Interpersonal harm aversion as a necessary foundation for morality: A developmental neuroscience perspective

Autistic and Non-autistic Children's Pain Perception is Modulated by Their First-Hand Pain Sensitivity and Theory of Mind

The current study examined whether autistic children's perception of others' pain could be modulated by their first-hand pain sensitivity and theory of mind (ToM). We measured the first-hand pain sensitivity, the rating of others' pain intensity, and the performance in the ToM tasks in 43 5- to 8-year-old autistic and 30 neurotypical children. Our results revealed hyposensitivity to first-hand pain, underestimation of others' pain intensity, as well as difficulties in the False Belief subtasks of ToM in autistic children. Furthermore, we detected an interaction between children's first-hand pain sensitivity and ToM in predicting their perception of others' pain. To be specific, for autistic and NT children with normal or hyper-sensitivity to first-hand pain, better performance on ToM predicted higher ratings for others' pain intensity; while for autistic and NT children with hyposensitivity to first-hand pain, ToM did not predict ratings for others' pain intensity. Our study contributes to the understanding of pain perception in young children and provides implications for clinical practices to improve social understanding in autistic children.

Involving Parents in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents with Conduct Problems: Goals, Outcome Expectations, and Normative Beliefs About Aggression are Targeted in Sessions with Parents and Their Child

Children and adolescents with conduct problems participate in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), either in individual or group format, in view of learning social problem-solving skills that enable them to behave in more independent and situation-appropriate ways. Parents must support their child's learning processes in everyday life and therefore these processes need attention in CBT sessions in which parents and their child participate. The social problem-solving model of CBT previously described (Matthys & Schutter, Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 25:552-572, 2022; Matthys & Schutter, Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 26:401-415, 2023) consists of nine psychological skills. In this narrative review we propose that instead of addressing each skill separately in sessions with both parents and their child, therapists work on three schemas (latent mental structures): (1) goals, (2) outcome expectations, and (3) normative beliefs about aggression. Based on social-cognitive and cognitive neuroscience studies we argue that these three schemas affect five core social problem-solving skills: (1) interpretation, (2) clarification of goals, (3) generations of solutions, (4) evaluation of solutions, and (5) decision-making. In view of tailoring CBT to the individual child's characteristic schemas and associated social problem-solving skills, we suggest that children and adolescents participate in individual sessions with their parents. The therapist uses Socratic questioning in order to find out characteristic schemas of the child, encourage reflection on these schemas, and explore alternative schemas that had previously been outside the child's attention. The therapist functions as a model for parents to ask their child questions about the relevant schemas with a view of achieving changes in the schemas.

Predicting Black Parents' Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: A Moderated-Mediation Model of Frequency and Valence of Childhood Experiences

Child corporal punishment (CP) may lead to child physical abuse, which is a public health concern in the United States. The present study examined major risk factors predicting attitudes toward CP among a sample of Black parents (N = 394), including frequency and valence of experiences of CP during childhood, outcome expectancies of CP, and perceptions of self-efficacy and response efficacy of non-physical discipline strategies. Structural equation modeling results revealed that the indirect associations between CP frequency and attitudes through self-efficacy and response efficacy were moderated by CP valence. Results extend the literature and point to the need for incorporating information about efficacy of evidence-based non-physical discipline strategies into intervention messages targeting prevention of child physical abuse.

Preventing antisocial robots: A pathway to artificial empathy

Given the accelerating powers of artificial intelligence (AI), we must equip artificial agents and robots with empathy to prevent harmful and irreversible decisions. Current approaches to artificial empathy focus on its cognitive or performative processes, overlooking affect, and thus promote sociopathic behaviors. Artificially vulnerable, fully empathic AI is necessary to prevent sociopathic robots and protect human welfare.

Do Bad People Deserve Empathy? Selective Empathy Based on Targets' Moral Characteristics

The relation between empathy and morality is a widely discussed topic. However, previous discussions mainly focused on whether and how empathy influences moral cognition and moral behaviors, with limited attention to the reverse influence of morality on empathy. This review summarized how morality influences empathy by drawing together a number of hitherto scattered studies illustrating the influence of targets' moral characteristics on empathy. To explain why empathy is morally selective, we discuss its ultimate cause, to increase survival rates, and five proximate causes based on similarity, affective bonds, the appraisal of deservingness, dehumanization, and potential group membership. To explain how empathy becomes morally selective, we consider three different pathways (automatic, regulative, and mixed) based on previous findings. Finally, we discuss future directions, including the reverse influence of selective empathy on moral cognition, the moral selectivity of positive empathy, and the role of selective empathy in selective helping and third-party punishment.

