ArticlePDF Available

Self-Affirmation Activates Brain Systems Associated with Self-Related Processing and Reward and is Reinforced by Future Orientation

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

Self-affirmation theory posits that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-view and that threats to perceived self-competence are met with resistance. When threatened, self-affirmations can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values. Many questions exist, however, about the underlying mechanisms associated with self-affirmation. We examined the neural mechanisms of self-affirmation with a task developed for use in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) environment. Results of a region of interest analysis demonstrated that participants who were affirmed (compared to unaffirmed participants) showed increased activity in key regions of the brain’s self-processing (MPFC+PCC) and valuation (VS+VMPFC) systems when reflecting on future oriented core values (compared to everyday activities). Furthermore, this neural activity went on to predict changes in sedentary behavior consistent with successful affirmation in response to a separate physical activity intervention. These results highlight neural processes associated with successful self-affirmation, and further suggest that key pathways may be amplified in conjunction with prospection.
Content may be subject to copyright.
RUNNING HEAD: NEURAL CORRELATES OF SELF-AFFIRMATION
1
Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is
reinforced by future orientation
Christopher N. Cascio
1
, Matthew Brook O’Donnell
1
, Francis J. Tinney, Jr.
2
, Matthew D.
Lieberman
3
, Shelley E. Taylor
3
, Victor J. Strecher
2
, & Emily B. Falk
1
University of Pennsylvania
1
, University of Michigan
2
, University of California, Los Angeles
3
Correspondence:
Christopher N. Cascio
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania
3620 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
ccascio@asc.upenn.edu
Emily B. Falk
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania
3620 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
falk@asc.upenn.edu
Total words in main text <5332>
Acknowledgements: We thank Holly Derry, Ian Moore, and Michele Demers for assistance in
developing intervention materials, and the staff of the University of Michigan fMRI Center for
support and assistance with fMRI data acquisition. We thank Angela Fagerlin, Thad Polk,
Lawrence An, Kennith Resnicow and the Michigan CECCR for support in realizing this project
and Sonya Dal Cin and Sara Konrath for helpful discussions. This research was supported by The
Michigan Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research/NIH-P50 CA101451 (PI
Strecher), a NIH New Innovator Award/1DP2DA03515601 (PI Falk) and NIH/NCI
1R01CA180015-01 (PI Falk). The authors thank Kristin Shumaker, Nicolette Gregor, Alison
Sagon for assistance with data collection, and Jonathan Mitchell for advice regarding processing of
the accelerometer data.
© The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email:
journals.permissions@oup.com
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access published November 5, 2015
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
2
Abstract
Self-affirmation theory posits that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-view and that
threats to perceived self-competence are met with resistance. When threatened, self-affirmations
can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as
core values. Many questions exist, however, about the underlying mechanisms associated with
self-affirmation. We examined the neural mechanisms of self-affirmation with a task developed
for use in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) environment. Results of a region of
interest analysis demonstrated that participants who were affirmed (compared to unaffirmed
participants) showed increased activity in key regions of the brain’s self-processing
(MPFC+PCC) and valuation (VS+VMPFC) systems when reflecting on future oriented core
values (compared to everyday activities). Furthermore, this neural activity went on to predict
changes in sedentary behavior consistent with successful affirmation in response to a separate
physical activity intervention. These results highlight neural processes associated with successful
self-affirmation, and further suggest that key pathways may be amplified in conjunction with
prospection.
Keywords: self-affirmation, fMRI, reward, positive valuation, emotion regulation
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
3
Introduction
It is well documented that people seek to maintain a positive self-view and that threats to
perceived self-competence across many domains are met with resistance (Sherman & Cohen,
2006). A large body of literature, however, demonstrates that a class of interventions called self-
affirmations have benefits across threatening situations; affirmations can decrease stress,
increase well being, improve academic performance and make people more open to behavior
change (for a review, see (Cohen & Sherman, 2014)). Self-affirmations are acts that affirm one’s
self-worth, often by having individuals reflect on core values, which may give individuals a
broader view of the self. This in turn can allow individuals to move beyond specific threats to
self-integrity or self-competence (Cohen & Sherman, 2014; Steele, 1988).
Effects associated with self-affirmation interventions often occur without explicit
awareness (Sherman et al., 2009). This lack of awareness makes it difficult for individuals to
introspect on their experience and makes it difficult for researchers to examine specific
underlying mechanisms that lead from the affirmation experience to behavioral change.
Neuroimaging methods offer one way to examine a set of processes underlying self-affirmation
interventions at the point of actual affirmation exposure, without the need for individuals to
reflect on their experience (Falk et al., 2015); however, the neural mechanisms that underpin acts
of self-affirmation have not been studied (Cohen & Sherman, 2014). Understanding the
underlying neural mechanisms associated with self-affirmation will help to further expand our
theoretical understanding of the processes at play during self-affirmation and may contribute to
the development of more effective interventions. Thus, our first research question centers on the
neurocognitive processes associated with the act of self-affirmation. Furthermore, the core brain
systems involved in self-related processing and reward, that we hypothesize to be involved in
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
4
affirmation, overlap with past studies of temporal orientation (i.e., considering events in the past
and future; (D’Argembeau et al., 2010; D’Argembeau, Xue, Lu, Van der Linden, & Bechara,
2008)). Thus, our second research question focuses on whether the neural pathways to self-
affirmation might be amplified in conjunction with specific temporal orientations.
Potential pathways to self-affirmation
One account of why self-affirmations are successful is attributed to their ability to
broaden a person’s overall perspective and reduce the effect of negative emotions (Sherman,
2013; Cohen & Sherman, 2014). For example, researchers have suggested that self-affirmations
remind individuals of psychosocial resources that extend beyond a specific threat, which allows
them to focus on sources of positive self-worth that transcends the threat. This in turn is thought
to reduce reactivity to the threat and protect overall psychological wellbeing (Cohen, Garcia,
Purdie-Vaughns, Apfel, & Brzustoski, 2009; Cook, Purdie-Vaughns, Garcia, & Cohen, 2012;
Koole, Smeets, Van Knippenberg, & Dijksterhuis, 1999; Sherman et al., 2013).
Such effects might arise through several different pathways. First, affirmations may
increase focus on sources of positive value to individuals. Self-affirmation interventions often
rely on having participants reflect on personal core values and rewarding experiences. This
pathway would engage neural mechanisms associated with reward and positive valuation. A
recent meta-analysis demonstrates that brain regions most prominently involved in reward and
positive valuation include the ventral striatum (VS) and ventral medial prefrontal cortex
(VMPFC; (Bartra, McGuire, & Kable, 2013)).
Related to the pathway described above, affirmations could also work by focusing people
on sources of positive self-worth, such as personal successes. This may also involve specific
reflection on personal attributes outside of the threat (Sherman & Hartson, 2011; Sherman,
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
5
2013). Meta-analyses across a variety of tasks find that self-related processing is most often
associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate
cortex (PCC; (Denny, Kober, Wager, & Ochsner, 2012; Northoff et al., 2006)). Thus, if self-
affirmations succeed due to a boost in self-related processing prior to threat exposure, activity in
the MPFC and PCC should increase during affirmation.
