Abstract
Humans employ a number of strategies to improve their position in their given social hierarchy. Overclaiming involves presenting oneself as having more knowledge than one actually possesses, and it is typically invoked to increase one’s social standing. If increased expectations to possess knowledge is a perceived social pressure, such expectations should increase bouts of overclaiming. As the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is sensitive to social pressure and disruption of the MPFC leads to decreases in overclaiming, we predicted that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the MPFC would reduce overclaiming and the effects would be enhanced in the presence of social pressure. Twelve participants were given a test in which half of the words were real and half were fake, and they were asked how well they knew each word. They were not told that any of the words were fake. Half of the participants were exposed to social pressure while the other half were not. Following TMS delivered to the MPFC, overclaiming rates decreased, specifically under conditions of high social pressure. Medial PFC TMS did not influence real word responses and real words did not interact with the MPFC and social pressure. These preliminary findings support the significant role the MPFC plays in social cognition and the importance of the MPFC in mediating socially meaningful situations. We suggest the role of the MPFC as being highly influenced by the premium placed on social manipulation in human evolution.
Highlights
There are numerous factors that contribute to success within a social interaction
Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 535 monitoring of the self as the process through which people regulate their own behavior in order to be perceived in a favorable way and implicated that self-awareness had a primary basis in self-deception [5]
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Summary
There are numerous factors that contribute to success within a social interaction. Often examined in social neuroscience is the influence of ego management and self-presentation [1,2]. The typical method used for testing overclaiming is to present words that are not actual words, but adhere to typical grammatical rules (e.g., ‘triannic’, which could be a word). When participants view these words along with actual words, they often claim that they know them when the words are fake and by definition, unknowable. This method has been widely used [8], though there is evidence that overclaiming measured this way may be influenced by other variables [9]. Typical deviations from Palhaus’s original design almost always seek to increase overclaiming and include tapping into the participants’ areas of expertise [10]
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