Empathic concern induction modulates behavioral ratings and neural responses to harm-related moral judgment: An event-related potentials study

Although empathic concern is critical in harm-related moral judgment, the temporal dynamics underlying the impact of empathic concern on moral judgment remain unclear. This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how empathic concern induction shaped the way individuals perceive harmful/helpful behaviors. Behavioral results showed that participants assigned more blame to harmful behaviors in the empathic concern priming condition compared to those in the control condition. ERP results showed that helpful behaviors elicited larger N1 than did harmful behaviors. Additionally, harmful behaviors in the empathic concern priming condition elicited more negative N2 than did harmful behaviors in the control condition. Moreover, harmful behaviors elicited larger late positive potential (LPP) than did helpful behaviors in the control condition. These findings suggest that (1) empathic concern induction might increase moral sensitivity about harm-related norms; (2) participants independent of the empathic concern manipulation can distinguish between harmful behaviors and helpful behaviors similarly, as indicated by the early ERP component (N1); (3) empathic concern especially influences the intermediate (N2) and later (LPP) ERP components.

Inferences about interdependence shape cooperation

During social interactions in daily life, people possess imperfect knowledge of their interdependence (i.e., how behaviors affect each person's outcomes), and what people infer about their interdependence can shape their behaviors. We review theory and research that suggests people can infer their interdependence with others along several dimensions, including mutual dependence, power, and corresponding-versus-conflicting interests. We discuss how perceptions of interdependence affect how people cooperate and punish others' defection in everyday life. We propose that people understand their interdependence with others through knowledge of the action space, cues during social interactions (e.g., partner behaviors), and priors based on experience. Finally, we describe how learning interdependence could occur through domain-specific and domain-general mechanisms.

Moral Thinking and Empathy in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents with Conduct Problems: A Narrative Review

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for conduct problems in children and adolescents aims to decrease behaviors which may be considered moral transgressions (e.g., aggressive and antisocial behavior) and to increase behaviors that benefit others (e.g., helping, comforting). However, the moral aspects underlying these behaviors have received relatively little attention. In view of increasing the effectiveness of CBT for conduct problems, insights into morality and empathy based on studies from developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience are reviewed and integrated into a previously proposed model of social problem-solving (Matthys & Schutter, Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 25:552-572, 2022). Specifically, this narrative review discusses developmental psychology studies on normative beliefs in support of aggression and antisocial behavior, clarification of goals, and empathy. These studies are complemented by cognitive neuroscience research on harm perception and moral thinking, harm perception and empathy, others' beliefs and intentions, and response outcome learning and decision-making. A functional integration of moral thinking and empathy into social problem-solving in group CBT may contribute to the acceptance of morality-related issues by children and adolescents with conduct problems.

Emotional descriptions increase accidental harm punishment and its cortico-limbic signatures during moral judgment in autism

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present difficulties in integrating mental state information in complex moral tasks. Yet, ASD research has not examined whether this process is influenced by emotions, let alone while capturing its neural bases. We investigated how language-induced emotions modulate intent-based moral judgment in ASD. In a fMRI task, 30 adults with ASD and 27 neurotypical controls read vignettes whose protagonists commit harm either accidentally or intentionally, and then decided how much punishment the protagonist deserved. Emotional content was manipulated across scenarios through the use of graphic language (designed to trigger arousing negative responses) vs. plain (just-the-facts, emotionless) language. Off-line functional connectivity correlates of task performance were also analyzed. In ASD, emotional (graphic) descriptions amplified punishment ratings of accidental harms, associated with increased activity in fronto-temporo-limbic, precentral, and postcentral/supramarginal regions (critical for emotional and empathic processes), and reduced connectivity among the orbitofrontal cortex and the angular gyrus (involved in mentalizing). Language manipulation did not influence intentional harm processing in ASD. In conclusion, in arousing and ambiguous social situations that lack intentionality clues (i.e. graphic accidental harm scenarios), individuals with ASD would misuse their emotional responses as the main source of information to guide their moral decisions. Conversely, in face of explicit harmful intentions, they would be able to compensate their socioemotional alterations and assign punishment through non-emotional pathways. Despite limitations, such as the small sample size and low ecological validity of the task, results of the present study proved reliable and have relevant theoretical and translational implications.

