1
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Rehren P. The effect of cognitive load, ego depletion, induction and time restriction on moral judgments about sacrificial dilemmas: a meta-analysis. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1388966. [PMID: 38756483 PMCID: PMC11097977 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1388966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Greene's influential dual-process model of moral cognition (mDPM) proposes that when people engage in Type 2 processing, they tend to make consequentialist moral judgments. One important source of empirical support for this claim comes from studies that ask participants to make moral judgments while experimentally manipulating Type 2 processing. This paper presents a meta-analysis of the published psychological literature on the effect of four standard cognitive-processing manipulations (cognitive load; ego depletion; induction; time restriction) on moral judgments about sacrificial moral dilemmas [n = 44; k = 68; total N = 14, 003; M(N) = 194.5]. The overall pooled effect was in the direction predicted by the mDPM, but did not reach statistical significance. Restricting the dataset to effect sizes from (high-conflict) personal sacrificial dilemmas (a type of sacrificial dilemma that is often argued to be best suited for tests of the mDPM) also did not yield a significant pooled effect. The same was true for a meta-analysis of the subset of studies that allowed for analysis using the process dissociation approach [n = 8; k = 12; total N = 2, 577; M(N) = 214.8]. I argue that these results undermine one important line of evidence for the mDPM and discuss a series of potential objections against this conclusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Rehren
- Ethics Institute, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
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2
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Cacace S, Simons-Rudolph J, Dubljević V. Morality, Risk-Taking and Psychopathic Tendencies: An Empirical Study. Front Psychol 2022; 13:834734. [PMID: 35310275 PMCID: PMC8927877 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.834734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Research in empirical moral psychology has consistently found negative correlations between morality and both risk-taking, as well as psychopathic tendencies. However, prior research did not sufficiently explore intervening or moderating factors. Additionally, prior measures of moral preference (e.g., sacrificial dilemmas) have a pronounced lack of ecological validity. This study seeks to address these two gaps in the literature. First, this study used Preference for Precepts Implied in Moral Theories (PPIMT), which offers a novel, more nuanced and ecologically valid measure of moral judgment. Second, the current study examined if risk taking moderates the relationships between psychopathic tendencies and moral judgment. Results indicated that models which incorporated risk-taking as a moderator between psychopathic tendencies and moral judgment were a better fit to the data than those that incorporated psychopathic tendencies and risk-taking as exogenous variables, suggesting that the association between psychopathic tendencies and moral judgment is influenced by level of risk-taking. Therefore, future research investigating linkages between psychopathic tendencies and moral precepts may do well to incorporate risk-taking and risky behaviors to further strengthen the understanding of moral judgment in these individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sam Cacace
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, United States
| | - Joseph Simons-Rudolph
- Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Veljko Dubljević
- Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
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3
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Dale MT, Gawronski B. Brains, trains, and ethical claims: Reassessing the normative implications of moral dilemma research. PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2022.2038783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael T. Dale
- Department of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Bertram Gawronski
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
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4
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Bacchini D, De Angelis G, Dragone M, Esposito C, Affuso G. Individual and Environmental Correlates of Adolescents' Moral Decision-Making in Moral Dilemmas. Front Psychol 2021; 12:770891. [PMID: 34899521 PMCID: PMC8651977 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.770891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
