Neural mechanisms associated with semantic and basic self-oriented memory processes interact moderating self-esteem.

Individuals constantly encounter feedback from others and process this feedback in various ways to maintain positive situational state self-esteem in relation to semantic-based or trait self-esteem. Individuals may utilize episodic or semantic-driven processes that modulate feedback in two different ways to maintain general self-esteem levels. To date, it is unclear how these processes work while individuals receive social feedback to modulate state self-esteem.

Establishing construct validity evidence for regional measures of explicit and implicit racial bias.

Large-scale data collection has enabled social scientists to examine psychological constructs at broad, regional levels. However, because constructs and their measures initially operationalized at the individual level may have qualitatively and quantitatively different properties at other levels of analysis, the validity of constructs must be established when they are operationalized at new levels. To this end, the current research presents evidence of construct validity for explicit and implicit racial bias at region levels.

States higher in racial bias spend less on disabled medicaid enrollees.

Background: While there is considerable state-by-state variation in Medicaid disability expenditure, little is known about the factors that contribution to this variation.

Objective: Since Blacks disproportionately benefit from Medicaid disability programs, we aimed to gain insight into whether racial bias towards Blacks is one factor that explains state-by-state variation in Medicaid disability expenditures.

Method: We compiled 1,764,927 responses of explicit and implicit racial bias from all 50 states and Washington D.

Reducing negative affect and increasing rapport improve interracial mentorship outcomes.

Research suggests that interracial mentoring relationships are strained by negative affect and low rapport. As such, it stands to reason that strategies that decrease negative affect and increase rapport should improve these relationships. However, previous research has not tested this possibility.

Racial bias is associated with ingroup death rate for Blacks and Whites: Insights from Project Implicit.

Rationale: Research suggests that, among Whites, racial bias predicts negative ingroup health outcomes. However, little is known about whether racial bias predicts ingroup health outcomes among minority populations.

Objective: The aim of the current research was to understand whether racial bias predicts negative ingroup health outcomes for Blacks.

Self-distancing improves interpersonal perceptions and behavior by decreasing medial prefrontal cortex activity during the provision of criticism.

Previous research suggests that people show increased self-referential processing when they provide criticism to others, and that this self-referential processing can have negative effects on interpersonal perceptions and behavior. The current research hypothesized that adopting a self-distanced perspective (i.e.

Blacks' Death Rate Due to Circulatory Diseases Is Positively Related to Whites' Explicit Racial Bias.

Perceptions of racial bias have been linked to poorer circulatory health among Blacks compared with Whites. However, little is known about whether Whites' actual racial bias contributes to this racial disparity in health. We compiled racial-bias data from 1,391,632 Whites and examined whether racial bias in a given county predicted Black-White disparities in circulatory-disease risk (access to health care, diagnosis of a circulatory disease; Study 1) and circulatory-disease-related death rate (Study 2) in the same county.

Spontaneous default mode network phase-locking moderates performance perceptions under stereotype threat.

This study assessed whether individual differences in self-oriented neural processing were associated with performance perceptions of minority students under stereotype threat. Resting electroencephalographic activity recorded in white and minority participants was used to predict later estimates of task errors and self-doubt on a presumed measure of intelligence. We assessed spontaneous phase-locking between dipole sources in left lateral parietal cortex (LPC), precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (P/PCC), and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC); three regions of the default mode network (DMN) that are integral for self-oriented processing.

The face-time continuum: lifespan changes in facial width-to-height ratio impact aging-associated perceptions.

Aging influences how a person is perceived on multiple dimensions (e.g., physical power).

Adaptive disengagement buffers self-esteem from negative social feedback.

The degree to which self-esteem hinges on feedback in a domain is known as a contingency of self-worth, or engagement. Although previous research has conceptualized engagement as stable, it would be advantageous for individuals to dynamically regulate engagement. The current research examined whether the tendency to disengage from negative feedback accounts for variability in self-esteem.

Stereotype threat engenders neural attentional bias toward negative feedback to undermine performance.

Stereotype threat, a situational pressure individuals experience when they fear confirming a negative group stereotype, engenders a cascade of physiological stress responses, negative appraisals, and performance monitoring processes that tax working memory resources necessary for optimal performance. Less is known, however, about how stereotype threat biases attentional processing in response to performance feedback, and how such attentional biases may undermine performance. Women received feedback on math problems in stereotype threatening compared to stereotype-neutral contexts while continuous EEG activity was recorded.

Self-enhancement influences medial frontal cortex alpha power to social rejection feedback.

Although previous research has demonstrated that individuals are motivated to self-enhance, the neurocognitive mechanisms and temporal dynamics of self-enhancement are poorly understood. The current research examined whether self-enhancing motivations affect the perceptual processing of social feedback. Participants who varied in self-enhancement motivations received accept and reject feedback while EEG was recorded.

Facial structure is indicative of explicit support for prejudicial beliefs.

We present three studies examining whether male facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is correlated with racial prejudice and whether observers are sensitive to fWHR when assessing prejudice in other people. Our results indicate that males with a greater fWHR are more likely to explicitly endorse racially prejudicial beliefs, though fWHR was unrelated to implicit bias. Participants evaluated targets with a greater fWHR as more likely to be prejudiced and accurately evaluated the degree to which targets reported prejudicial attitudes.

Succeeding in the face of stereotype threat: the adaptive role of engagement regulation.

Two experiments examined Engagement Regulation, the systematic increase or decrease of self-esteem engagement in a domain following positive or negative outcomes, respectively. We hypothesized that, under threat, more positive outcomes increase engagement, and greater engagement augments the influence of subsequent outcomes on self-esteem and performance. Female participants completed an initial math test, received bogus feedback, and then completed a second test.