Electrophysiological responses to negative evaluative person-knowledge: Effects of individual differences

Claudia Krasowski,Thomas Straube,Maximilian Bruchmann,Robert Moeck,Sebastian Schindler

doi:10.3758/s13415-021-00894-w

Claudia Krasowski, Thomas Straube + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-021-00894-w

Copy DOI

Abstract

Faces transmit rich information about a unique personal identity. Recent studies examined how negative evaluative information affects event-related potentials (ERPs), the relevance of individual differences, such as trait anxiety, neuroticism, or agreeableness, for these effects is unclear. In this preregistered study, participants (N = 80) were presented with neutral faces, either associated with highly negative or neutral biographical information. Faces were shown under three different task conditions that varied the attentional focus on face-unrelated features, perceptual face information, or emotional information. Results showed a task-independent increase of the N170 component for faces associated with negative information, while interactions occurred for the Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) and the Late Positive Potential (LPP), showing ERP differences only when paying attention to the evaluative information. Trait anxiety and neuroticism did not influence ERP differences. Low agreeableness increased EPN differences during perceptual distraction. Thus, we observed that low agreeableness leads to early increased processing of potentially hostile faces, although participants were required to attend to a face-unrelated feature.

Highlights

Faces are a significant part of communication, which transmit rich and unique identity-information about a person
The present study investigated how negative evaluative information affects early (P1, N170), mid-latency (EPN), and late (LPP) event-related potentials (ERPs) components depending on task conditions and individual differences in trait anxiety, neuroticism, and agreeableness
We aimed to provide a systematic overview of how trait anxiety, neuroticism, or agreeableness modulate evaluative person knowledge ERP responses

Summary

Introduction

Faces are a significant part of communication, which transmit rich and unique identity-information about a person Such knowledge can be threatening, for example knowing that it is a face of a criminal who committed a horrible crime. Such negative information leads to differential face processing, but it has been suggested that there are individual differences in the acquisition and maintenance of threatening associations (Lonsdorf & Merz, 2017), as well as individual differences in the processing of such negative, in particular, threat-related information The Late Positive Potential (LPP) arises as differential positivity for emotional information and indicates stimulus evaluation and controlled attention processes (Hajcak et al, 2009; Harald Thomas Schupp et al, 2006)

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion