Self-knowledge reduces conflict by biasing one of plural possible answers.

The authors investigated whether self-knowledge has a function to reduce conflict by biasing one of two choices during occupational choice (e.g., Which occupation do you think you could do better?-dancer or chemist). In the three experiments, event-related brain potentials were recorded. Experiment 1 revealed that the amplitude of the conflict-related negativity (CRN) reflects strength of conflict during occupational choice. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that the CRN amplitude during occupational choice was smaller when self-knowledge was activated than when other-knowledge was activated. Experiment 3 showed that the CRN amplitude during occupational choice was decreased more when self-knowledge that biases one choice of occupation was activated than when self-knowledge that does not bias was activated. These results suggest that self-knowledge reduces conflict by biasing one of multiple choices in situations where two or more possible correct answers can be given.