While extensive research has been conducted on adults' judgments in moral sacrificial dilemmas, there is little research on adolescents. The present study aimed at: (1) adding further empirical evidence about adolescents' moral decisions (deontological vs. utilitarian) in sacrificial moral dilemmas and (2) investigating how these moral decisions relate with gender, school grade, emotional traits (callous-unemotional traits), context-related experiences (perceived parental rejection and community violence exposure), and moral-related factors (moral disengagement and universalism value). A sample of 755 Italian adolescents (54.7% females; Mean age=16.45, SD=1.61) attending the second and the fifth year of secondary school took part in the study. Two sacrificial trolley-type dilemmas (where harmful actions promote the greater good) were presented. In the "switch" scenario (impersonal sacrificial dilemma), the choice is whether to hit a switch to save five people killing only one person. In the "footbridge" scenario (personal sacrificial dilemma), the choice is whether to push a large man off a footbridge saving five persons. For each scenario, participants had to indicate whether the proposed action was "morally acceptable" or not. Data were analyzed performing generalized linear mixed models. Our results showed that: (1) Adolescents were more likely to indicate as admissible to hit the switch rather than to push the large man; (2) male adolescents, compared to females, were more likely to say it was morally acceptable to intervene in the footbridge dilemma, whereas younger adolescents said it was morally acceptable both in the switch and the footbridge situations; and (3) higher levels of callous-unemotional traits, perceived parental rejection, and moral disengagement, on the one hand, and lower levels of universalism, on the other hand, were associated to higher admissibility to intervene in the footbridge scenario. Higher community violence exposure was associated with a lower propensity to intervene in the switch scenario. Overall, the present study expands the research on sacrificial dilemmas involving a sample of adolescents. The findings support previous studies concerning the role of emotions in making moral decisions but, at the same, open new perspectives regarding the role of contextual experiences and moral-related factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dario Bacchini
- Department of Humanities, University of Study of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Grazia De Angelis
- Department of Humanities, University of Study of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Mirella Dragone
- Department of Humanities, University of Study of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Concetta Esposito
- Department of Humanities, University of Study of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Gaetana Affuso
- Department of Psychology, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Caserta, Italy
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5
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Strikwerda-Brown C, Ramanan S, Goldberg ZL, Mothakunnel A, Hodges JR, Ahmed RM, Piguet O, Irish M. The interplay of emotional and social conceptual processes during moral reasoning in frontotemporal dementia. Brain 2021; 144:938-952. [PMID: 33410467 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Revised: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperative social behaviour in humans hinges upon our unique ability to make appropriate moral decisions in accordance with our ethical values. The complexity of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying moral reasoning is revealed when this capacity breaks down. Patients with the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) display striking moral transgressions in the context of atrophy to frontotemporal regions supporting affective and social conceptual processing. Developmental studies have highlighted the importance of social knowledge to moral decision making in children, yet the role of social knowledge in relation to moral reasoning impairments in neurodegeneration has largely been overlooked. Here, we sought to examine the role of affective and social conceptual processes in personal moral reasoning in bvFTD, and their relationship to the integrity and structural connectivity of frontotemporal brain regions. Personal moral reasoning across varying degrees of conflict was assessed in 26 bvFTD patients and compared with demographically matched Alzheimer's disease patients (n = 14), and healthy older adults (n = 22). Following each moral decision, we directly probed participants' subjective emotional experience as an index of their affective response, while social norm knowledge was assessed via an independent task. While groups did not differ significantly in terms of their moral decisions, bvFTD patients reported feeling 'better' about their decisions than healthy control subjects. In other words, although bvFTD patients could adjudicate between different courses of action in the moral scenarios, their affective responses to these decisions were highly irregular. This blunted emotional reaction was exclusive to the personal high-conflict condition, with 61.5% of bvFTD patients reporting feeling 'extremely good' about their decisions, and was correlated with reduced knowledge of socially acceptable behaviour. Voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed a distributed network of frontal, subcortical, and lateral temporal grey matter regions involved in the attenuated affective response to moral conflict in bvFTD. Crucially, diffusion-tensor imaging implicated the uncinate fasciculus as the pathway by which social conceptual knowledge may influence emotional reactions to personal high-conflict moral dilemmas in bvFTD. Our findings suggest that altered moral behaviour in bvFTD reflects the dynamic interplay between degraded social conceptual knowledge and blunted affective responsiveness, attributable to atrophy of, and impaired information transfer between, frontal and temporal cortices. Delineating the mechanisms of impaired morality in bvFTD provides crucial clinical information for understanding and treating this challenging symptom, which may help pave the way for targeted behavioural interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cherie Strikwerda-Brown