Furthermore, self-affirmations may allow for more efficient use of psychological
resources needed to deal with the incoming threat (Sherman, 2013). This has been demonstrated
in studies that examine the success of self-affirmation interventions in counteracting
manipulations that reduce available cognitive and psychological resources (e.g., cognitive load
and ego-depletion manipulations; (Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009; Vohs & Faber, 2007; Burson et
al., 2012; Logel & Cohen, 2012)). Although these studies find evidence that affirmation
interventions can reduce threat, it is unclear which psychological resources are actually involved
in this process. One possible source of regulatory resources include the ventrolateral prefrontal
cortex (VLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which have been implicated in regulation
of emotion and facilitating difficult choices (Marsh, 2007; Oschner et al., 2004; Wager et al.,
2008). Self-affirmations may work by priming these regions to regulate emotions.
Affirmation and temporal orientation
Activity within several of our key self-related processing and reward regions of interest
(ROIs) changes with manipulations of temporal focus. Although self-affirmation interventions
have been successfully carried out using manipulations that focus both on past experiences as
well as future goals (for a review, see; (McQueen & Klein, 2006)), temporal orientation has not
been a core focus of affirmation research. Given the overlap between brain systems hypothesized
to support affirmation effects and to support temporal orientation effects, however, we examined
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
6
whether neural responses in brain systems associated with successful self-affirmation might
change with or be reinforced by temporal focus.
For example, it has been found that imagining future personally relevant, emotionally
positive, and rewarding events is associated with changes in VMPFC, striatum, MPFC and PCC
(Benoit, Gilbert, & Burgess, 2011; Benoit, Szpunar, & Schacter, 2014; D’Argembeau et al.,
2010, 2008). Increased activity in the MPFC has also been shown to positively correlate with
imagining positive (vs. negative) future episodes (D’Argembeau et al., 2008) and such activation
is further associated with projected reward value of the imagined future (Benoit et al., 2011,
2014). In addition, a recent meta-analysis found that increased activity in the MPFC and PCC,
among other regions, was associated with thinking about hypothetical (e.g., future) compared to
past episodes (Benoit & Schacter, 2015). Furthermore, another recent meta-analysis examining
neural correlates associated with personal goals, future thinking, and mind wandering found that
the MPFC is consistently activated in all three domains (Stawarczyk & D’Argembeau, 2015).
These studies support the idea that mentally simulating future events, especially those relevant to
personal goals, involves key regions hypothesized to be involved in self-affirmation
interventions, including the VMPFC, MPFC, and PCC. Thus, if both future oriented thought and
self-affirmation rely on similar neural mechanisms, they may mutually reinforce one another.
Importantly, these differences are not limited to neural activity. For example participants
have better memory recall when encoding new information coupled with imagined scenarios that
plan for the future, in comparison to remembering past events or events that are considered
without a time relationship (Klein, Robertson, & Delton, 2010). In addition, mental simulations
focusing on future events have been shown to benefit goal planning and one’s psychological
wellbeing (for a review, see; Schacter, 2012). Taken together, all of these studies reinforce the
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
7
hypothesis that engagement of our key ROIs may differ by temporal focus, and that future
orientation may reinforce the effects of reflecting on personally relevant core values. Thus, we
examined temporal focus as a potential moderator of neural responses in our key ROIs during
affirmation.
The current study
In sum, the current study aims to elucidate the underlying mechanisms associated with
self-affirmation by examining participants’ neural activity during a self-affirmation task
specifically designed for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We tested the extent to
which exposure to self-affirmation produced increases in brain systems associated with positive
valuation (VS+VMPFC), self-related processing (MPFC+ PCC), and emotion regulation
(rACC+rVLPFC). In addition, we examined whether the neural effects of affirmation are
moderated by temporal orientation (past vs. future). We validated our fMRI-compatible self-
affirmation intervention in relation to its ability to increase receptivity to a subsequent set of
health messages designed to reduce sedentary behavior in sedentary adults (Falk et al., 2015).
Methods
Participants
Participants (N=67; self-affirmed=33; unaffirmed=28) were adults between the ages of
18-64 (41 females; mean age=33.42 years, SD=13.04; 44 White, 12 Black, 3 Asian, 1 Hispanic,
7 Other), recruited as part of a study examining neural correlates of exposure to health messages
that encouraged physical activity behavior in sedentary adults. All participants were sedentary
(participants self-reported an estimated < 195 minutes of combined walking, moderate or
vigorous activity per week at the time of recruitment). This was defined by mean activity on
short-form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) at the time of recruitment. On
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
8
average, recruited participants reported 23.5 minutes/week of activity, SD=49.5; mean BMI =
27.99, SD=6.84, indicating that on average participants were in the overweight category.
Participants were right-handed, did not suffer from claustrophobia, were not currently taking any
psychoactive medications, had normal (or corrected to normal) vision, and did not have metal in
their body that was contraindicated for MRI (see supplemental materials for additional sample
details).
Study design
Participants completed a three-part study (see Figure 1). At baseline, participants ranked
a list of 8 personal values, completed self-report questionnaires and were fitted with an
accelerometer to measure physical activity behavior. One week later participants completed an
fMRI appointment in which they underwent the fMRI-compatible self-affirmation (or control)
intervention. All participants then saw potentially-threatening messages encouraging physical
activity and the success of the affirmation manipulation was validated based on objectively
measured physical activity/sedentary behavior change attributable to self-affirmation in the
subsequent month. Additional details on the sample and task session can be found in Falk et al.,
2015, however, the neural processes associated with the actual affirmation task have not been
previously examined.
Self-affirmation task
During the initial baseline appointment participants were asked to rank a list of 8 values
from least to most valued, “Please order the following values according to how important they
are to you”. The list of 8 values included, creativity, relations with family and friends, sense of
humor, independence, business or earning money, politics, religious values, and spontaneity or
living life in the moment. These values were then used in the MRI portion of the self-affirmation
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
9
task, such that participants in the affirmed condition reflected on their top ranked value and
participants in the control condition reflected on their lowest ranked value.
Although there are many approaches to self-affirmation, two of the most prominent
approaches ask individuals to write about a highly ranked personal value or to respond to
questionnaires containing questions relevant to a highly ranked personal value (Cohen &
Sherman, 2014; McQueen & Klein, 2006; Sherman, 2013). Typically self-affirmation writing
tasks instruct affirmed participants to write for a period of time on one of their core values;
control groups typically write on a topic that is not valued (McQueen & Klein, 2006; Napper,
Harris, & Epton, 2009). Similarly, value scales involve the completion of questionnaires that
allow participants to express their identification with the core value and why their core value is
important to them; control participants complete questionnaires about topics of lower personal
value and importance (Sherman, 2013). As in other widely used affirmation manipulations (see
Cohen & Sherman, 2015; McQueen & Klein, 2006 for reviews), there were some differences in
the values most consistently ranked as top and bottom values in the current study, however, there
is also substantial overlap in values used in the affirmation and control conditions (for
distribution, see; table 1).
To save time and standardize instructions, participants received task instructions for the
affirmation task during the structural scan, directly prior to the task. To start the task
preparation, participants were initially instructed during the structural scan to “Please think
about an experience you had involving [VALUE]”, where [VALUE] was replaced with their
assigned value. This was followed by instructions to “Try and visualize yourself in the
experience and remember as many specific details as possible”. Participants were then prompted
with phrases to help keep them prepare for the main affirmation task. Example statements
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
10
included “Think about when the experience occurred” and “Think about how you currently feel
about this experience”. Once participants had come up with scenarios relevant to their top (or
bottom) ranked value during the structural scan, they completed the main self-affirmation task
during functional scanning.
To test the interaction between affirmation and temporal orientation, the main fMRI
affirmation task instructed participants on different trials to think about a time when value-
relevant scenarios had occurred (past) and when parallel scenarios could occur (future).
