The self-reference effect in evaluating physical and inner ugliness: An event related-potential study

The present study explored electrophysiological correlates of processing physical and inner ugliness words using high-density event related potentials (ERPs). Thirteen undergraduates (seven men, six women) engaged in a word judgment task indicating whether words were suitable for describing oneself, one´s mother, or an “abstract other” person. Results showed that self-referenced descriptions elicited larger P2 components than did abstract other descriptions for inner ugliness words or mother-referenced descriptions for physical ugliness words. Subsequently, self-referenced descriptions elicited a more positive LPC than did abstract other-referenced descriptions for physical and inner ugliness words or mother-referenced descriptions for physical ugliness words. Together, results clearly demonstrated self-reference effects were present in attention allocation and cognitive evaluation of descriptors for both physical and inner ugliness.