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,The University of Sydney, School of Psychology, Sydney, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia
| | - Siddharth Ramanan
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,The University of Sydney, School of Psychology, Sydney, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia
| | - Zoë-Lee Goldberg
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,The University of Sydney, School of Psychology, Sydney, Australia
| | - Annu Mothakunnel
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,The University of Sydney, School of Psychology, Sydney, Australia
| | - John R Hodges
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia.,The University of Sydney, Sydney Medical School, Sydney, Australia
| | - Rebekah M Ahmed
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,The University of Sydney, Sydney Medical School, Sydney, Australia
| | - Olivier Piguet
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,The University of Sydney, School of Psychology, Sydney, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia
| | - Muireann Irish
- The University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Centre, Camperdown, Australia.,The University of Sydney, School of Psychology, Sydney, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia
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6
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Rosas A, Bermúdez JP, Martínez Cotrina J, Aguilar-Pardo D, Caicedo Mera JC, Aponte-Canencio DM. Perceiving utilitarian gradients: Heart rate variability and self-regulatory effort in the moral dilemma task. Soc Neurosci 2021; 16:391-405. [PMID: 34061717 PMCID: PMC8352378 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1929459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
It is not yet clear which response behavior requires self-regulatory effort in the moral dilemma task. Previous research has proposed that utilitarian responses require cognitive control, but subsequent studies have found inconsistencies with the empirical predictions of that hypothesis. In this paper, we treat participants’ sensitivity to utilitarian gradients as a measure of performance. We confronted participants (N = 82) with a set of five dilemmas evoking a gradient of mean utilitarian responses in a 4-point scale and collected data on heart rate variability and utilitarian responses. We found positive correlations between tonic and phasic HRV and sensitivity to the utilitarian gradient in the high tonic group, but not in the low tonic group. Moreover, the low tonic group misplaced a scenario with a selfish incentive at the high end of the gradient. Results suggest that performance is represented by sensitivity correlated with HRV and accompanied with a reasonable placement of individual scenarios within the gradient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Rosas
- Departamento de Filosofía, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Juan Pablo Bermúdez
- Institut de Philosophie, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.,Centro de Investigaciones sobre Dinámica Social (CIDS), Salud, Conocimiento Médico y Sociedad, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Jorge Martínez Cotrina
- Centro de Investigaciones sobre Dinámica Social (CIDS), Salud, Conocimiento Médico y Sociedad, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | | | - Juan Carlos Caicedo Mera
- Centro de Investigaciones sobre Dinámica Social (CIDS), Salud, Conocimiento Médico y Sociedad, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Diego Mauricio Aponte-Canencio
- Centro de Investigaciones sobre Dinámica Social (CIDS), Salud, Conocimiento Médico y Sociedad, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
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7
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Ludwig J, Reisenzein R, Hiemisch A. Effects of Instrumentality and Personal Force on Deontological and Utilitarian Inclinations in Harm-Related Moral Dilemmas. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1222. [PMID: 32636781 PMCID: PMC7318801 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2020] [Accepted: 05/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Moral dilemmas often concern actions that involve causing harm to others in the attempt to prevent greater harm. But not all actions of this kind are equal in terms of their moral evaluation. In particular, a harm-causing preventive action is typically regarded as less acceptable if the harm is a means to achieve the goal of preventing greater harm than if it is a foreseen but unintended side-effect of the action. Likewise, a harm-causing preventive action is typically deemed less acceptable if it directly produces the harm than if it merely initiates a process that brings about the harmful consequence by its own