Participants in both affirmation and control conditions were presented with prompts for scenarios
focused on value statements as well as everyday activities (as a within subjects control
condition). All participants were presented with the same control (everyday) activity scenarios.
Example statements relating to experience of a specific value in the past or future condition are
as follows [value = friends and family]: "Think about a time in the past when you had fun with
family and friends", "Think about a time in the future when you might be having fun with family
and friends". Example everyday statements included: "Think about a time in the past when you
charged your cell phone", "Think about a time in the future when you might charge your cell
phone". Importantly it should be noted that all statements (value and control) were focused on
oneself and not subject to factual knowledge. This was done in order to have the distinction
between high and low values pertain more to the importance placed on the topic rather than on
topic knowledge. For example, for those who were assigned to think about what we referred to as
“politics”, the statements were not about politicians but rather how political values might be
manifest in one’s life (e.g., Think about a time in the future when you might read about current
events; Think about a time in the future when you might be inspired by people taking political
action). The self-affirmation task used a 2X2 block design, (past vs. future)X(everyday vs.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
11
value). Each block consisted of exposure to the scenario prompt for 12 seconds in which
participants thought about the given statement and responded by pressing a button with their
index figure each time they thought of a personally relevant example associated with the given
statement. Participants were instructed to think about as many examples as they could for each
scenario. Ten different scenarios were given for each condition (past value, past everyday, future
value, and future everyday) for a total of 40 blocks in the task. Value-specific scenarios were
created based on reflections one may have when engaging in a self-affirmation writing exercise,
whereas everyday scenarios were created to represent common events that occur on a daily basis.
Participants saw a fixation cross for 2 and 12 (every fifth trial) seconds between each block.
Validation of the fMRI self-affirmation intervention
Following their randomly assigned affirmation or control intervention, all participants were
exposed to the same health messages encouraging increased physical activity and decreased
sedentary behavior. The success of the affirmation intervention was validated using behavior
change effects attributable to the experimental manipulation of self-affirmation. More specifically,
aggregate measures of sedentary behavior were created measuring pre and post intervention
activity captured for one week prior and one month following the intervention using triaxial
accelerometers, and compared by condition. For further details on the health messaging task and
accelerometer data collection and analysis, please see (Falk et al., 2015).
fMRI data acquisition and data analysis
Imaging data were acquired using a 3 Tesla GE Signa MRI scanner. One functional run
was acquired for each participant (323 volumes total
1
). Functional images were recorded using a
1
Note: For the first six participants (1 control, 5 affirmed due to the randomizer), a slightly longer (2 run) version of
the task was used, in which the blocks were 16 seconds long instead of 12, and the affirmation task was split into
two runs of 209 volumes each. These participants were the first to do the study and we initially had longer scan time
that included an extra 4 seconds for each block.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
12
reverse spiral sequence (TR=2000ms, TE=30ms, flip angle=90°, 43 axial slices, FOV=220mm,
slice thickness=3mm; voxel size=3.44x3.44x3.0mm). We also acquired in-plane T1-weighted
images (43 slices; slice thickness=3mm; voxel size=.86x.86x3.0mm) and high-resolution T1-
weighted images (SPGR; 124 slices; slice thickness=1.02x1.02x1.2mm) for use in coregistration
and normalization.
Functional data were pre-processed and analyzed using Statistical Parametric Mapping
(SPM8, Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, London, UK;
please see supplemental materials for details of preprocessing stream). Data were modeled using
the general linear model as implemented in SPM8. Four trial types were modeled: past value
scenarios, future value scenarios, past everyday scenarios, future everyday scenarios; fixation
trials were not modeled and constituted an implicit baseline. The six rigid-body translation and
rotation parameters derived from spatial realignment were also included as nuisance regressors.
Data were high-pass filtered with a cutoff of 128s.
Region of interest analysis
To test the balance of activity within brain networks involved in positive valuation and
reward (VS+VMPFC), self-related processing (MPFC+PCC) and regulating emotions
(rACC+rVLPFC), we first conducted a priori defined ROI analyses on each network of interest
independently. Percent signal change scores were extracted from each combined network ROI
contrasting the value > everyday scenarios; past value > past everyday scenarios; and future
value > future everyday scenarios for each participant (see supplementary materials for ROI
definitions and analysis details).
To investigate neural processes associated with self-affirmation that extended beyond our
main ROI analyses, we subsequently conducted whole brain analyses examining differences
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
13
between the affirmed and control participants for each of our main target contrasts: value >
everyday scenarios; past value > past everyday scenarios; and future value > future everyday
scenarios. All analyses are reported with a threshold of p=.005, K=35, corrected for multiple
comparisons based on a Monte Carlo simulation using AlphaSim (Ward, 2000). Furthermore,
based on a priori hypotheses linking valuation activity (VS+VMPFC) to self-affirmation
processes, the relatively small size of VS, and positive results from a priori planned ROI
analyses, additional analyses were run using a threshold of (p=.005, K=19), corrected for
multiple comparisons based on a Monte Carlo simulation for the VS+VMPFC mask (949 total
voxels) in order to maintain an appropriate balance of type I and type II error risk, given the
exploratory nature of the whole-brain analysis (Lieberman & Cunningham, 2009).
Results
Effects of affirmation: Region of interest analysis
Main effects of affirmation. First, we examined whether activity in our a priori
hypothesized ROIs associated with valuation (VS+VMPFC), self-related processing
(MPFC+PCC), and emotion regulation (rACC+rVLPFC) were differentially activated for those
in the affirmed versus control group as they reflected on value > everyday scenarios. Overall,
affirmed participants displayed significantly greater activity in the valuation/reward network
(M=.102) versus control participants (M=.012) when exposed to value versus everyday scenarios
(t(57)=2.43, p=.018). Activity in the self-processing network while viewing value versus
everyday scenarios was not significantly different for those in the affirmed versus control group,
when averaging across temporal orientations (t(57)=.88, p=.382). Activity in the emotion
regulation network also did not differ between affirmed and control groups when averaging
across temporal orientations (t(57)=.62, p=.540). All ROI results are summarized in table 2.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
14
Affirmation and temporal orientation. Second, we tested whether affirmation effects
differed by temporal orientation within our key ROIs (see Table 2). On average, affirmed
participants displayed significantly greater activity in the valuation network (M=.133) than
control participants (M=-.029) when viewing future oriented value scenarios versus future
oriented everyday scenarios (t(57)=3.26, p=.002); the difference between responses to future and
past oriented value scenarios was also significantly different between affirmed and control
participants (t(57)=3.09, p=.003). Additionally, affirmed participants displayed significantly
greater activity in the self-processing network (M=.100) than control participants (M=.032) when
viewing future oriented value scenarios versus future oriented everyday scenarios (t(57)=2.50,
p=.015); the difference between responses to future and past oriented value scenarios was also
significantly different between affirmed and control participants (t(57)=3.48, p=.001).
Participants in the affirmation and control conditions did not differ in their activity in the
emotion regulation network when reflecting on future oriented value and everyday scenarios
(t(57)=1.30, p=.200), however the difference between responses to future and past oriented value
scenarios was significantly different between affirmed and control participants (t(57)=2.39,
p=.02).
Next, we examined whether affirmation effects differed by past orientation within our
key ROIs. No significant differences were observed between those in the affirmation versus
control condition for activity in regions associated with valuation (t(57)=.34, p=.738), self-
related processing (t(57)=-.97, p=.337) or emotion regulation (t(57)=1.77, p=.540) when
reflecting on past oriented value versus everyday scenarios.