Emotion or Evaluation: Cultural Differences in the Parental Socialization of Moral Judgement

Moral reasoning develops rapidly in early childhood. Recent evidence from cognitive neuroscience literature suggests that the development of moral reasoning is supported by an integration of cognitive and affective components. However, the role of culture in the development of moral reasoning in young children is under-investigated. Previous cross-cultural research suggests that culture shapes how people interpret other's behaviors. In particular, people raised in independent cultures, such as the United States, tend to form impressions of others and attribute others' behaviors to their personal dispositions more quickly than people raised in interdependent cultures, such as Japan. In the present cross-cultural study, we examined parents' discourse with children in Japan and the United States. Parents and their 3- to 4-year-old children were asked to view and discuss cartoon characters depicting prosocial and antisocial acts. Results indicated that in both cultures, parents discussed about moral actions (e.g., helping, harming) of characters. Furthermore, United States parents were more likely to evaluate dispositional characteristics of characters based on their pro-social and anti-social acts, whereas Japanese parents were more likely to refer to emotion of the characters who got hurt. We discuss implications of cross-cultural differences and similarities in parental moral socialization and the development of moral reasoning in young children.

The Neural Basis of Moral Judgement for Self and for Others: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

Developmental and neuroscience works have demonstrated that the moral judgment is influenced by theory of mind (ToM), which refers to the ability to represent the mental states of different agents. However, the neural and cognitive time course of interactions between moral judgment and ToM remains unclear. The present event-related potential (ERP) study investigated the underlying neural substrate of the interaction between moral judgment and ToM by contrasting the ERPs elicited by moral judgments for self and for others in moral dilemmas. In classic moral dilemmas, the agents must choose between the utilitarian choice (taking the action to kill or harm an innocent person but saving more people) and the non-utilitarian choice (taking no action to kill or harm the innocent person but letting some people die). The ERPs were recorded from participants who made moral judgments for self and for others when the agent made utilitarian or non-utilitarian choices during the dilemma. The results revealed that the moral judgment for others elicited a larger frontal late positive component (LPC, 500–900 ms) than that for self when the agents made utilitarian choices, while no difference was observed on early components of N1, P2, and N2. Moreover, individual differences in mentalizing ability were negatively correlated with the LPC amplitudes. These findings suggested that ToM modulated the late controlled process but not the early automatic process during moral judgments.

Psychopathic traits modulate functional connectivity during pain perception and perspective-taking in female inmates

•

PCL-R scores are associated with altered functional connectivity in female inmates.

•

PCL-R Factor 1 and Factor 2 subscores predicted opposite shifts in connectivity.

•

Functional connectivity in the salience network is altered during pain perception.

•

Connectivity in the social cognition network is altered during perspective-taking.

The ability to share and understand the distress of others is critical for successful social interactions and is a fundamental building block of morality. Psychopathy is a personality disorder that includes lack of empathy and concern for others. In the present study, functional MRI was used to examine neural responses and functional connectivity associated with empathy and affective perspective-taking in female inmates (N = 109) with various levels of psychopathic traits, as measured with Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Participants viewed hands and feet in painful or non-painful situations while adopting a first person or third person perspective. All participants demonstrated robust neural responses in anterior insula (aINS), anterior cingulate (ACC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and supplementary motor area (SMA) when viewing pain, both during imagine-self and imagine-other blocks. Psychopathy shifted the functional connectivity seeded in core nodes of the salience and social cognition networks. Perceiving stimuli depicting somatic pain led to decreased functional coupling from right temporoparietal junction to superior temporal sulcus, which correlated with scores on PCL-R Factor 1 (Affective/Interpersonal). In contrast, connectivity from right insula to precuneus increased with Factor 2 (Lifestyle/Antisocial) scores. When adopting a third-person perspective, psychopathic traits modulated connectivity from the social cognition network, but not the salience network, with Factor 1 scores associated with increased connectivity to sensorimotor cortex and temporal pole, while Factor 2 scores were associated with decreased connectivity with ACC/SMA and inferior frontal gyrus. Overall, these results demonstrate that psychopathic traits in incarcerated females are associated with atypical functional connectivity within the salience network during pain-empathy processing and within the social cognition network during affective perspective-taking.

The Development of Speciesism: Age-Related Differences in the Moral View of Animals

Humans care for the well-being of some animals (e.g., dogs) yet tacitly endorse the maltreatment of others (e.g., pigs). What treatment is deemed morally appropriate for an animal can depend on whether the animal is characterized as “food.” When such categorization of animals emerges and when a moral hierarchy of beings depending on their species membership (speciesism) develops is poorly understood. We investigate this development across samples of children (9–11 years old), young adults (18–21 years old), and adults (29–59 years old; total N = 479). Compared with young adults and adults, children (a) show less speciesism, (b) are less likely to categorize farm animals as food than pets, (c) think farm animals ought to be treated better, and (d) deem eating meat and animal products to be less morally acceptable. These findings imply that there are key age-related differences in our moral view of an animal worth that point to socially constructed development over the lifespan.

