Most people spend a major chunk of their waking hours at work, where often the boss looms large. Just how influential the boss is on an employee’s self-image might depend on culture, a study in the February 16 PLoS ONE reports.

Teams of researchers in California and China showed a rapid series of photographs to student volunteers, sometimes asking them to press a button when they saw themselves and other times to press it when they saw their boss. People usually recog­nize themselves in images much more quickly than they recognize anyone else. But the scientists found that Chinese students pressed the button in response to their boss’s face more quickly than to their own face. Amer­ican students showed this “boss effect” only when they perceived their boss as socially influential and able to help or hinder their climb up the career ladder.