Finally, within the affirmation group paired samples t-tests were run to examine whether
neural activity within our hypothesized ROIs were differently activated depending on temporal
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
15
orientation (past versus future). Neural activity within the valuation network (VS+VMPFC) was
significantly greater when viewing future oriented value scenarios (M=.108) compared to
viewing past oriented value scenarios (M=.003), t(29)=3.83, p<.001. Similarly, neural activity
with our self-processing network (MPFC+PCC) was also significantly greater when viewing
future oriented value scenarios (M=.114) compared to viewing past oriented value scenarios
(M=.044), t(29)=2.79, p=.009. Finally, neural activity within our emotion regulation network
(rACC+rVLPFC) was not significantly different when viewing future oriented value scenarios
(M=.056) compared to viewing past oriented value scenarios (M=.025), t(29)=1.65, p=.111.
Whole brain analysis
Following our hypothesis-driven ROI analyses, we ran a series of exploratory whole
brain analyses that examined differences in neural activity between the affirmed and control
groups for key contrasts of interest to explore regions outside of those covered by our ROI
analyses. Results of the whole brain contrast of value > everyday scenarios did not yield
significant results; future value > future everyday scenarios are reported in table 3, figure 2; past
value > past everyday scenarios did not yield significant results; and future > past value
scenarios are reported in table 4. Significant results from the whole brain analysis reinforce
effects observed in the ROI analyses. We observed increased activity within VMPFC and VS
when affirmed (relative to control) participants reflected on future-oriented (but not past-
oriented) value scenarios highlighting the role of activity within the valuation system,
particularly during prospection.
Neural activity during affirmation and subsequent behavior change
Validating the downstream effect of our affirmation manipulation on behavior change
following exposure to health messages, participants in the self-affirmation condition showed
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
16
steeper declines in their levels of sedentary behavior over time compared to control participants,
p=.008 (Falk et al., 2015). Given that the effects of affirmation within the brain during the
affirmation task were strongest in our hypothesized valuation and self-processing regions, we
next examined whether this activity was related to target behavior change. Increased activity in
the VS+VMPFC (figure 3) and MPFC+PCC ROIs during value > everyday scenarios were
associated with decreased average post intervention sedentary behavior, controlling for age,
gender, education, body mass index (BMI), and pre intervention sedentary behavior (β=-.26,
t(33)=-2.27, p=.030; β=-.27, t(33)=-2.15, p=.039; respectively). Next, a follow up analysis was
run examining temporal orientation differences. Results indicate that increased neural activity in
the valuation network during future value versus future everyday scenarios was marginally
associated (β=-.22, t(33)=-1.97, p=.057) and the self-processing network was significantly
associated (β=-.25, t(33)=-2.39, p=.023) with decreased sedentary behavior following the
affirmation intervention, controlling for age, gender, BMI, and pre intervention sedentary
behavior. No significant results were found for past oriented scenarios, p>.05.
Finally, we tested the indirect relationship between group assignment (affirmation versus
control) and changes in one’s sedentary behavior (post – pre intervention) through neural activity
in valuation and self-processing systems. Significant indirect effects were found for both the
valuation and self-processing ROIs (average causal mediation effect (ACME); B=-.07, CI=[-.13,
-.02], p=.01; B=-.03, CI=[-.07, -.00], p=.04; respectively), such that those in the affirmed
condition displayed greater activity in valuation and self-processing networks relative to those in
the control condition; in turn participants who displayed greater activation in the valuation and
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
17
self-processing networks also displayed significantly greater decreases in sedentary behavior
following the affirmation intervention, controlling for age, gender, years educated, and BMI.
2
Discussion
Results from the current study provide initial evidence of neural processes associated
with the act of self-affirmation. First, our hypotheses regarding the relationship between
affirmation and neural reward pathways were supported. ROI analyses revealed that affirmed
relative to control participants showed significantly greater activity in the hypothesized positive
valuation regions (VS+VMPFC), and that this effect was driven by affirmations focusing on
future rather than past experiences. In addition, increased activity in reward/valuation regions
during self-affirmation was associated with decreases in sedentary behavior following the
affirmation intervention. Furthermore, we observed a significant indirect effect, such that those
in the affirmed condition displayed greater activity in the valuation network, which was
associated with greater change in sedentary behavior following the affirmation intervention.
Thus, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that systems associated with positive
valuation play an important role in successful affirmation and are consistent with the broadened
value account of why self-affirmation interventions succeed (Cohen et al., 2009; Cook et al.,
2012; Koole et al., 1999; Sherman et al., 2013). The VS and VMPFC are brain regions that are
most commonly associated with the expectation and receipt of positively valued or rewarding
outcomes (Bartra et al., 2013). Importantly, this system encodes not only primary rewards (such
as food) but also more abstract rewards (Bartra et al., 2013), of the type that are called to mind
by personally meaningful values in self-affirmation.
2
Note: In addition to examining changes in sedentary behavior using difference scores, a test of indirect effects was
also run that examined post intervention sedentary behavior controlling for pre intervention sedentary behavior
(ACME; B=-.08, CI=[-.15, -.03], p<.01). Results were consistent for future oriented statements (ACME; B=-.04,
CI=[-.09, -.01], p=.01); past oriented statements were not significant (ACME; B=-.02, CI=[-.06, .01], p=.23).
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
18
In addition, our findings suggest that positive affirmations may have especially strong
effects within the reward system in conjunction with future orientation. This finding converges
with prior studies demonstrating that increased activity in the VMPFC is associated with
imagining positive rather than negative future events (D’Argembeau et al., 2008) and increases
when anticipating future rewards (Benoit et al., 2011, 2014). This account is also consistent with
a role of the reward system in guiding reinforcement learning and future behavioral decisions
through computation of the “incentive value of a contemplated behavioral act“ (Knutson &
Cooper, 2005; McClure, Daw, & Read Montague, 2003).
Furthermore, although not directly addressed by our data, past research suggests that self-
transcending values and goals may be particularly powerful. For example, affirmation of self-
transcending values is more powerful in reducing behaviors associated with ego depletion than
affirmation of self-enhancing values (Burson, Crocker, & Mischkowski, 2012). Our neural data
provide a possible link between such behavioral results and research examining neural reward
activity in response to prosocial (eudaimonic) versus selfish (hedonic) decisions, which finds that
VS activity differentially predicts later mental health outcomes. More specifically, increased
activity in the VS in response to potential prosocial rewards, relative to self-focused rewards is
associated with later positive outcomes (Telzer, Fuligni, Lieberman, & Galván, 2014). These
findings along with the findings from the current study support potential synergy between
prospection and value affirmation in eliciting the types of reward response that can prime
positive behavior.
Second, we found support for the hypothesis that future-oriented affirmations activated
brain regions implicated in self-related processing. In particular, the MPFC is often implicated in
reflecting on one’s own preferences, motivations and in the process of self-insight (for a review,
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
19
see; Lieberman, 2010). During future oriented affirmation, affirmed, relative to control,
participants displayed significantly greater activity in our MPFC and PCC ROIs. Importantly,
MPFC and PCC are consistently implicated in both self-related processing (Denny et al., 2012;
Northoff et al., 2006) and imagining personally relevant future events (D'Argembeau et al.,
2010), as well as remembering past events (for a review, see; Schacter, 2012). Furthermore,
increased activity in the MPFC is associated with imagining positive rather than negative future
events (D’Argembeau et al., 2008) and increases while anticipating future rewards (Benoit et al.,
2011, 2014). Thus, the current data and recent meta-analytic evidence suggests that in addition to
a strong role in self-related processing (Denny et al., 2012; Northoff et al., 2006), the MPFC is
more active when thinking about future compared to past episodes (Benoit & Schacter, 2015)
and when thinking about personal goals, future thinking, and mind wondering (Stawarczyk &
D’Argembeau, 2015). Successful self-affirmation interventions bring together several of these
components and our neural data suggest a new way in which these paths may mutually reinforce
one another. In other words, we find novel evidence that a future frame may act synergistically
with value-based self-affirmations to bolster a sense of self prior to threat exposure. This may
occur by calling to mind desired future states or motivations, also consistent with the broadened
value account of why self-affirmation interventions succeed.
