He was called ugly, not me: valence and referent of social opinions do not impact face recognition but affect attribution of the opinion’s target

Remembering faces and their associated contexts is important for healthy social cognition. We used a social opinion paradigm to assess whether the valence and relevance (about the self or other) of expressed opinions influenced memory for faces and who the opinion was about. Participants (N = 144) read opinions varying in reference and valence (e.g. "She thinks your/his smile is beautiful/crooked") followed by neutral faces said to hold the opinion. Participants rated their feelings of valence and arousal, followed by a surprise old/new face recognition test. Face recognition was not influenced by the type of opinion. We also assessed accuracy of "reference attribution" for the social opinion. Participants reported whether the opinion was in reference to themselves or someone else. Reference attributions were more accurate for opinions directed toward others than oneself. Moreover, higher endorsement of symptoms of depression was linked to enhanced reference attribution accuracy for self-related contexts, while higher endorsement of anxiety symptoms was associated with lower attribution accuracy. Results suggest the influence of social context on memory depends on context valence and personal relevance, as well as participants' trait symptoms.