Self-esteem mapped in the human brain
University College London
The researchers used the new equation to identify signals in the human brain that explain why self-esteem goes up and down when we learn other people’s judgments of us. They say the findings could help identify people at risk of psychiatric disorders. These social prediction errors – the difference between expected and received feedback – were key for determining self-esteem. They found that people who had greater fluctuations in self-esteem during the task also had lower self-esteem more generally and reported more symptoms of depression and anxiety. By combining our mathematical equation for self-esteem with brain scans in people as they found out whether other people liked them, we identified a possible marker for vulnerability to mental health problems.