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Happy me: Asymmetric bidirectional links between the self and positivity underpin biased processing
Naomi A Lee1,2, Douglas Martin1, Jie Sui1
1School of Psychology, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
British Journal of Psychology (London, England : 1953)
|July 23, 2026
Summary
The self and positive emotions interact asymmetrically. Positive emotions prioritize the self by inhibiting processing of others, while self-related information directly boosts positive emotional processing.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Self-Concept Research
Background:
- The self-concept influences how individuals process information.
- Positive emotional valence typically enhances information processing.
- The interaction between self-relevance and emotional valence is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the bidirectional relationship between self-relatedness and emotional valence.
- To determine if self-positivity and self-negativity involve reciprocal interactions.
- To elucidate the mechanisms underlying the self-positivity effect.
Main Methods:
- Utilized evaluative priming tasks across three experiments.
- Employed shape-label matching tasks to assess processing.
- Manipulated self-relatedness and emotional valence (positive and negative).
Main Results:
- Positive emotion primes enhanced self-prioritization by inhibiting stranger-related targets.
- Self-primes facilitated processing of positive emotional targets.
- No comparable effects were observed for negative emotional valence.
Conclusions:
- The self-positivity link is asymmetric and direction-dependent.
- Emotional context influences self-prioritization via inhibition.
- Self-context influences emotional processing via direct facilitation of positive information.
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