Finally, the current study reports on the successful development of an fMRI-compatible
self-affirmation task, which can be used to examine neural mechanisms associated with self-
affirmation in other behavioral or theoretical contexts, and combined with other subsequent tasks
of interest to affirmation researchers. One strength of this task is that all aspects of the task
(including the within subjects control condition and instructions) are identical for affirmed and
control participants, differing only in the importance of the focal value to participants. This rules
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
20
out many confounds related to differing tasks. An additional strength is that our objective
behavioral results indicate that the self-affirmation manipulation was successful in decreasing
sedentary behavior in at-risk (sedentary) adults, which was mediated by activity in the valuation
network during affirmation and by activity in both valuation and self-related processing systems
during future oriented affirmations.
This adds to our understanding of affirmation from both basic science and applied
perspectives. The current results 1) highlight novel pathways to affirmation through neural
reward and self-processing pathways; and 2) suggest that these mechanisms may be reinforced or
augmented by prospection. It is possible that future oriented affirmations may be more
successful than past oriented affirmation, though between subjects follow up studies are needed
to test this hypothesis. Finally, the creation of a scanner compatible affirmation task opens
future research possibilities to explore the neural effects of affirmation in other contexts.
In addition to the primary strengths of the study addressed above, it should be noted that
each of our primary ROIs serves functions that go beyond those hypothesized in the current
investigation and thus should be taken as one of several possibilities (Poldrack, 2006). However,
in the current study the use of a priori hypothesized and theoretically driven ROIs helps reduce
problems with reverse inference. Furthermore, there are confines associated with the scanning
environment, such that we cannot know the specific scenarios envisioned by each participant in
response to our prompts at the time of affirmation exposure, we can only examine neural
processing that takes place during that time. Therefore, it is likely that variability in how
important the “lowest” ranked value was to participants existed, which may have allowed for
affirming benefit to some of those in the control condition, resulting in a conservative test of our
hypotheses. In addition, self-affirmation interventions are often confounded with value and
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
21
content making it difficult to distinguish which aspects of the intervention are driving results.
Future neuroimaging studies should attempt to untangle these differences in order to better
understand the underlying mechanisms associated with self-affirmation interventions.
Conclusion
The current results demonstrate that activity in hypothesized reward/valuation regions
(VS+VMPFC (Bartra et al., 2013) are primary pathways associated with self-affirmation.
Furthermore, regions associated with self-related processing (MPFC+PCC (Northoff et al., 2006;
Denny et al., 2012) and prospection (D’Argembeau et al., 2010, 2008) are associated with self-
affirmations that are future oriented. These neural correlates of self-affirmation were further
associated with objectively measured behavior change, suggesting the external validity of the
affirmation task. Taken together, our results highlight ways in which brain systems implicated in
positive valuation and self-related processing may be reinforced by prospection and suggest
novel insight into the balance of processes supporting affirmation. These results also introduce a
task for understanding the underlying mechanisms associated with self-affirmation and hence
provide a tool for future studies to examine effects of self-affirmation interventions across a wide
range of potential applications and outcomes.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
22
References
Bartra, O., McGuire, J. T., & Kable, J. W. (2013). The valuation system: A coordinate-based
meta-analysis of {BOLD} fMRI experiments examining neural correlates of subjective
value. NeuroImage, 76(0), 412 – 427.
Benoit, R. G., Gilbert, S. J., & Burgess, P. W. (2011). A neural mechanism mediating the impact
of episodic prospection on farsighted decisions. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(18),
6771–6779.
Benoit, R. G., & Schacter, D. L. (2015). Specifying the core network supporting episodic
simulation and episodic memory by activation likelihood estimation. Neuropsychologia,
75, 450–457.
Benoit, R. G., Szpunar, K. K., & Schacter, D. L. (2014). Ventromedial prefrontal cortex supports
affective future simulation by integrating distributed knowledge. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 111(46), 16550–16555.
Burson, A., Crocker, J., & Mischkowski, D. (2012). Two types of value-affirmation implications
for self-control following social exclusion. Social Psychological and Personality Science,
3(4), 510–516.
Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Apfel, N., & Brzustoski, P. (2009). Recursive
processes in self-affirmation: Intervening to close the minority achievement gap. Science,
324(5925), 400–403.
Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social
psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 333–371.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
23
Cook, J. E., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., & Cohen, G. L. (2012). Chronic threat and
contingent belonging: protective benefits of values affirmation on identity development.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(3), 479.
D’Argembeau, A., Stawarczyk, D., Majerus, S., Collette, F., Van der Linden, M., Feyers, D., …
Salmon, E. (2010). The neural basis of personal goal processing when envisioning future
events. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(8), 1701–1713.
D’Argembeau, A., Xue, G., Lu, Z.-L., Van der Linden, M., & Bechara, A. (2008). Neural
correlates of envisioning emotional events in the near and far future. NeuroImage, 40(1),
398–407.
Denny, B. T., Kober, H., Wager, T. D., & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). A meta-analysis of functional
neuroimaging studies of self-and other judgments reveals a spatial gradient for
mentalizing in medial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(8), 1742–
1752.
Falk, E. B., Cascio, C. N., O’Donnell, M. B., Shumaker, K., Tinney, F., Kang, Y., … Strecher,
V. (2015). Self affimration alters the brain’s response to health messages and subsequent
behavior change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Klein, S., Robertson, T., & Delton, A. (2010). Facing the future: Memory as an evolved system
for planning future acts. Memory & Cognition, 38(1), 13–22.
http://doi.org/10.3758/MC.38.1.13
Knutson, B., & Cooper, J. C. (2005). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of reward
prediction. Current Opinion in Neurology, 18(4), 411–417.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
24
Koole, S. L., Smeets, K., Van Knippenberg, A., & Dijksterhuis, A. (1999). The cessation of
rumination through self-affirmation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
77(1), 111.
Lieberman, M. D. (2010). Social Cognitive Neuroscience. Handbook of Social Psychology.
Lieberman, M. D., & Cunningham, W. A. (2009). Type I and Type II error concerns in fMRI
research: re-balancing the scale. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 4(4), 423–
428.
McClure, S. M., Daw, N. D., & Read Montague, P. (2003). A computational substrate for
incentive salience. Trends in Neurosciences, 26(8), 423–428.
McQueen, A., & Klein, W. M. (2006). Experimental manipulations of self-affirmation: A
systematic review. Self and Identity, 5(4), 289–354.
Napper, L., Harris, P. R., & Epton, T. (2009). Developing and testing a self-affirmation
manipulation. Self and Identity, 8(1), 45–62.
Northoff, G., Heinzel, A., de Greck, M., Bermpohl, F., Dobrowolny, H., & Panksepp, J. (2006).
Self-referential processing in our brain—a meta-analysis of imaging studies on the self.
Neuroimage, 31(1), 440–457.
Poldrack, R. A. (2006). Can cognitive processes be inferred from neuroimaging data? Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 10(2), 59.