Neural computations in children's third-party interventions are modulated by their parents' moral values

One means by which humans maintain social cooperation is through intervention in third-party transgressions, a behaviour observable from the early years of development. While it has been argued that pre-school age children's intervention behaviour is driven by normative understandings, there is scepticism regarding this claim. There is also little consensus regarding the underlying mechanisms and motives that initially drive intervention behaviours in pre-school children. To elucidate the neural computations of moral norm violation associated with young children's intervention into third-party transgression, forty-seven preschoolers (average age 53.92 months) participated in a study comprising of electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements, a live interaction experiment, and a parent survey about moral values. This study provides data indicating that early implicit evaluations, rather than late deliberative processes, are implicated in a child's spontaneous intervention into third-party harm. Moreover, our findings suggest that parents' values about justice influence their children's early neural responses to third-party harm and their overt costly intervention behaviour.

The neuroscience of intergroup threat and violence

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global increase in hate crimes and xenophobia. In these uncertain times, real or imaginary threats can easily lead to intergroup conflict. Here, we integrate social neuroscience findings with classic social psychology theories into a framework to better understand how intergroup threat can lead to violence. The role of moral disengagement, dehumanization, and intergroup schadenfreude in this process are discussed, together with their underlying neural mechanisms. We outline how this framework can inform social scientists and policy makers to help reduce the escalation of intergroup conflict and promote intergroup cooperation. The critical role of the media and public figures in these unprecedented times is highlighted as an important factor to achieve these goals.

Physical Presence during Moral Action in Immersive Virtual Reality

Research on morality has focused on differences in moral judgment and action. In this study, we investigated self-reported moral reasoning after a hypothetical moral dilemma was presented on paper, and moral reasoning after that very same dilemma was experienced in immersive virtual reality (IVR). We asked open-ended questions and used content analysis to determine moral reasoning in a sample of 107 participants. We found that participants referred significantly more often to abstract principles and consequences for themselves (i.e., it is against the law) after the paper-based moral dilemma compared to the IVR dilemma. In IVR participants significantly more often referred to the consequences for the people involved in the dilemma (i.e., not wanting to hurt that particular person). This supports the separate process theory, suggesting that decision and action might be different moral concepts with different foci regarding moral reasoning. Using simulated moral scenarios thus seems essential as it illustrates possible mechanisms of empathy and altruism being more relevant for moral actions especially given the physical presence of virtual humans in IVR.

Déficits précoces de l'empathie et psychopathologie Early empathy deficits and psychopathology

Empathy is a complex social-cognitive ability that is best understood by distinguishing its emotional, cognitive and motivational dimensions, which from early childhood interact between the child and her/his social environment. To date, among the many factors that are acknowledged to influence the development of empathy, children's temperament and parenting behaviors have been identified as interacting in predicting the extent to which children demonstrate empathic responses. Recent studies in developmental social neuroscience cast light on the neural networks engaged in the development of each of the dimensions that constitute empathy, which are needed to navigate social interaction and establishing positive social relationships. Indeed, early deficits in empathic processes can lead to difficulties in socialization, particularly associated with reduced attention to others' emotions, especially when they are suffering, a lesser degree of remorse and guilt, and a greater tendency to ignore social norms or break the rules. Difficulties in socialization are particularly visible in two well-known developmental disorders: children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with conduct disorder and callous unemotional traits (CU). This paper provides a critical and selective review of recent empirical studies in psychopathology and developmental neuroscience by addressing the dimensions underlying empathy, specifically emotional sharing and caring for others. For children with ASD, some studies report that they pay less attention to another person in distress. However, functional neuroimaging studies conducted with ASD adolescents indicate that the emotional dimension appears to be preserved, but a lack of emotional self-regulation may impair them from experiencing empathic concern. Children with conduct disorder and CU traits clearly manifest a reduced autonomic nervous system response to others' distress or suffering. This may account for their disregard or contempt for others' well-being and social norms. Functional neuroimaging studies show that atypical patterns of brain activity at 15 months of age can predict later severe conduct disorder. Neural regions engaged in emotional processing such as the anterior cingulate cortex, insula and amygdala shown reduced activation to empathy-eliciting stimuli in children with CU. Finally, the genetic nature of CU traits is highlighted in several studies. We conclude by proposing several avenues for developmental research to identify biomarkers from an early age and by inviting to focus on psychological interventions with those populations accordingly.

