Brain scans reveal an emotional advantage for modest people

Social feedback shapes human behavior and self-perception in profound ways. New research suggests that the personality trait of modesty alters how the human brain processes these social evaluations. The findings indicate that modest individuals may possess a distinct neural advantage that allows them to handle rejection more calmly while still fully appreciating acceptance. The study was published in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Most people possess an innate drive for self-enhancement. This psychological motivation leads individuals to seek positive evaluations and avoid negative ones. When a person receives feedback that validates their positive self-image, the experience is rewarding. Conversely, criticism or rejection often triggers psychological distress. This dynamic creates a challenge for emotion regulation.

Individuals frequently attempt to manage the distress of negative feedback through various strategies. One common method is expressive suppression, where a person consciously hides their emotional reaction. While this might mask outward signs of upset, it often fails to alleviate the internal negative experience. Suppression can also have the unintended side effect of dampening positive emotions. This leaves many people in a dilemma where avoiding pain comes at the cost of experiencing less joy.

Xin Wang, Chuhua Zheng, and Yanhong Wu conducted this investigation to explore an alternative approach to this emotional dilemma. Wang and Wu are affiliated with the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University in Beijing, China. Zheng is associated with the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China. The team investigated whether modesty could serve as a buffer against the sting of negative feedback without blunting the pleasure of positive social interactions.

The researchers defined modesty not as low self-esteem, but as a specific perspective on the self. In this context, modesty involves a low self-focus. Modest individuals tend to view themselves as a single part of a larger world. They recognize the value and contributions of others and do not remain hyper-focused on their own status. The researchers hypothesized that this trait might allow for a “double win” in emotion regulation. They predicted that modest people would experience fewer negative emotions during rejection but would still experience strong positive emotions during acceptance.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers recruited 47 young adults to participate in a neuroimaging study. The participants entered a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to have their brain activity recorded. While inside the scanner, the participants completed a task known as the Social Judgment Paradigm. This is a standardized psychological experiment designed to simulate the experience of being evaluated by peers.

Prior to the scan, participants were told that a group of peers had viewed their photographs. During the task, the participants viewed the faces of these peers one by one. For each face, the participant had to predict whether that peer liked or disliked them. Following this prediction, the screen displayed the actual feedback. This setup created four distinct scenarios for the brain to process. These included expected acceptance, expected rejection, unexpected acceptance, and unexpected rejection.

The researchers analyzed the behavioral data first. They looked at how the participants’ self-reported levels of modesty correlated with their emotional regulation strategies. The data showed that highly modest individuals were less likely to use expressive suppression. This suggests that when modest people appear calm in the face of feedback, it is not because they are forcefully holding back their reactions. They are simply not engaging in the effortful masking of their feelings.

The functional MRI data revealed how modesty correlates with brain activity during unexpected events. When participants received feedback that did not match their predictions, specific brain regions became active. In participants with lower levels of modesty, unexpected feedback triggered high activity in the inferior parietal lobe and the superior temporal gyrus. Neuroscientists associate the inferior parietal lobe with self-referential processing. High activity here often signals that the brain is intensely focusing on the self.

In contrast, the brain scans of highly modest individuals showed a different pattern. When they encountered unexpected feedback, there was significantly reduced activation in the inferior parietal lobe. The researchers interpret this as neural evidence of the “low self-focus” characteristic of modesty. When the external feedback contradicted their expectations, modest participants did not dwell on the discrepancy. They processed the information without the intense self-centered cognitive reaction seen in less modest participants.

The study also examined how the brain responded to the specific quality of the feedback, comparing acceptance against rejection. The researchers found that modesty modulated activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. This region of the brain is deeply involved in processing rewards and assessing value. It also plays a role in regulating emotional responses.

When modest participants received acceptance feedback, they showed robust activation in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. This contradicts the idea that modesty implies a lack of interest in what others think. Instead, it suggests that modest individuals find social acceptance to be highly rewarding. The neural evidence points to a strong positive experience when establishing a connection with others.

The researchers conducted a further analysis known as psychophysiological interaction. This technique allows scientists to see how different parts of the brain communicate with one another during a task. The team looked specifically at the connection between the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus. The inferior frontal gyrus is a region often associated with inhibition and cognitive control.

The analysis showed that for modest individuals, there was a negative connectivity between these two regions during social feedback. The researchers suggest this connectivity pattern indicates a lack of inhibitory suppression. Instead of the brain’s control center clamping down on the reward center, the two regions worked in a way that supported positive reappraisal. Modest individuals appeared to regulate their emotions by reinterpreting the situation rather than suppressing their feelings.

These neural findings aligned with the participants’ self-reports. Modest individuals reported feeling more positive emotions when they received expected acceptance. Their mood ratings remained higher than those of less modest participants in similar conditions. The combination of behavioral and neural data supports the idea that modesty allows for an adaptive response to social judgment.

The authors note that the brain activity observed in non-modest individuals aligns with previous research on “social pain.” Rejection and unexpected negative feedback often activate the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, a region associated with the distress of physical pain. By maintaining a lower focus on the self, modest individuals appear to bypass some of this neural alarm system. They can “take the rough with the smooth,” accepting criticism without deep distress while still enjoying praise.

There are limitations to the generalizability of these findings. The study sample consisted of university students in China. Cultural values regarding modesty vary significantly across the world. In collectivist cultures, modesty is often highly valued and emphasized in social upbringing. It is possible that the neural mechanisms observed here are influenced by this cultural context. Research with Western populations would be necessary to see if the same brain patterns emerge where self-enhancement is more culturally encouraged.

Another caveat is the nature of the experimental task. The Social Judgment Paradigm uses static photographs and binary feedback. It is a controlled laboratory approximation of social interaction. Real-world relationships are dynamic and reciprocal. The emotional weight of feedback from a close friend or a family member differs from that of a stranger in a photograph. The current study cannot fully capture the complexity of these long-term emotional bonds.

Future research directions could address these limitations. The authors suggest investigating the long-term effects of social feedback on modest individuals. It would be valuable to understand if the protective benefits of modesty persist over time or if they are specific to immediate feedback. Additionally, understanding these mechanisms could help in the development of interventions for social anxiety. If people can learn to adopt a “modest mindset” by temporarily lowering their self-focus, they might navigate social rejection with greater resilience.

The study, “‘Take the Rough With the Smooth’: Modesty Modulates Neurocognitive and Emotional Processing of Social Feedback,” was authored by Xin Wang, Chuhua Zheng, and Yanhong Wu.