Self-face advantage is modulated by social threat – Boss effect on self-face recognition

Human adults usually respond faster to self-face than to faces of others. The self-face advantage has been associated with an implicit positive association with the self. The current work investigated whether social threats modulate self-face recognition by asking graduate students to identify orientations of self-face in a high-threat context, in which self-face and a faculty advisor’s face were presented in one block of trials, or in a low-threat context, in which self-face and a face of another faculty member were presented in one block of trials. We found a self-face advantage in the low-threat context but a self-face disadvantage in the high-threat context (i.e., slower responses to self-face compared to the advisor’s face). Moreover, the self-face disadvantage positively correlated with the degree of fear of negative evaluations from advisors. Our findings suggest that self-face recognition is strongly modulated by social interactions with influential superiors within social hierarchies.