Neural responses to morally laden interactions in female inmates with psychopathy

Much of social cognition requires making inferences about the mental and emotional states of others. Moreover, understanding the emotions of others is an important foundation for moral decision-making. Psychopathy is associated with both aberrant emotional understanding and atypical hemodynamic responses when viewing and evaluating morally laden social interactions. In the present functional MRI study, female inmates (N = 107) were asked to evaluate the likely emotional state of either the recipient or the initiator of harmful or helpful interactions. Psychopathy was assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). PCL-R scores were not associated with differences in confidence or accuracy ratings. However, psychopathy scores were significantly related to increased hemodynamic response in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when viewing harmful interactions and decreased functional connectivity from right amygdala to inferior parietal cortex and insula, and from temporal parietal junction to dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Overall, this work indicates that in females, psychopathy is associated with normal behavioral accuracy and confidence but alterations in neural network activity during moral decision-making.

The association between toddlerhood empathy deficits and antisocial personality disorder symptoms and psychopathy in adulthood

The present study examined empathy deficits in toddlerhood (age 14 to 36 months) as predictors of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) symptoms and psychopathy measured by the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy scale (Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995) in adulthood (age 23 years) in 956 individuals from the Colorado Longitudinal Twin Study. Consistent with the hypothesis that antisocial behavior is associated with "active" rather than "passive" empathy deficits, early disregard for others, not lack of concern for others, predicted later ASPD symptoms. Early disregard for others was also significantly associated with factor 1 of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which includes items assessing interpersonal and affective deficits, but not with factor 2, which includes items assessing impulsivity and poor behavioral control. The association between early disregard for others and psychopathy factor 2 was near zero after controlling for the shared variance between psychopathy factors 1 and 2. These results suggest that there is a propensity toward adulthood ASPD symptoms and psychopathy factor 1 that can be assessed early in development, which may help identify individuals most at risk for stable antisocial outcomes.

The neurodevelopment of social preferences in early childhood

Human social preferences are the product of gene-culture coevolution, and rely on predispositions that emerge early in development. These social preferences encompasse distinct motivations, mechanisms, and behaviors, that facilitate social cohesion and cooperation. Developmental social neuroscience critically contributes in elucidating the proximate mechanisms involved in social decision-making and prosociality, and their gradual maturation in interaction with the social and cultural environment.

Neural time course of pain observation in infancy

Perception of pain in others is of great evolutionary significance for the development of human empathy. However, infants' sensitivity to others' painful experiences has not been investigated so far. Here, we explored the neural time course of infants' processing of others' pain by measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while 6-month-old infants observed a painful tactile stimulation directed towards the eye and a neutral tactile stimulation on the eyebrow. We analyzed both the Negative Central (Nc) and the later Late Positive Potential (LPP) ERP components, indexing respectively attention allocation and cognitive evaluation of perceptual stimuli. Results showed that observing painful touch elicits a mid-latency Nc (300-500 ms) over the right fronto-central site, which is greater in amplitude as compared to neutral touch. A divergent activity was also visible in the centro-parietal early (550-750 ms) and late (800-1000 ms) LPP, showing increased amplitudes in response to neutral compared to painful touch. The cognitive evaluation of painful stimuli, reflected by the LPP, might thus not be fully developed at 6 months of age, as adults typically show a larger LPP in response to painful as compared to neutral stimuli. Overall, infants show early attentional attuning to others' pain. This early sensitivity to others' painful tactile experiences might form a prerequisite for the development of human empathy.

Model-free decision making is prioritized when learning to avoid harming others

“Do no harm” is a universal principle of human social life. But how do we learn which of our actions help or harm others? Learning theory suggests there are two different systems that govern how we link actions and outcomes: a model-free system that is efficient and a model-based system that is deliberative. Here we show that people rely more on model-free decision making when learning to avoid harming others compared to themselves. Model-free neural signals that distinguish self and other are observed in the thalamus/caudate, and reliance on model-free moral learning for others varies with individual differences in moral judgment. These findings suggest that moral decision making for others is more model-free and has a specific neural signature.

Moral behavior requires learning how our actions help or harm others. Theoretical accounts of learning propose a key division between “model-free” algorithms that cache outcome values in actions and “model-based” algorithms that map actions to outcomes. Here, we tested the engagement of these mechanisms and their neural basis as participants learned to avoid painful electric shocks for themselves and a stranger. We found that model-free decision making was prioritized when learning to avoid harming others compared to oneself. Model-free prediction errors for others relative to self were tracked in the thalamus/caudate. At the time of choice, neural activity consistent with model-free moral learning was observed in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), and switching after harming others was associated with stronger connectivity between sgACC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Finally, model-free moral learning varied with individual differences in moral judgment. Our findings suggest moral learning favors efficiency over flexibility and is underpinned by specific neural mechanisms.

