AbstractPrevious work shows that when an image of a face is presented immediately prior to each trial of a speeded cognitive task (face‐priming), the error‐related negativity (ERN) is upregulated for Asians, but it is downregulated for Caucasians. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that images of “generalized other” vary cross‐culturally such that they evoke anxiety for Asians, whereas they serve as safety cues for Caucasians. Here, we tested whether the cross‐cultural variation in the face‐priming effect would be observed in a gambling paradigm. Caucasian Americans, Asian Americans, and Asian sojourners were exposed to a brief flash of a schematic face during a gamble. For Asian Americans, face‐priming resulted in significant increases of both negative‐going deflection of ERP upon negative feedback (feedback‐related negativity [FRN]) and positive‐going deflection of ERP upon positive feedback (feedback‐related positivity [FRP]). For Caucasian Americans, face‐priming showed a significant reversal, decreasing both FRN and FRP. The cultural difference in the face‐priming effect in FRN and FRP was partially mediated by interdependent self‐construal. Curiously, Asian sojourners showed a pattern similar to the one for Caucasian Americans. Our findings suggest that culture shapes neural pathways in both systematic and highly dynamic fashion.