Effects of self-transcendence on neural responses to persuasive messages and health behavior change
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America September 17, 2018 Yoona Kang, N. Cooper, Prateekshit Pandey et al.
Activating a self-transcendent mindset—focusing on others' well-being through reflecting on values or making positive wishes—increased activity in brain regions linked to positive valuation and reward. Among 220 sedentary adults, those primed with self-transcendence before health messages showed greater objectively measured increases in physical activity over the following month. During message exposure, self-transcendence was associated with increased activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex subregions involved in self-related processing and positive valuation, which predicted later decreases in sedentary behavior. The findings suggest that a positive, other-focused mindset can reduce defensiveness and increase receptivity to health information, promoting behavior change.