Schacter, D. L. (2012). Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory. American
Psychologist, 67(8), 603.
Sherman, D. K. (2013). SelfAffirmation: Understanding the Effects. Social and Personality
Psychology Compass, 7(11), 834–845.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
25
Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory.
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 183.
Sherman, D. K., Cohen, G. L., Nelson, L. D., Nussbaum, A. D., Bunyan, D. P., & Garcia, J.
(2009). Affirmed yet unaware: Exploring the role of awareness in the process of self-
affirmation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(5), 745.
Sherman, D. K., Hartson, K. A., Binning, K. R., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Taborsky-Barba,
S., … Cohen, G. L. (2013). Deflecting the trajectory and changing the narrative: How
self-affirmation affects academic performance and motivation under identity threat.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(4), 591.
Stawarczyk, D., & D’Argembeau, A. (2015). Neural correlates of personal goal processing
during episodic future thinking and mindwandering: An ALE metaanalysis. Human
Brain Mapping.
Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self.
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 21(2), 261–302.
Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., & Galván, A. (2014). Neural sensitivity to
eudaimonic and hedonic rewards differentially predict adolescent depressive symptoms
over time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(18), 6600–6605.
Ward, B. D. (2000). Simultaneous inference for fMRI data. AFNI 3dDeconvolve Documentation,
Medical College of Wisconsin.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
26
Tables
Table 1. Value rankings.
Overall Frequency Group Frequency
Value Highest Value Lowest Value Affirm Control
Money 2 4 2 3
Creativity 3 4 1 3
Independence 8 1 3 0
Politics 1 34 1 16
Friends_Family
33 0 14 0
Religion 8 20 7 5
Humor 9 1 4 1
Spontaneity 3 3 1 0
Table 2. ROI analysis summary for the contrasts value > control, value future > control future,
and past value > past control.
ROI (value > control) Affirmed Mean Control Mean t(57) p
VS & VMPFC 0.102 0.012 2.43 0.018
MPFC & PCC 0.12 0.094 0.87 0.387
rACC & rVLPFC 0.035 0.018 0.62 0.54
ROI (future value > future control)
Affirmed Mean Control Mean t(57) p
VS & VMPFC 0.133 -0.029 3.26 0.002
MPFC & PCC 0.147 0.048 2.37 0.021
rACC & rVLPFC 0.04 -0.01 1.3 0.2
ROI (past value > past control) Affirmed Mean Control Mean t(57) p
VS & VMPFC 0.071 0.052 0.34 0.738
MPFC & PCC 0.092 0.14 -0.94 0.353
rACC & rVLPFC 0.03 0.046 -0.45 0.657
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
27
Table 3. Whole brain analysis comparing the contrast (future value > future control scenarios)
for the affirmed group subtracted from the control group (p=.005, K=35). *Results based on
cluster correction for multiple comparisons using the VS+VMPFC mask (p=.005, K=19).
Region x y z k t
VMPFC (bilateral) 8 56 -11 172 4.19
Posterior Cingulate (left) -9 -60 4 95 3.98
Thalamus (right) 15 -23 16 37 3.76
Supplimentary Motor Area (left) -30 8 52 144 3.5
Supplimentary Motor Area (right) 29 15 40 99 3.77
Calcarine (bilateral) 1 -102 -8 39 3.87
Brainstem (bilateral) -2 -33 -17 46 3.57
Cerebelum (right) 32 -47 -50 44 3.64
*VS (left) -13 22 1 20 3.52
Table 4. Whole brain analysis comparing the contrast (future value > past value scenarios) for
the affirmed > control group (p=.005, K=35).
Region x y z k t
VMPFC (bilateral) -2 43 -11 444 3.88
Precuneus (bilateral) -2 -60 67 46 3.38
Precunues/PCC (bilateral) 1 -54 4 1355
5.57
VS (bilateral) 10 0 12
DLPFC (right) 29 15 43 127 4.60
DLMPFC (left) -23 26 40 248 4.60
Occipital (right) 39 -81 34 148 4.87
Occipital (left) -37 -81 37 349 4.83
Cerebelum (right) 11 -50 -47 85 4.28
Cerebelum (right) 46 -71 -38 74 4.21
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
28
Figures
Figure 1. Study design
Figure 2. Whole brain analysis comparing the contrast (future value > future control scenarios)
for the affirmed group > control group.
Figure 3. Scatter plot of the residualized percent signal change activity in the valuation network
(VS+VMPFC) ROI from the contrast (value > control scenarios) predicting post intervention
sedentary behavior, controlling for age, gender, education, BMI, and pre intervention sedentary
behavior.
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
254x190mm (72 x 72 DPI)
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
254x190mm (72 x 72 DPI)
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
254x190mm (72 x 72 DPI)
at University of Pennsylvania Library on November 10, 2015http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from
... Activity of the valuation network, particularly the vmPFC, supports the emotional value of decision options and behaviors that hold emotional value are known to contribute significantly to older adults' life purpose and overall well-being (Carstensen, 2006). The vmPFC is a region that integrates conceptual and affective information, supporting self-transcendence (Cascio et al., 2016) and the generation of emotional meaning (Roy et al., 2012), processes vital for well-being. Another component of the reward network, the VS, is implicated in the assessment of social rewards and goal pursuit (Braams et al., 2014;Kawamichi et al., 2016;Rademacher et al., 2014). ...
... Another component of the reward network, the VS, is implicated in the assessment of social rewards and goal pursuit (Braams et al., 2014;Kawamichi et al., 2016;Rademacher et al., 2014). Importantly, the VS is crucial for affirming personal values (Cascio et al., 2016), and its activity has been shown to predict greater purpose in life (Heller et al., 2013). Given that intergenerational relationships hold emotional value for older adults (Isaacowitz, 2021;Lyndon & Moss, 2022) and emotionally significant relationship contribute to older adults' life purpose and well-being (Carstensen, 2006), individuals demonstrating higher rsFC of the vmPFC and VS may display a stronger relationship between generativity and purpose in life. ...
... Similarly, the precuneus is a region of the default mode network implicated in higher-order cognitive functions such as self-referential processing, episodic memory retrieval, and mental imagery (Cavanna & Trimble, 2006), whereas the VS is a subcortical region activated during reward anticipation and reinforcement learning (Bartra et al., 2013). Both the vmPFC and VS exhibit heightened activity during reward anticipation and self-affirmation, particularly when affirmations focus on future experiences as opposed to past ones (Cascio et al., 2016). Additionally, increased mPFC activity is linked to imagining future positive events compared to negative ones (D'Argembeau et al., 2008). ...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives Generativity, the desire and action to improve the well-being of younger generations, is associated with purpose in life among older adults. However, the neurobehavioral factors supporting the relationship between generativity and purpose in life remain unknown. This study aims to identify the functional neuroanatomy of generativity and mechanisms linking generativity with purpose in life in at-risk older adults. Methods Fifty-eight older adults (mean age = 70.8, SD = 5.03, 45 females) with a family history of Alzheimer's disease (AD) were recruited from the PREVENT-AD cohort. Participants underwent brain imaging and completed questionnaires assessing generativity, social support, and purpose in life. Mediation models examined whether social support mediated the association between generativity and purpose in life. Seed-to-voxel analyses investigated the association between generativity and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and ventral striatum (VS), and whether this rsFC moderated the relationship between generativity and purpose in life. Results Affectionate social support mediated the association between generative desire and purpose in life. Generative desire was associated with rsFC between VS and precuneus, and, vmPFC and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rdlPFC). The vmPFC-rdlPFC rsFC moderated the association between generative desire and purpose in life. Discussion These findings provide insight into how the brain supports complex social behavior and, separately, purpose in life in at-risk aging. Affectionate social support may be a putative target process to enhance purpose in life in older adults. This knowledge contributes to future developments of personalized interventions that promote healthy aging.
