Dissociating moral identity from neural markers of the late positive potential in emotional attention to smoking and non-smoking stimuli

Background: The influence of moral identity on smoking behaviors remains an open question, particularly among youth prone to risk-taking and moral challenges. This study examined whether moral identity modulates late positive potential (LPP) responses during emotional-cognitive processing of smoking-related and non-smoking stimuli, while hypothesizing that attentional bias operates independently of individual moral identity differences. Methods: Seventy-eight participants (M = 22 years, SD = 2.1) completed an event-related potential (ERP) session in which the LPP activity was recorded while they viewed target stimuli (1 = smoking and 2 = non-smoking) and non-target stimuli (neutral images). Prior to the ERP task, the participants completed the Moral Identity Scale (validated Malay language version) and provided sociodemographic information. The LPP components were extracted and subsequently analyzed using a mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) with stimulus type (target 1 and 2, non-target) as a within-subject factor and moral identity (internalization, symbolization) as a between-subject factor. Results: Strong main effects of visual stimuli on both the LPP amplitude and latency were revealed, thus indicating robust attentional engagement with emotionally and behaviorally relevant stimuli. No interaction effects with moral identity were observed, thus suggesting that attentional mechanisms function independently of moral self-construal. Post hoc comparisons showed a consistent attentional bias toward target versus neutral stimuli, with smoking versus non-smoking differences varying across cortical regions: amplitude effects in central and temporal areas, and latency effects in parietal and occipital areas. Conclusion: Smoking-related stimuli automatically capture attention irrespective of moral identity, thus highlighting the dissociation between moral self-construal and neural markers of emotional attention.