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Abstract: Self-affirmation theory posits that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-view and that threats to perceived self-competence are met with resistance. When threatened, self-affirmations can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values. Many questions exist, however, about the underlying mechanisms associated with self-affirmation. We examined the neural mechanisms of self-affirmation with a task developed for use in a functional magnetic resonance imaging environment. Results of a region of interest analysis demonstrated that participants who were affirmed (compared with unaffirmed participants) showed increased activity in key regions of the brain's self-processing (medial prefrontal cortex + posterior cingulate cortex) and valuation (ventral striatum + ventral medial prefrontal cortex) systems when reflecting on future-oriented core values (compared with everyday activities). Furthermore, this neural activity went on to predict changes in sedentary behavior consistent with successful affirmation in response to a separate physical activity intervention. These results highlight neural processes associated with successful self-affirmation, and further suggest that key pathways may be amplified in conjunction with prospection.

Self affirmations have been seen to impact peoples' performance in sports. The self affirmation theory says that our sense of self worth can be affected by affirmations, especially when they are written out. If we don't affirm ourselves, we instead transition to defensive strategies of self deprecation.

Children worldwide are learning language and through a similarly structured context despite differing cultural settings. The study in this article compares mealtime conversations between parents and their young children across five various cultural settings to find a pattern of communicative interactions across cultures that were only adjusted to be consistent with one's norms and values, helping contribute to theories about language learning.