1. The Influence of
Gender Differences
on Expectations and
Memory for Social
Feedback
Jazmine Vega, Jessica I. Lake, Naomi Eisenberger, Gregory A. Miller, Cindy Yee-Bradbury
3. 1. Background
• Females have greater acute change in cortisol
levels in response to social rejection, than males.
(Galli et al., 2011)
• Females have stronger brain activation in
anticipation of social rewards, than males.
(Stroud et al., 2002)
• Females have better recall for emotional events
when anticipating the event will happen, than
males.
(Spreckelmeyer et al., 2009)
4. “In order to extend on previous research,
our current experiment wanted to
specifically focus on the mechanism
driving this underlying gender difference
in response to social feedback.
9. What we expect
• Females will generally report feeling worse after
rejected and better after accepted, than males.
• Females will generally have better memory for
people that rejected (and anticipated would reject)
them than accepted (and anticipated would
accept) them, than males.
• Males will show no memory bias or affective
response to anticipation and reception of social
feedback.
11. 2. Methods
Participants
• n = 37
• 24 Females
• 18-31 years old
• UCLA Undergrads
• SONA System
*Participants with overall
memory performance <60%
were excluded.
Design
• 2 x 2 x 2 Mixed-groups ANOVA
design
• Cue Type (Likely to Accept,
Likely to Reject) x Feedback
Type (Acceptance, Rejection) x
Gender of Participant (Female,
Male)
• Interested in Memory and Self-
Reported Feelings
12. 2. Methods: Procedure
Day 1:
• Filled out profile and had picture taken
• Told that other students at collaborating universities
would decide whether or not they would want them on
their team for a cooperative computer game
• Told they would receive the feedback of students who
rated them on their next visit
• Rated the profiles of other “study participants”
14. 2. Methods: Procedure
Day 2: Phase 2
• Participants viewed photos of individuals they
have previously seen and individuals they have
never seen before.
• Participants completed this task at their own
pace, but were asked to respond quickly and
accurately.
Participants were asked to decide if the pictured individual is:
Definitely Old - Possibly Old - Possibly New - Definitely New
20. Reception of
Personalized
Social Feedback
f
Memory for
Person Giving
Feedback
Affective
Response to
Feedback
But males
actually
remember faces
that rejected
them more than
accepted them,
than females.
22. “• This discrepancy may comment on the way males and
females cope with social feedback.
• Males may not be aware with how they feel in response to
rejection and do not confront their emotions, and so end
up remembering rejection more than females do.
• Females, on the other hand, are possibly choosing to
confront their emotions and this allows them to move on.
24. 5. Limitations
• Self-report
• Participant fatigue
• Manipulation of Personalized Feedback
• Imbalance of female and male participants
25. 5. Future Directions
• Explore gender of pictured individuals
• Explore dissociation between self-report
and memory
• Strengthen personalized social feedback
manipulation
26. References
1. Galli et. al (2011). Sex differences in the use of anticipatory brain activity to encode emotional
events. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(34),12364-12370.
2. Stroud, R. et. al (2002). Sex differences in stress responses: social rejection versus
achievement stress. Society of Biological Psychology, 52, 318-327.
3. Spreckelmeyer, N. et. al (2009). Anticipation of monetary and social reward differentially
activates mesolimbic brain structures in men and women. Social Cognitive and Affective
Neuroscience, 4(2), 158-165.
Any Questions?
