Moral concerns increase attention and response monitoring during IAT performance: ERP evidence

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Previous research has revealed that people value morality as a more important person characteristic than competence. In this study, we tested whether people adjust their less explicit behavior more to moral than competence values. Participants performed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) that was either framed as a test of their morality or as a test of their competence. The behavioral results revealed a smaller IAT effect (i.e. a weaker negative implicit bias toward Muslims) in the morality condition than in the competence condition. Moreover, event-related potentials indicated increased social categorization of faces (as indexed by the N1 and P150) and enhanced conflict-and error monitoring (N450 and error-related negativity) in the morality condition compared to the competence condition. These findings indicate that an emphasis on morality can increase attentional and motivational processes that help to improve people's task performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)141-149
Number of pages9
JournalSocial, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Volume9
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • morality
  • social categorization
  • conflict monitoring
  • error-related negativity
  • IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST
  • INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
  • BRAIN POTENTIALS
  • COMPETENCE
  • PREJUDICE
  • RACE
  • PERCEPTION
  • MALLEABILITY
  • MOTIVATION
  • COGNITION

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Moral concerns increase attention and response monitoring during IAT performance: ERP evidence'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this