dynamics. We report three experiments that investigated to which degree these two variables, the instrumentality of the harm (harm as means vs. side-effect; Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and personal force (personal vs. impersonal dilemmas; Experiments 2 and 3) influence deontological (harm-rejection) and utilitarian (outcome-maximization) inclinations that have been hypothesized to underly moral judgments in harm-related moral dilemmas. To measure these moral inclinations, the process dissociation procedure was used. The results suggest that the instrumentality of the harm and personal force affect both inclinations, but in opposite ways. Personal dilemmas and dilemmas characterized by harm as a means evoked higher deontological tendencies and lower utilitarian tendencies, than impersonal dilemmas and dilemmas where the harm was a side-effect. These distinct influences of the two dilemma conceptualization variables went undetected if the conventional measure of moral inclinations, the proportion of harm-accepting judgments, was analyzed. Furthermore, although deontological and utilitarian inclinations were found to be largely independent overall, there was some evidence that their correlation depended on the experimental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Ludwig
- Institut für Psychologie, Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.,Fachbereich Staats- und Gesellschaftswissenschaften, Zeppelin Universität Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen, Germany.,Pädagogische Psychologie, Pädagogische Hochschule Weingarten, Weingarten, Germany
| | - Rainer Reisenzein
- Institut für Psychologie, Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Anette Hiemisch
- Institut für Psychologie, Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
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8
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Rosas A, Aguilar-Pardo D. Extreme time-pressure reveals utilitarian intuitions in sacrificial dilemmas. THINKING & REASONING 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/13546783.2019.1679665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Rosas
- Department of Philosophy, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, Ciudad Universitaria, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - David Aguilar-Pardo
- Psychology Program, Universidad Católica de Colombia, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
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9
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Rosas A, Viciana H, Caviedes E, Arciniegas A. Hot utilitarianism and cold deontology: Insights from a response patterns approach to sacrificial and real world dilemmas. Soc Neurosci 2018; 14:125-135. [DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2018.1464945] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Rosas
- Department of Philosophy, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Hugo Viciana
- Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados, CSIC, Córdoba, Spain
| | - Esteban Caviedes
- Department of Philosophy, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Alejandra Arciniegas
- Department of Philosophy, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
- Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
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10
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Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is associated with impairments in both spontaneous and deliberative moral judgments. Neuropsychologia 2018; 111:261-268. [PMID: 29382558 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.01.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2017] [Revised: 12/27/2017] [Accepted: 01/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Implicit moral evaluations-spontaneous, unintentional judgments about the moral status of actions or persons-are thought to play a pivotal role in moral experience, suggesting a need for research to model these moral evaluations in clinical populations. Prior research reveals that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a critical area underpinning affect and morality, and patients with vmPFC lesions show abnormalities in moral judgment and moral behavior. We use indirect measurement and multinomial modeling to understand differences in implicit moral evaluations among patients with vmPFC lesions. Our model quantifies multiple processes of moral judgment: implicit moral evaluations in response to distracting moral transgressions (Unintentional Judgment), accurate moral judgments about target actions (Intentional Judgment), and a directional tendency to judge actions as morally wrong (Response Bias). Compared to individuals with non-vmPFC brain damage and neurologically healthy comparisons, patients with vmPFC lesions showed a dual deficit in processes of moral judgment. First, patients with vmPFC lesions showed reduced Unintentional Judgment about moral transgressions, but not about non-moral negative affective distracters. Second, patients with vmPFC lesions showed reduced Intentional Judgment about target actions. These findings highlight the utility of a formal modeling approach in moral psychology, revealing a dual deficit in multiple component processes of moral judgment among patients with vmPFC lesions.