The Dark Side of Morality - Neural Mechanisms Underpinning Moral Convictions and Support for Violence

People are motivated by shared social values that, when held with moral conviction, can serve as compelling mandates capable of facilitating support for ideological violence. The current study examined this dark side of morality by identifying specific cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with beliefs about the appropriateness of sociopolitical violence, and determining the extent to which the engagement of these mechanisms was predicted by moral convictions. Participants reported their moral convictions about a variety of sociopolitical issues prior to undergoing functional MRI scanning. During scanning, they were asked to evaluate the appropriateness of violent protests that were ostensibly congruent or incongruent with their views about sociopolitical issues. Complementary univariate and multivariate analytical strategies comparing neural responses to congruent and incongruent violence identified neural mechanisms implicated in processing salience and in the encoding of subjective value. As predicted, neuro-hemodynamic response was modulated parametrically by individuals' beliefs about the appropriateness of congruent relative to incongruent sociopolitical violence in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and by moral conviction in ventral striatum. Overall moral conviction was predicted by neural response to congruent relative to incongruent violence in amygdala. Together, these findings indicate that moral conviction about sociopolitical issues serves to increase their subjective value, overriding natural aversion to interpersonal harm.

The impact of legal expertise on moral decision-making biases

Traditional and mainstream legal frameworks conceive law primarily as a purely rational practice, free from affect or intuition. However, substantial evidence indicates that human decision-making depends upon diverse biases. We explored the manifestation of these biases through comparisons among 45 criminal judges, 60 criminal attorneys, and 64 controls. We examined whether these groups' decision-making patterns were influenced by (a) the information on the transgressor's mental state, (b) the use of gruesome language in harm descriptions, and (c) ongoing physiological states. Judges and attorneys were similar to controls in that they overestimated the damage caused by intentional harm relative to accidental harm. However, judges and attorneys were less biased towards punishments and harm severity ratings to accidental harms. Similarly, they were less influenced in their decisions by either language manipulations or physiological arousal. Our findings suggest that specific expertise developed in legal settings can attenuate some pervasive biases in moral decision processes.

When Implicit Prosociality Trumps Selfishness: The Neural Valuation System Underpins More Optimal Choices When Learning to Avoid Harm to Others Than to Oneself

Humans learn quickly which actions cause them harm. As social beings, we also need to learn to avoid actions that hurt others. It is currently unknown whether humans are as good at learning to avoid others' harm (prosocial learning) as they are at learning to avoid self-harm (self-relevant learning). Moreover, it remains unclear how the neural mechanisms of prosocial learning differ from those of self-relevant learning. In this fMRI study, 96 male human participants learned to avoid painful stimuli either for themselves or for another individual. We found that participants performed more optimally when learning for the other than for themselves. Computational modeling revealed that this could be explained by an increased sensitivity to subjective values of choice alternatives during prosocial learning. Increased value sensitivity was further associated with empathic traits. On the neural level, higher value sensitivity during prosocial learning was associated with stronger engagement of the ventromedial PFC during valuation. Moreover, the ventromedial PFC exhibited higher connectivity with the right temporoparietal junction during prosocial, compared with self-relevant, choices. Our results suggest that humans are particularly adept at learning to protect others from harm. This ability appears implemented by neural mechanisms overlapping with those supporting self-relevant learning, but with the additional recruitment of structures associated to the social brain. Our findings contrast with recent proposals that humans are egocentrically biased when learning to obtain monetary rewards for self or others. Prosocial tendencies may thus trump egocentric biases in learning when another person's physical integrity is at stake.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We quickly learn to avoid actions that cause us harm. As "social animals," we also need to learn and consider the harmful consequences our actions might have for others. Here, we investigated how learning to protect others from pain (prosocial learning) differs from learning to protect oneself (self-relevant learning). We found that human participants performed better during prosocial learning than during self-relevant learning, as they were more sensitive toward the information they collected when making choices for the other. Prosocial learning recruited similar brain areas as self-relevant learning, but additionally involved parts of the "social brain" that underpin perspective-taking and self-other distinction. Our findings suggest that people show an inherent tendency toward "intuitive" prosociality.

The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism impacts victim's moral emotions following interpersonal transgression

Immoral behaviors make individuals abominate and punish transgressors. Inspired by the associations between the Val66Met polymorphism of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) gene and emotional responses following negative events, we investigated whether this polymorphism was also associated moral emotions such as punishment and forgiveness following interpersonal transgression. To do so, we categorized 340 individuals according to the BDNF Val66Met and assessed moral emotions by using 12 hypothetic scenarios in different conditions of intention and interpersonal consequence. The results indicated that this polymorphism was significantly associated with moral aversion and punishment towards transgressors. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed less aversion and punishment than the Met carriers, regardless of intention and interpersonal consequence. Moreover, this polymorphism was associated with forgiveness. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed more forgiveness than the Met carriers. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of the BDNF Val66Met to moral emotions.

