Moral decisions linked to brain activity: Study

| | Washington
1 2 3 4 5
  • 0

Moral decisions linked to brain activity: Study

Friday, 19 April 2019 | IANS | Washington

Moral decisions linked to brain activity: Study

What makes our decisions morally just or objectionable? It is the brain activity that is responsible for the differences in our moral behaviour, reveals a new study.

"Our study demonstrates that with moral behaviour, people may not in fact always stick to the golden rule. While most people tend to exhibit some concern for others, some others may demonstrate 'moral opportunism', where they want to look moral but want to maximize their own benefit," said lead author Jeroen van Baar, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University, US.

For the study, published in Nature Communications journal, researchers developed a computational strategy model to examine the brain activity patterns linked to the moral strategies.

The team tried to determine which type of moral strategy the participant was using -- inequity aversion (where people reciprocate because they want to seek fairness in outcomes); guilt aversion (where people reciprocate because they want to avoid feeling guilty); greed or moral opportunism (where people switch between inequity aversion and guilt aversion depending on what will serve their interests best).

The study showed that people used different moral principles to make their decisions and also changed their moral behaviour depending on the situation.

"In everyday life, we may not notice that our morals are context-dependent since our contexts tend to stay the same daily. However, under new circumstances, we may find that the moral rules we thought we'd always follow are actually quite malleable," said co-author Luke J. Chang, Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College, US.

"This has tremendous ramifications if one considers how our moral behaviour could change under new contexts, such as during war," he added.

The study's findings revealed that "unique patterns" of brain activity underlie the inequity aversion and guilt aversion strategies.

"Our results demonstrate that people may use different moral principles to make their decisions, and that some people are much more flexible and will apply different principles depending on the situation," said Chang.

"This may explain why people that we like and respect occasionally do things that we find morally objectionable," he added.

State Editions

Bureaucrats prepare 100-day action plan for ‘Viksit Delhi'

13 February 2025 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Sikh leaders, victims' families welcome Sajjan Kumar's conviction

13 February 2025 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Sajjan Kumar conviction: Timeline of events

13 February 2025 | SR | Delhi

Delhi BJP poll committees review Assembly results

13 February 2025 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Gupta announces sixth DFC

13 February 2025 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Winners' average vote share drops to 51 per cent

13 February 2025 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Bureaucrats prepare 100-day action plan for ‘Viksit Delhi'

13 February 2025 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Sikh leaders, victims' families welcome Sajjan Kumar's conviction

13 February 2025 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Sunday Edition

Serene Retreat in the Aravallis

09 February 2025 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

Trump's Second Term: A new dawn for Indo-US relations

09 February 2025 | ANOOP BOSE | Agenda

Dumplings to dragon dance

09 February 2025 | Abhi Singhal | Agenda

Royal Flavours of Mughlai Cuisine

09 February 2025 | Abhi Singhal | Agenda

Swaad-e-dilli

09 February 2025 | SAKSHI PRIYA | Agenda

Serene Retreat in the Aravallis

09 February 2025 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

Trump's Second Term: A new dawn for Indo-US relations

09 February 2025 | ANOOP BOSE | Agenda