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11
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Van den Stock J, Stam D, De Winter F, Mantini D, Szmrecsanyi B, Van Laere K, Vandenberghe R, Vandenbulcke M. Moral processing deficit in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia is associated with facial emotion recognition and brain changes in default mode and salience network areas. Brain Behav 2017; 7:e00843. [PMID: 29299378 PMCID: PMC5745238 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2017] [Accepted: 08/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is associated with abnormal emotion recognition and moral processing. Methods We assessed emotion detection, discrimination, matching, selection, and categorization as well as judgments of nonmoral, moral impersonal, moral personal low- and high-conflict scenarios. Results bvFTD patients gave more utilitarian responses on low-conflict personal moral dilemmas. There was a significant correlation between a facial emotion processing measure derived through principal component analysis and utilitarian responses on low-conflict personal scenarios in the bvFTD group (controlling for MMSE-score and syntactic abilities). Voxel-based morphometric multiple regression analysis in the bvFTD group revealed a significant association between the proportion of utilitarian responses on personal low-conflict dilemmas and gray matter volume in ventromedial prefrontal areas (pheight < .0001). In addition, there was a correlation between utilitarian responses on low-conflict personal scenarios in the bvFTD group and resting-state fractional Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuations (fALFF) in the anterior insula (pheight < .005). Conclusions The results underscore the importance of emotions in moral cognition and suggest a common basis for deficits in both abilities, possibly related to reduced experience of emotional sensations. At the neural level abnormal moral cognition in bvFTD is related to structural integrity of the medial prefrontal cortex and functional characteristics of the anterior insula. The present findings provide a common basis for emotion recognition and moral reasoning and link them with areas in the default mode and salience network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Van den Stock
- Laboratory for Translational NeuropsychiatryDepartment of NeurosciencesKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
- Department of Old Age PsychiatryUniversity Psychiatry CenterLeuvenBelgium
| | - Daphne Stam
- Laboratory for Translational NeuropsychiatryDepartment of NeurosciencesKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - François‐Laurent De Winter
- Laboratory for Translational NeuropsychiatryDepartment of NeurosciencesKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
- Department of Old Age PsychiatryUniversity Psychiatry CenterLeuvenBelgium
| | - Dante Mantini
- Research Center for Movement Control and NeuroplasticityKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
- Department of Health Sciences and TechnologyETH ZurichZurichSwitzerland
- Department of Experimental PsychologyUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | | | - Koen Van Laere
- Nuclear Medicine and Molecular ImagingDepartment of Imaging and PathologyKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - Rik Vandenberghe
- Laboratory for Cognitive NeurologyDepartment of NeurosciencesKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
- Department of NeurologyUniversity Hospitals LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
| | - Mathieu Vandenbulcke
- Laboratory for Translational NeuropsychiatryDepartment of NeurosciencesKU LeuvenLeuvenBelgium
- Department of Old Age PsychiatryUniversity Psychiatry CenterLeuvenBelgium
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12
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Farsides
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
| | - Paul Sparks
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
| | - Donna Jessop
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
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13
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Laakasuo M, Sundvall J, Drosinou M. Individual Differences in Moral Disgust Do Not Predict Utilitarian Judgments, Sexual and Pathogen Disgust Do. Sci Rep 2017; 7:45526. [PMID: 28361986 PMCID: PMC5374518 DOI: 10.1038/srep45526] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2016] [Accepted: 02/28/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of emotional disgust and disgust sensitivity in moral judgment and decision-making has been debated intensively for over 20 years. Until very recently, there were two main evolutionary narratives for this rather puzzling association. One of the models suggest that it was developed through some form of group selection mechanism, where the internal norms of the groups were acting as pathogen safety mechanisms. Another model suggested that these mechanisms were developed through hygiene norms, which were piggybacking on pathogen disgust mechanisms. In this study we present another alternative, namely that this mechanism might have evolved through sexual disgust sensitivity. We note that though the role of disgust in moral judgment has been questioned recently, few studies have taken disgust sensitivity to account. We present data from a large sample (N = 1300) where we analyzed the associations between The Three Domain Disgust Scale and the most commonly used 12 moral dilemmas measuring utilitarian/deontological preferences with Structural Equation Modeling. Our results indicate that of the three domains of disgust, only sexual disgust is associated with more deontological moral preferences. We also found that pathogen disgust was associated with more utilitarian preferences. Implications of the findings are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Laakasuo