I Can But I Shall Not Always Be Empathic

Empathy, a core process for social interactions, is the capacity to understand and share others' mental states and emotions. Each individual is thought to have a maximum level of empathy (empathic ability) and a spontaneous tendency to express it (empathic propensity), which can be affected by multiple factors. Two within-subject studies were conducted to assess the malleability of empathy by modulating contextual factors and measuring their interaction with psychological characteristics. In Study 1, 59 healthy adults evaluated their empathy for people showing facial expressions of pain following different instructions: Passive Observation and Instruction to Actively Empathize. In Study 2, 56 healthy adults performed a similar task under two conditions: Passive Observation and Observation under a Cognitive Load. The results revealed that empathy was significantly increased in the actively empathizing condition (Study 1) and under a cognitive load, but more importantly for men (Study 2). The level of change between the two conditions was associated with self-reported empathy, autistic, alexithymia and psychopathic traits (Study 1), as well as with working memory capacities and the level of empathy reported in the passive observation condition (Study 2). These findings suggest that an instruction to actively empathize and, surprisingly, a cognitive load can both increase empathy, but not for the same individuals. An instruction to actively empathize seems to increase empathy for individuals with good empathic dispositions, while a cognitive load enhances empathy in people for which empathic propensity is sub-optimal.

[The contribution of forensic neuroscience to psychopathy]

Psychopathy is a construct characterized by symptoms of emotional detachment, a lack of empathy, guilt and remorse, irresponsibility and a propensity for impulsive behavior. This article critically evaluates the contribution of structural and functional neuroimaging to the understanding of this personality disorder in North American forensic populations with psychopathic traits. Neuroimaging results are highly variable. They report numerous structural and functional abnormalities that are not limited to the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex but include the striatum, hippocampus, and uncinate fasciculus. These brain abnormalities underlie an attenuated emotion processing functioning (but not an absence) and aversion to negative and threats signals, reinforcement learning, representation of rewards and modulation of attention that have an impact in decision-making, caring for others, and moral judgment. It is important to note that the neuroanatomical, neurofunctional, and behavioral differences between individuals with high psychopathic traits and those with low traits are highly heterogeneous and of degree rather than of nature.

The clinical assessment of acts of violence: mental mechanisms and subjectivity

Approaches to assessing violence in clinical practice have been influenced by developments in the field of risk assessment. As a result, there has been a focus on identifying and describing factors associated with violence. However, a factor-based approach to assessing violence in individual cases has limited clinical utility. In response, the benefits of a formulation-based approach have been promoted. This approach is enhanced by an understanding of the specific mental mechanisms that increase the likelihood of violence in the individual case. Although there is an empirical evidence base for mental mechanisms associated with violence, this literature has not been distilled and synthesised in a way that informs routine clinical practice. In this article the authors present the key mechanisms that are known to be associated with violence in a way that is relevant to the clinical assessment of violence and, in turn, can inform clinical and risk management.

The Sensitivity to Threat and Affiliative Reward (STAR) model and the development of callous-unemotional traits

Research implicates callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., lack of empathy, prosociality, and guilt, and reduced sensitivity to others' emotions) in the development of severe and persistent antisocial behavior. To improve etiological models of antisocial behavior and develop more effective treatments, we need a better understanding of the origins of CU traits. In this review, we discuss the role of two psychobiological and mechanistic precursors to CU traits: low affiliative reward (i.e., deficits in seeking out or getting pleasure from social bonding and closeness with others) and low threat sensitivity (i.e., fearlessness to social and non-social threat). We outline the Sensitivity to Threat and Affiliative Reward (STAR) model and review studies that have examined the development of affiliative reward and threat sensitivity across animal, neuroimaging, genetic, and behavioral perspectives. We next evaluate evidence for the STAR model, specifically the claim that CU traits result from deficits in both affiliative reward and threat sensitivity. We end with constructive suggestions for future research to test the hypotheses generated by the STAR model.

