self-prioritization effect remain underexplored, especially concerning object characteristics related to self-concept.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how reward value, a key stimulus characteristic, affects the time course of the self-prioritization effect in decision-making.
• To determine if the duration and magnitude of self-bias are modulated by the perceived value of owned objects.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an object-classification task across three experiments.
• Participants classified high- and low-reward value items (stones, cryptocurrencies) attributed to themselves or a friend.
• Measured reaction times and classification accuracy to assess self-prioritization.

Main Results:

• Self-prioritization was observed for both high- and low-value items, confirming a general self-bias.
• The magnitude of self-prioritization was significantly larger for high-value items compared to low-value items.
• The self-prioritization effect demonstrated greater persistence over time for high-value items than for low-value items.

Conclusions:

• Reward value dynamically modulates the extent and duration of self-prioritization in decision-making.
• These findings suggest that the self-prioritization effect is not uniform but is sensitive to the value and self-relevance of objects.
• The results contribute to a nuanced understanding of self-function and decisional biases.