- University of Helsinki, Cognitive Science Unit, Faculty of Arts, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Jukka Sundvall
- University of Sussex, School of Psychology, Pevensey Building, Falmer, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom
| | - Marianna Drosinou
- University of Helsinki, Cognitive Science Unit, Faculty of Arts, Helsinki, Finland
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14
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Rowley DA, Rogish M, Alexander T, Riggs KJ. Counter-intuitive moral judgement following traumatic brain injury. J Neuropsychol 2017; 12:200-215. [DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2016] [Revised: 01/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Miles Rogish
- Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust; The Disabilities Trust; West Sussex UK
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15
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Fong SS, Navarrete CD, Perfecto SE, Carr AR, Jimenez EE, Mendez MF. Behavioral and autonomic reactivity to moral dilemmas in frontotemporal dementia versus Alzheimer's disease. Soc Neurosci 2016; 12:409-418. [PMID: 27151065 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1186111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
The personal/impersonal distinction of moral decision-making postulates intuitive emotional responses from medial frontal activity and rational evaluation from lateral frontal activity. This model can be analyzed in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a disorder characterized by impaired emotional intuitions, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) involvement, and relative sparing of lateral frontal regions. Moral dilemmas were presented to 10 bvFTD, 11 Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 9 healthy control (HC) participants while recording skin conductance responses, a measure of emotional arousal. We evaluated their personal versus impersonal conflict, subjective discomfort, and adherence to social norms. Replicating prior work, bvFTD participants were more willing to harm in the personal, but not the impersonal, dilemma compared to AD and HC groups. BvFTD participants had lower arousal and less of an increase in conflict on the personal versus the impersonal dilemma, in contrast to increased arousal and conflict for the AD and HC groups. Furthermore, bvFTD participants verbalized less discomfort, a correlate of low adherence to social norms. These findings support impaired emotional reactions to moral dilemmas in bvFTD and vmPFC lesions and the personal/impersonal model. It suggests a reversion to utilitarian-like considerations when emotional intuition is impaired in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvia S Fong
- a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.,b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA
| | | | - Sean E Perfecto
- a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA
| | - Andrew R Carr
- b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA
| | - Elvira E Jimenez
- a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.,b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA
| | - Mario F Mendez
- a Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.,b Section of Neurology , V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Center , Los Angeles , CA , USA.,d Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine , University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA
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Neural networks underlying implicit and explicit moral evaluations in psychopathy. Transl Psychiatry 2015; 5:e625. [PMID: 26305476 PMCID: PMC4564570 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2015.117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2015] [Revised: 06/23/2015] [Accepted: 07/08/2015] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Psychopathy, characterized by symptoms of emotional detachment, reduced guilt and empathy and a callous disregard for the rights and welfare of others, is a strong risk factor for immoral behavior. Psychopathy is also marked by abnormal attention with downstream consequences on emotional processing. To examine the influence of task demands on moral evaluation in psychopathy, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure neural response and functional connectivity in 88 incarcerated male subjects (28 with Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) scores ⩾ 30) while they viewed dynamic visual stimuli depicting interpersonal harm and interpersonal assistance in two contexts, implicit and explicit. During the implicit task, high psychopathy was associated with reduced activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and caudate when viewing harmful compared with helpful social interactions. Functional connectivity seeded in the right amygdala and right temporoparietal junction revealed decreased coupling with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula, striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. In the explicit task, higher trait psychopathy predicted reduced signal change in ACC and amygdala, accompanied by decreased functional connectivity to temporal pole, insula and striatum, but increased connectivity with dorsal ACC. Psychopathy did not influence behavioral performance in either task, despite differences in neural activity and functional connectivity. These findings provide the first direct evidence that hemodynamic activity and neural coupling within the salience network are disrupted in psychopathy, and that the effects of psychopathy on moral evaluation are influenced by attentional demands.
