{"doi":"10.1037/xge0001154","title":"Self-referential processing accounts for cultural variation in self-enhancement versus criticism: An electrocortical investigation.","abstract":"European Americans are self-enhancing, whereas East Asians are sometimes self-critical. However, the mechanisms underlying this cultural difference remain unclear. Here, we addressed this gap by testing 32 Taiwanese and 32 American young adults, who indicated whether their self-esteem would change in various episodes involving success or failure. We monitored their electroencephalogram (EEG) and assessed upper-alpha band power in response to the outcome information. An increase in upper-alpha power indicates internally directed attention; therefore, it is an index of self-referential processing when assessed during a judgment about the self. As predicted, Americans judged that their self-esteem (but not another's) would increase more after a success than it would decrease after a failure, thereby showing the previously observed self-enhancing pattern. Taiwanese tended to show the opposite pattern, self-criticism. Notably, Americans, but not Taiwanese, showed an increase in upper-alpha band power in response to the self's successes (vs. failures). This bias in the EEG index of self-referential processing predicted the cultural difference in self-enhancement (vs. criticism). The role of self-referential processing in self-enhancement is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).","journal":"Journal of Experimental Psychology General","year":2021,"id":165522,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":36,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9587,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":690071,"name":"Aya Kamikubo","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":381036,"name":"Brian Kraus","orcid":"0000-0002-4361-6310","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":690072,"name":"Nai-Ching Hsiao","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":690073,"name":"Jon-Fan Hu","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":689217,"name":"Mayumi Karasawa","orcid":"0000-0002-6560-5436","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":20114,"name":"Shinobu Kitayama","orcid":"0000-0001-9147-7936","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":381035,"name":"Cristina Salvador","orcid":"0000-0002-6836-2126","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":47,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:45:40.838485Z","pmid":"34807709","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}