This is an author produced version of Neural activity in the reward-related brain regions predicts implicit self-esteem: A novel validity test of psychological measures using neuroimaging. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/126293/

24 Self-esteem, arguably the most important attitudes an individual possesses, has been a premier 25 research topic in psychology for more than a century. Following a surge of interest in implicit 26 attitude measures in the 90s, researchers have tried to assess self-esteem implicitly in order to 27 circumvent the influence of biases inherent in explicit measures. However, the validity of 28 implicit self-esteem measures remains elusive. Critical tests are often inconclusive, as the 29 validity of such measures is examined in the backdrop of imperfect behavioral measures. To 30 overcome this serious limitation, we tested the neural validity of the most widely used implicit 31 self-esteem measure, the implicit association test (IAT). Given (1) the conceptualization of self32 esteem as attitude toward the self, and (2) neuroscience findings that the reward-related brain 33 regions represent an individual’s attitude or preference for an object when viewing its image, 34 individual differences in implicit self-esteem should be associated with neural signals in the 35 reward-related regions during passive-viewing of self-face (the most obvious representation of 36 the self). Using multi-voxel pattern analyses (MVPA) on functional magnetic resonance imaging 37 (fMRI) data, we demonstrated that the neural signals in the reward-related regions were robustly 38 associated with implicit (but not explicit) self-esteem, thus providing unique evidence for the 39 neural validity of the self-esteem IAT. In addition, both implicit and explicit self-esteem were 40 related, although differently, to neural signals in regions involved in self-processing. Our finding 41 highlights the utility of neuroscience methods in addressing fundamental psychological questions 42 and providing unique insights into important psychological constructs. 43