TY - JOUR

T1 - My face, my heart

T2 - cultural differences in integrated bodily self-awareness

AU - Maister, Lara

AU - Tsakiris, Manos

PY - 2014/1

Y1 - 2014/1

N2 - Body-awareness is produced by an integration of both interoceptive and exteroceptive bodily signals. However, previous investigations into cultural differences in bodily self-awareness have only studied these two aspects in isolation. We investigated the interaction between interoceptive and exteroceptive self-processing in East Asian and Western participants. During an interoceptive awareness task, self-face observation improved performance of those with initially low awareness in the Western group, but did not benefit the East Asian participants. These results suggest that the integrated, coherent experience of the body differs between East Asian and Western cultures. For Western participants, viewing one's own face may activate a bodily self-awareness which enhances processing of other bodily information, such as interoceptive signals. Instead, for East Asian individuals, the external appearance of the self may activate higher-level, social aspects of self-identity, reflecting the importance of the sociocultural construct of "face" in East Asian cultures.

AB - Body-awareness is produced by an integration of both interoceptive and exteroceptive bodily signals. However, previous investigations into cultural differences in bodily self-awareness have only studied these two aspects in isolation. We investigated the interaction between interoceptive and exteroceptive self-processing in East Asian and Western participants. During an interoceptive awareness task, self-face observation improved performance of those with initially low awareness in the Western group, but did not benefit the East Asian participants. These results suggest that the integrated, coherent experience of the body differs between East Asian and Western cultures. For Western participants, viewing one's own face may activate a bodily self-awareness which enhances processing of other bodily information, such as interoceptive signals. Instead, for East Asian individuals, the external appearance of the self may activate higher-level, social aspects of self-identity, reflecting the importance of the sociocultural construct of "face" in East Asian cultures.

KW - Adolescent

KW - Asian Continental Ancestry Group

KW - Awareness

KW - Body Image

KW - Culture

KW - European Continental Ancestry Group

KW - Face

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Self Concept

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1080/17588928.2013.808613

DO - 10.1080/17588928.2013.808613

M3 - Article

C2 - 24168204

VL - 5

SP - 10

EP - 16

JO - Cognitive Neuroscience

JF - Cognitive Neuroscience

SN - 1758-8928

IS - 1

ER -