Lecture 11: Morality (NSBED, UU)

Morality consists of:

1. Affective responses
2. Calculative responses

Conventional violations are violations of social norms.

Moral violations are hurting people.

Children aged 3,5 can make the distinction between moral and conventional violations. It is universal.

Social intuitionist model: we have a moral intuition.

Moral emotions:

• Moral disgust
• Shame and guilt
• Pride  

Morality might have evolved from ‘older’ mechanisms such as disgust.

Utilitarian judgement: yes to the trolley dilemma. Maximizing overall welfare.

Deontological / non-utilitarian judgement: saying no. The act of harming someone has higher moral value than the outcome of savlng lifes.

Dual process theory: automatic, intuitive emotional reactions need to be overridden by controlled responses favoring the best option.

Cognitive load interferes with utilitarian decisions.

Males, psychopaths and after testosterone administration: bias towards utilitarianism.

vmPFC: areas where emotional and utilitarian appraisals are encoded integrate here.

Conclusions part 1:

• Morality is integration of moral emotions with cognitive processes  cmPFC is integration region.
• Useful framework but.. no clear-cut dissociation between emotion & cognition
• More emotions can also lead to more utilitarian decisions.

Instrumental aggression: self-inteded

Reactive aggression: in response to threat

Testosterone increases reactivity to angry faces.

Testosterone decreased fear and stress.

Testosterone decreases facial mimicry and cognition

So testosterone can facilitate aggression by the above.

Via the periaqueductal grey, the amygdala regulates testosterone.  

People with psychopathic traits seem to be less sensitive to fear.

Psychopaths have decreased automatic empathic reactivity, but intact instructed empathic reactivity.

Conclusions part 2:

• Systems that are involved in morality are dysfunctional in psychopathy
  • Decreased affective response to moral violations
    • Decreased amygdala activation
    • Decreased empathic reactivity towards another’s pain
    • Decreased guilt-related insula activation

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