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Warmth is more influential than competence: an fMRI repetition suppression study

Brain Imaging and Behavior volume 15, pages 266–275 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Previous neuroimaging studies have revealed neural representation of traits in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), but related studies mainly investigated the neural representation of warmth or competence trait respectively. To identify the potential differences of trait codes of warmth and competence in the mPFC, we applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) repetition suppression which is a rapid reduction of neuronal responses upon repeated presentation of the same implied trait. Participants read two successive trait-implying behavioral descriptions. In each trial, the critical target sentence implied either a warmth-related or competence-related trait was preceded by a prime sentence that implied trait from the other dimension of the ‘Big Two’ with a same or opposite valence, or no trait. The results revealed robust repetition suppression from prime to target in the mPFC only when the prime was a warmth-related trait, regardless of valence. Critically, the suppression effect was much stronger after being primed with a similar and opposite warmth trait compared with a trait-irrelevant prime. This suppression pattern was found nowhere else in the brain. The result seems to indicate that humans do not completely interpret and represent warmth and competence traits as independent dimensions and the warmth trait is more influential than Competence trait. The finding extends the understanding of the ‘Big Two’ theory of impression formation from the aspect of neural activity.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 31500906 and 31571128.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health & Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

    Mingzhu Li, Zifeng Mai, Simin Wang & Ning Ma

  2. School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

    Tingyong Feng

  3. Department of Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Frank Van Overwalle

Authors
  1. Mingzhu Li
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  2. Zifeng Mai
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  3. Simin Wang
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  4. Tingyong Feng
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  5. Frank Van Overwalle
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  6. Ning Ma
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Correspondence to Ning Ma.

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We declared that we have not submitted a related or duplicate manuscript for publication elsewhere and there is no any financial, personal, or professional conflict interests.

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All study procedures were approved by the Ethical Committee of the South China Normal University, and were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Li, M., Mai, Z., Wang, S. et al. Warmth is more influential than competence: an fMRI repetition suppression study. Brain Imaging and Behavior 15, 266–275 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00254-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00254-w

Keywords

  • Warmth trait
  • Competence trait
  • Repetition suppression
  • mPFC