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Abstract
Empathy shapes the landscape of our social lives. It motivates prosocial and caregiving behaviors, plays a role in inhibiting aggression, and facilitates cooperation between members of a similar social group. Thus, empathy is often conceived as a driving motivation of moral behavior and justice, and as such, everyone would think that it should be cultivated. However, the relationships between empathy, morality, and justice are complex. We begin by explaining what the notion of empathy encompasses and then argue how sensitivity to others' needs has evolved in the context of parental care and group living. Next, we examine the multiple physiological, hormonal, and neural systems supporting empathy and its functions. One troubling but important corollary of this neuro-evolutionary model is that empathy produces social preferences that can conflict with fairness and justice. An understanding of the factors that mold our emotional response and caring motivation for others helps provide organizational principles and ultimately guides decision-making in medical ethics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Decety
- Child Neurosuite - Department of Psychology. 5848 S. University Avenue, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. University of Chicago Medicine
| | - Jason M Cowell
- Child Neurosuite - Department of Psychology. 5848 S. University Avenue, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
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Decety J, Yoder KJ. Empathy and motivation for justice: Cognitive empathy and concern, but not emotional empathy, predict sensitivity to injustice for others. Soc Neurosci 2015; 11:1-14. [PMID: 25768232 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2015.1029593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Why do people tend to care for upholding principles of justice? This study examined the association between individual differences in the affective, motivational and cognitive components of empathy, sensitivity to justice, and psychopathy in participants (N 265) who were also asked to rate the permissibility of everyday moral situations that pit personal benefit against moral standards of justice. Counter to common sense, emotional empathy was not associated with sensitivity to injustice for others. Rather, individual differences in cognitive empathy and empathic concern predicted sensitivity to justice for others, as well as the endorsement of moral rules. Psychopathy coldheartedness scores were inversely associated with motivation for justice. Moreover, hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis revealed that self-focused and other-focused orientations toward justice had opposing influences on the permissibility of moral judgments. High scores on psychopathy were associated with less moral condemnation of immoral behavior. Together, these results contribute to a better understanding of the information processing mechanisms underlying justice motivation, and may guide interventions designed to foster justice and moral behavior. In order to promote justice motivation, it may be more effective to encourage perspective taking and reasoning than emphasizing emotional sharing with the misfortune of others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Decety
- a Department of Psychology , University of Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA.,b Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience , University of Chicago Medicine , Chicago , IL , USA
| | - Keith J Yoder
- a Department of Psychology , University of Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA
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Abstract
Research into moral decision-making has been dominated by sacrificial dilemmas where, in order to save several lives, it is necessary to sacrifice the life of another person. It is widely assumed that these dilemmas draw a sharp contrast between utilitarian and deontological approaches to morality, and thereby enable us to study the psychological and neural basis of utilitarian judgment. However, it has been previously shown that some sacrificial dilemmas fail to present a genuine contrast between utilitarian and deontological options. Here, I raise deeper problems for this research paradigm. Even when sacrificial dilemmas present a contrast between utilitarian and deontological options at a philosophical level, it is misleading to interpret the responses of ordinary folk in these terms. What is currently classified as “utilitarian judgment” does not in fact share essential features of a genuine utilitarian outlook, and is better explained in terms of commonsensical moral notions. When subjects deliberate about such dilemmas, they are not deciding between opposing utilitarian and deontological solutions, but engaging in a richer process of weighing opposing moral reasons. Sacrificial dilemmas therefore tell us little about utilitarian decision-making. An alternative approach to studying proto-utilitarian tendencies in everyday moral thinking is proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guy Kahane
- a Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Faculty of Philosophy , Oxford University , Oxford , UK
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Patil I. Trait psychopathy and utilitarian moral judgement: The mediating role of action aversion. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2015.1004334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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