The self-prioritization effect in 9- to 11-year-old children: The different roles of explicit and implicit self-esteem

People often display a self-centered bias, prioritizing self-related over other-related stimuli, a phenomenon known as the self-prioritization effect (SPE). While this effect is well-documented in adults, little is known about its patterns and mechanisms in children. According to the self-valence hypothesis, evaluative information linked to the self drives behavioral advantages. The dual model of social cognition further divides self-evaluation into explicit and implicit components, each impacting behavior differently. To explore how self-valence affects SPE in children, we conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 (N = 28) suggested that similar to adults, 9- to 11-year-old children show a strong SPE in perceptual tasks. Experiment 2 (N = 85) confirmed the robustness of SPE and found that explicit self-esteem positively predicted the magnitude of SPE, consistent with the self-valence hypothesis. No significant influence of implicit self-esteem was observed, aligning with the dual model's view that explicit and implicit self-esteem have distinct influences. Trial-level mixed-effects models further revealed that children with higher explicit self-esteem demonstrated greater accuracy on self-related trials, while accuracy on other-related trials remained stable. These findings highlight the key role of explicit self-esteem in driving SPE and underscore a self-centered perspective in social cognition.