Development and Validation of the Moral Injury Scales for Youth

This paper describes the development and preliminary psychometric properties of the Moral Injury Scales for Youth (MISY). Although to date, the construct of moral injury has been focused on studies of samples of adult military personnel, the MISY was developed to extend the study of moral injury to interpersonal relationship stressors and transgressions among emerging adults, adolescents, and children. Participants in a validation study included 473 undergraduate students (78.6% female, age range: 18-25 years) recruited from a psychology participant pool at a large university in the Western United States as well as a second sample of 185 students recruited from the same pool, to assess reliability. Results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the MISY demonstrated a five-factor latent structure with good internal consistencies. Correlational analyses indicated that the MISY subscales demonstrated good convergent validity, divergent validity, and test-retest reliability. The findings suggest that the MISY is a psychometrically reliable and valid measure of moral injury in emerging adults, with utility for examining moral injury in nonmilitary youth populations.

Moral identity relates to the neural processing of third-party moral behavior

Moral identity, or moral self, is the degree to which being moral is important to a person’s self-concept. It is hypothesized to be the `missing link’ between moral judgment and moral action. However, its cognitive and psychophysiological mechanisms are still subject to debate. In this study, we used event-related potentials to examine whether the moral self-concept is related to how people process prosocial and antisocial actions. To this end, participants’ implicit and explicit moral self-concept were assessed. We examined whether individual differences in moral identity relate to differences in early, automatic processes [i.e. Early Posterior Negativity (EPN), N2] or late, cognitively controlled processes (i.e. late positive potential) while observing prosocial and antisocial situations. Results show that a higher implicit moral self was related to a lower EPN amplitude for prosocial scenarios. In addition, an enhanced explicit moral self was related to a lower N2 amplitude for prosocial scenarios. The findings demonstrate that the moral self affects the neural processing of morally relevant stimuli during third-party evaluations. They support theoretical considerations that the moral self already affects (early) processing of moral information.

The Developmental Origins of the Social Brain: Empathy, Morality, and Justice

The social brain is the cornerstone that effectively negotiates and navigates complex social environments and relationships. When mature, these social abilities facilitate the interaction and cooperation with others. Empathy, morality, and justice, among others, are all closely intertwined, yet the relationships between them are quite complex. They are fundamental components of our human nature, and shape the landscape of our social lives. The various facets of empathy, including affective arousal/emotional sharing, empathic concern, and perspective taking, have unique contributions as subcomponents of morality. This review helps understand how basic forms of empathy, morality, and justice are substantialized in early ontogeny. It provides valuable information as to gain new insights into the underlying neurobiological precursors of the social brain, enabling future translation toward therapeutic and medical interventions.

Children's neural processing of moral scenarios provides insight into the formation and reduction of in-group biases

Survival is dependent on sociality within groups which ensure sustenance and protection. From an early age, children show a natural tendency to sort people into groups and discriminate among them. The computations guiding evaluation of third-party behaviors are complex, requiring integration of intent, consequences, and knowledge of group affiliation. This study examined how perceiving third-party morally laden behavior influences children's likelihood to exhibit or reduce group bias. Following a minimal group paradigm assignment, young children (4-7 years) performed a moral evaluation task where group affiliations and moral actions were systematically juxtaposed, so that they were exposed to disproportionately antisocial in-group and prosocial out-group scenarios. Electroencephalography was recorded, and group preference was assessed with a resource allocation game before and after the EEG session. Across all children, evaluations of others' moral actions arose from early and automatic processing (~150 ms), followed by later interactive processing of affiliation and moral valence (~500 ms). Importantly, individual differences in bias manifestation and attitude change were predicted by children's neural responses. Children with high baseline bias selectively exhibited a rapid detection (~200 ms) of scenarios inconsistent with their bias (in-group harm and out-group help). Changes in bias corresponded to distinct patterns in longer latency neural processing. These new developmental neuroscience findings elucidate the multifaceted processing involved in moral evaluation of others' actions, their group affiliations, the nature of the integration of both into full judgments, and the relation of individual differences in neural responses to social decision-making in childhood.

The neuroscience of morality and social decision-making

Across cultures humans care deeply about morality and create institutions, such as criminal courts, to enforce social norms. In such contexts, judges and juries engage in complex social decision-making to ascertain a defendant's capacity, blameworthiness, and culpability. Cognitive neuroscience investigations have begun to reveal the distributed neural networks which interact to implement moral judgment and social decision-making, including systems for reward learning, valuation, mental state understanding, and salience processing. These processes are fundamental to morality, and their underlying neural mechanisms are influenced by individual differences in empathy, caring and justice sensitivity. This new knowledge has important implication in legal settings for understanding how triers of fact reason. Moreover, recent work demonstrates how disruptions within the social decision-making network facilitate immoral behavior, as in the case of psychopathy. Incorporating neuroscientific methods with psychology and clinical neuroscience has the potential to improve predictions of recidivism, future dangerousness, and responsivity to particular forms of rehabilitation.