An English list of trait words including valence, social desirability, and observability ratings.

To enable flexible and controlled research on personality, information processing, and interactions in socio-emotional contexts, the availability of highly controlled stimulus material, especially trait words and related attributes, is indispensable. Existing word databases contain mainly nouns and rating dimensions, and their role in studies within socio-emotional contexts are limited. This study aimed to create an English list of traits (ELoT), a database containing 500 trait adjectives rated by a large sample (n = 822, 57.42% female). The rating categories refer to the perceived valence associated with the traits and their social desirability and observability. Participants of different ages (18 to 65 years of age) and educational levels rated the words in an online survey. Both valence and social desirability ratings showed a bimodal distribution, indicating that most traits were rated either positive (respectively socially desirable) or negative (respectively socially undesirable), with fewer words rated as neutral. For observability, a bell-shaped distribution was found. Results indicated a strong association between valence and social desirability, whereas observability ratings were only moderately associated with the other ratings. Valence and social desirability ratings were not related to participants' age or gender, but observability ratings were different for females and males, and for younger, middle-aged, and older participants. The ELoT is an extensive, freely available database of trait norms. The large sample and the balanced age and gender distributions allow to account for age- and gender-specific effects during stimulus selection.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Has No Specific Effect on Self-referential Processes.

The processing of self-referential information can be influenced by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The present randomized controlled study investigated whether similar effects can be elicited through the application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) regarding the "self-serving bias" (SSB) and the "mnemic neglect effect" (MNE). Seventy-five healthy males (M age = 25; SD = 4.3) were investigated in a between-groups design with random assignment by applying anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). After stimulation, the participants judged if 80 personality traits (40 positive, 40 negative) were self-descriptive or not. Finally, the participants had to recall the previously presented adjectives. All three stimulation groups showed the expected SSB and MNE. Still, and contrary to our hypotheses, tDCS revealed neither a significant interaction effect between groups and valence concerning the number of chosen self-referential traits (F (2,72) = 1.36, p = 0.26, η G 2 = 0.02) nor an interaction effect between groups, valence, and self-reference concerning the percentage of recalled words (F (2,71) = 0.69, p = 0.50, η G 2 = 0.01). However, a post hoc inspection of effect sizes revealed that less negative traits were indicated as self-referential in the anodal compared to the cathodal group (ES: -0.59; CI: -1.16 to -0.03). Moreover, the participants showed-regardless of self-reference and type of stimulation-a better recall with tDCS in comparison to sham stimulation. Our results indicate that tDCS of the mPFC in healthy young men has no influence on the SSB and the MNE. However, tDCS seems to improve memory performance.

How females think about themselves and how they assume that significant others think about them: The influence of perspective taking on self-referential processing.

People maintain a positive self-concept through positive self-appraisals (Self-Serving Bias Effect, SSBE) and a diminished memory for self-threatening information (Mnemic-Neglect Effect, MNE). Other people also influence a person's self-concept. This study investigated SSBE and MNE in 60 females by using a trait-judgment paradigm applying two perspectives (self- and third-person appraisals) and a recall task. Additionally, self-esteem was assessed as an associated factor. SSBE and MNE were found in both kinds of appraisal perspectives. Interestingly, participants saw themselves as even more positive in reflected appraisals. SSBE and self-esteem were associated only in self-appraisals, indicating a larger SSBE on self-appraisals with raising self-esteem. In conclusion, both what females think about themselves and how they assume that others think about them preserve their overall positive self-concept.

The Aachen List of Trait Words.

In this study, we present the Aachen List of Trait Words (ALoT), including a total of 606 German adjectives with English translations, describing personality traits. The lack of ratings regarding the social desirability of traits led us to create a German trait database. Ratings of valence and social desirability were obtained from 100 participants. Statistical analyses of 99 participants indicated that valence and social desirability ratings were strongly correlated. However, there are several words showing a weak or no relationship. Furthermore, uncommon words were rated less positively (or desirable) than more common traits. Word frequency and word length were positively correlated, showing that short terms were more common than long ones. Social desirability and valence ratings are presented together with several psycholinguistic variables known to influence word processing (e.g. word length) in the ALoT. Scores for each word are provided as supplemental materials. The ALoT is intended to provide stimulus material for experiments dealing with the affective processing of German trait adjectives.