... Furthermore, positive affirmations contribute to self-affirmation. Research supports this idea: self-affirmation can enhance problemsolving abilities during challenging situations (Creswell et al., 2013) and facilitate behavioral change, reducing stress and promoting futureoriented value reflection (Cascio et al., 2016). ...
... Positive affirmations foster positive thought patterns and behaviors, reducing the likelihood of harmful actions (Brandrick et al., 2021;Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Patimah et al., 2022). They also promote psychological resilience (Hertz et al., 2013), encourage openness and a future-oriented mindset (Cascio et al., 2016), and help individuals solve problems during difficult experiences (Creswell et al., 2013). ...
Article
Full-text available
Bullying cases that occur among students in Indonesia today have become a problem that has become mainstream. Various official data information from the government reinforces this problem. This article aims to explore from the side of subjects who should play a preventive role in suppressing bullying cases among students as a form of their social competence responsibility. Phenomenological design was chosen to explore the experiences of 18 PAI teachers in elementary and junior high schools in providing positive affirmation to students. Two dimensions of positive affirmation were explored, namely self-acceptance and affirmation to prevent bullying through a closed questionnaire and then inductively content analyzed. The results of the study found that the involvement of the integration approach of spiritual values colored the positive affirmations given by PAI Teachers to encourage students to become individuals who are self-accepting, honest, positive, independent, and respectful of differences, strong mentality, self-confidence, and a safe school environment from bullying. This finding has implications and contributes to the importance of optimizing the role of subjects who have the opportunity to work preventively as part of their professionalism to reduce cases of bullying among students.
... In addition, other studies confirmed the impact of self-affirmation on threatening information processing using different methods. More specifically, Cascio et al. (2016) examined the neural mechanisms of self-affirmation with a task developed for use in a functional magnetic resonance imaging environment (fMRI). Studies in neuroscience show that self-related processing is most often associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex (Denny et al., 2012;Northoff et al., 2006). ...
... Future studies should compare different methods of affirmation such as reflecting on core values (e.g., Badea et al., 2021), recalling a past success (e.g., Tavitian-Elmadjian et al., 2020) or imagining a future event related to important values (e.g., Cascio et al., 2016), to test which ones would be more effective in each specific context. In addition, evaluating existing affirmation manipulations (for a review see McQueen & Klein, 2006) or developing new ones is essential to understand by which mechanisms this technique can influence prejudice reduction. ...
... This is supported by the literature that suggests that selfesteem impacts an individual's decision-making process, relationships, emotional health, and overall well-being and that it also influences motivation. Individuals with a healthy and positive view of themselves understand their potential and may feel inspired to face new challenges (Cascio et al., 2016;Johnson & Wakefield, 2020;von Soest et al., 2018). ...
... Motivation for self-esteem is a powerful psychological driver that encourages individuals to engage in activities that enhance their self-esteem (Cascio et al., 2016). This motivation could be moderated by Opportunity Cost when considering educational tourism. ...
Article
Full-text available
This study embarks on an exhaustive exploration of these determinants, leveraging the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to decipher their interaction and overall impact on educational tourism. The research examines a variety of psychological variables, Attitudes, Subjective Norms, Perceived Behavioral Control, Resource Availability, Self-Esteem Motivation, Novelty Seeking, Perceived Value, and Opportunity Cost, focusing on their modulation by Resource Availability and Novelty Seeking. A structured closed-ended questionnaire serves as the research instrument, obtaining responses from 376 participants over a period of three months. The collected data is meticulously analyzed using the Smart PLS tool. The results illuminate considerable direct and indirect relationships between these factors and their consequent effect on educational tourism. Specifically, Attitudes, Subjective Norms, and Perceived Behavioral Control significantly influence Resource Availability, Self-Esteem Motivation, and Novelty Seeking. In turn, Resource Availability and Novelty Seeking exert a positive effect on educational tourism, while Self-Esteem Motivation shows a minor positive correlation. Perceived Value and Opportunity Cost also play an instrumental moderating role. Although perceived value positively modulates the influence of resource availability, counterintuitively, it exerts a negative moderating effect on novelty seeking. Opportunity Cost presents mixed moderation results. The study concludes by highlighting potential future research directions.
... Despite no interaction effects, it appears that participants in the HT group experienced potentially associated with a sense of self-accomplishment and relief that is commonly observed 502 upon completion of cognitively demanding tasks (Bernstein et al., 2019;Cascio et al., 2016;503 Wagstaff, 2014). It is also interesting that participants in the LT group experienced a significant 504 improvement in perceived dominance when compared to their baseline levels (~ 3 a.u.). ...
Article
It has been hypothesized that one's ability to control impulses aids in sustaining effort despite experiencing painful physical sensations. Physical exercise has been used extensively as an intervention to strengthen the inhibitory control system and protect an individual's cognitive plan of action. It is unclear, however, whether the high levels of exercise tolerance could facilitate inhibitory control under varied stressors. The present study explored the relationship between subjective exercise tolerance and psychophysiological characteristics that indicate reactivity capacity when exposed to the cold pressor test. Thirty-six participants were divided into two groups based on their subjective exercise tolerance profiles. During the test, participants' psychophysiological reactivity was monitored via heart rate variability. Participants were also required to answer questions about their perceptual and affective states at the beginning and immediately after the stress test. The study revealed insights into dominance perception and emotional states among individuals with varying subjective exercise tolerance levels. High-tolerant individuals endured physical discomfort longer (~50 s) and exhibited higher perceived dominance at the outset of the test when compared to their low-tolerant counterparts. Despite differences in task performance, both groups experienced more positive affective states post-task, potentially as a result of a heightened sense of self-accomplishment. Notably, both groups showed similar levels of psychophysiological reactivity, suggesting a protective effect of physical tolerance on ensuing biological responses. Overall, this study sheds light on the complex relationship between exercise tolerance, dominance perception, and psychophysiological reactivity during physically demanding tasks, enriching our understanding of how developing physical tolerance may impact inhibitory control under stress.
... According to previous research, value affirmation is a behavior that affirms self-worth and can be a way for people to positively process their selves and enhance perceptions of self-integrity or self-competence (Cohen & Sherman, 2014). Related studies have shown that value affirmation was strongly associated with brain regions related to self-processing, including mPFC, PCC, and AG (Cascio et al., 2016;Dutcher et al., 2016). Emotional support usually created a feeling of being closely connected to others and boosted positive emotions, which had strong brain connections to social information processing and emotion regulation, mainly including the temporal pole (Qin & Northoff, 2011;Yi et al., 2018) and vlPFC (Onoda et al., 2009). ...
... During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer behavior was investigated extensively using biometric analysis, which can be used to obtain data unintentionally generated by individuals (Ariely & Berns, 2010;Cascio et al., 2015;Kim et al., 2021). In addition to its academic value, this information also has significant practical implications. ...
Article
Full-text available
Recent technological advances, particularly in biometrics, have significantly impacted the tourism industry. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, these technologies have grown rapidly, posing challenges and opportunities in utilizing the resulting data. This study aims to develop a research agenda concerning biometrics in tourism consumer behavior, detailing what biometric data entails and outlining its diverse applications. Through a bibliographic review of 422 recent papers, employing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, we extracted keywords, topics, and frequencies using the methodological approach of corpus linguistics and latent Dirichlet allocation algorithm. The results identified 26 topics, including “KPIs”,” Techniques”, “Personalization”, “Health”, and “Travel and transport”. Furthermore, we observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the tourism sector, with “Health” present in four categories. The practical implications of our study suggest that companies can find the issues that most concern the tourism consumer in the lines of research presented in the research agenda, paying particular attention to the lines developed in the research agenda involving “personalization”, "travel and transport" and "health".
