Towards the boundaries of self-prioritization: Associating the self with asymmetric shapes disrupts the self-prioritization effect.

Individuals tend to prioritize self-relevant information over other-relevant information. Converging empirical evidence indicates that stimuli that are arbitrarily associated with the self are processed more efficiently than stimuli that are arbitrarily associated with stranger identities. In the present study, we tested if a salient perceptual feature (i.e., presence or absence of symmetry) can modulate this self-prioritization effect. In particular, we wanted to know how the valence of symmetry would integrate or interfere with the self. Under one condition, participants were asked to associate the self with symmetric shapes and a stranger with asymmetric shapes, whereas, under another condition, the association was inverted (i.e., self-asymmetry/stranger-symmetry). The two conditions were manipulated within participants (Experiment 1, laboratory-based) or between participants (Experiment 2, online). Participants classified a randomly generated shape (symmetric vs. asymmetric) and a label (you vs. stranger) as either matching or nonmatching with the previously learned association. In both experiments, a clear self-prioritization effect emerged in the self-symmetry/stranger-asymmetry condition whereas, strikingly, no evidence of a self-prioritization effect emerged at all in the opposite condition. The results suggest that the self-prioritization effect is not mandatory and can be modulated by the valence of the stimuli with which self and stranger are associated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).