... The DMN is central in depression pathogenesis (54,55). Sedentary motor behavior is correlated with reduced connectivity of the DMN in old (56) and younger adults (57), particularly between the ventromedial regions of the DMN (52). Hippocampal and parahippocampal volumes were also found to be associated with physical activity in healthy older adults (58)(59)(60) and vascular mild cognitive impairment (61). ...
Article
Full-text available
One’s own voice undergoes unique processing that distinguishes it from others’ voices, and thus listening to it may have a special neural basis for self-talk as an emotion regulation strategy. This study aimed to elucidate how neural effects of one’s own voice differ from those of others’ voices on the implementation of emotion regulation strategies. Twenty-one healthy adults were scanned using fMRI while listening to sentences synthesized in their own or others’ voices for self-affirmation and cognitive defusion, which were based on mental commitments to strengthen one’s positive aspects and imagining metaphoric actions to shake off negative aspects, respectively. The interaction effect between voice identity and strategy was observed in the superior temporal sulcus, middle temporal gyrus, and parahippocampal cortex, and activity in these regions showed that the uniqueness of one’s own voice is reflected more strongly for cognitive defusion than for self-affirmation. This interaction was also seen in the precuneus, suggesting intertwining of self-referential processing and episodic memory retrieval in self-affirmation with one’s own voice. These results imply that unique effects of one’s own voice may be expressed differently due to the degree of engagement of neural sharpening-related regions and self-referential networks depending on the type of emotion regulation.
Article
Full-text available
Significance Self-affirmation is a psychological technique that is effective in increasing receptivity to interventions across domains from promoting health behaviors in high-risk populations to improving academic performance in underrepresented groups. The neural mechanisms that lead to affirmation’s success, however, are not known. We show that neural responses associated with self-related processing and value in response to an otherwise-threatening health communication intervention can be changed using self-affirmation; furthermore, these neural responses predict objectively measured behavior change in the month following the intervention. These findings suggest that self-affirmation may exert its effects by allowing at-risk individuals to see the self-relevance and value in otherwise-threatening messages and provide a framework for studying neural effects of self-affirmation more broadly.
Article
Full-text available
Significance Decisions concerning the future are often informed by past experiences. However, in a complex world, we frequently have to make choices for prospective scenarios that we haven’t yet encountered. The present study demonstrates a critical role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in simulating what it may feel like to experience such future events. We show that this region contributes to integrating knowledge related to the elements that constitute the episode (e.g., the episode’s location and protagonists). Its activation then indicates the episode’s emergent or overall anticipated affective quality. By this process, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex fundamentally supports our ability to predict possible future affective states, a mechanism that can be flexibly used to augment future oriented decisions.
Article
Full-text available
Significance Although optimal well-being may be achieved through eudaimonic activities (meaning and purpose), individuals tend to orient toward hedonic activities (pleasure seeking), potentially placing them at risk for ill-being. We find that reward-related neural activation during eudaimonic decisions predicts longitudinal declines in depressive symptoms, whereas reward-related neural activation to hedonic decisions predicts longitudinal increases in depressive symptoms. We identified a potential neural mechanism by which adolescents may develop or be protected from developing ill-being. These findings underscore how the motivational context underlying neural sensitivity to rewards can differentially predict changes in well-being over time. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that reward-related neural activation within an individual can be both a source of risk and protection.
Article
Numerous experiments have recently sought to identify neural signals associated with the subjective value (SV) of choice alternatives. Theoretically, SV assessment is an intermediate computational step during decision making, in which alternatives are placed on a common scale to facilitate value-maximizing choice. Here we present a quantitative, coordinate-based meta-analysis of 206 published fMRI studies investigating neural correlates of SV. Our results identify two general patterns of SV-correlated brain responses. In one set of regions, both positive and negative effects of SV on BOLD are reported at above-chance rates across the literature. Areas exhibiting this pattern include anterior insula, dorsomedialprefrontal cortex, dorsal and posterior striatum, and thalamus. The mixture of positive and negative effects potentially reflects an underlying U-shaped function, indicative of signal related to arousal or salience. In a second set of areas, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior ventral striatum, positive effects predominate. Positive effects in the latter regions are seen both when a decision is confronted and when an outcome is delivered, as well as for both monetary and primary rewards. These regions appear to constitute a “valuation system,” carrying a domain-general SV signal and potentially contributing to value-based decision making.
Article
It has been suggested that the simulation of hypothetical episodes and the recollection of past episodes are supported by fundamentally the same set of brain regions. The present article specifies this core network via Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE). Specifically, a first meta-analysis revealed joint engagement of core network regions during episodic memory and episodic simulation. These include parts of the medial surface, the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex within the medial temporal lobes, and the lateral temporal and inferior posterior parietal cortices on the lateral surface. Both capacities also jointly recruited additional regions such as parts of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. All of these core regions overlapped with the default network. Moreover, it has further been suggested that episodic simulation may require a stronger engagement of some of the core network's nodes as wells as the recruitment of additional brain regions supporting control functions. A second ALE meta-analysis indeed identified such regions that were consistently more strongly engaged during episodic simulation than episodic memory. These comprised the core-network clusters located in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior inferior parietal lobe and other structures distributed broadly across the default and fronto-parietal control networks. Together, the analyses determine the set of brain regions that allow us to experience past and hypothetical episodes, thus providing an important foundation for studying the regions' specialized contributions and interactions. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Article
The ability to imagine the future is a complex mental faculty that depends on an ensemble of cognitive processes supported by an extended set of brain regions. Our aim here was to shed light on one key component of future thinking-personal goal processing-and to determine its neural correlates during both directed and spontaneous forms of thoughts. To address this question, we performed separate ALE meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies of episodic future thinking (EFT), mind-wandering, and personal goal processing, and then investigated the commonalities and differences in brain activity between these three domains. The results showed that the three domains activated a common set of brain regions within the default network and, most notably, the medial prefrontal cortex. This finding suggests that the medial prefrontal cortex mediates the processing of personal goals during both EFT and mind-wandering. Differences in activation were also observed, and notably regions supporting cognitive control processes (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) were recruited to a lesser extent during mind-wandering than experimentally directed future thinking, suggesting that different kinds of self-generated thoughts may recruit varying levels of attentional control abilities. Hum Brain Mapp, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Article
Self‐affirmation theory proposes that individuals possess a flexible self‐system, such that they can respond to threats in one domain of life by affirming self‐worth in other domains. In social psychology research, this has been examined in studies where people affirm important values in the context of self‐threatening events or information. This paper reviews the literature demonstrating the effects of values affirmations and proposes a theoretical account to understand how self‐affirmations reduce defensiveness in response to threats to individuals' health, attenuate physiological stress responses to laboratory and naturalistic stressors, and improve academic performance among individuals experiencing identity threat. The proposed model has three components: Self‐affirmations boost self‐resources, broaden the perspective with which people view information and events in their lives, and lead to an uncoupling of the self and the threat, reducing the threat's impact in affecting the self. This model helps explain what occurs when individuals affirm values in the context of threats, and how self‐affirmations may instantiate lasting effects through changing the nature of ongoing experience.