Moral Decision-Making and Cognitive Neuroscience: The neurobiology(ies) of morality Stuart White, Ph.D. Unit of Affective Cognitive Neuroscience National Institute of Mental Health, NIH Bethesda, Maryland

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Moral Decision-Making and Cognitive
NeuroscienceThe neurobiology(ies) of morality
Stuart White, Ph.D.Unit of Affective
Cognitive NeuroscienceNational Institute of
Mental Health, NIHBethesda, Maryland
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Questions to be addressed

• What is morality from a cognitive neuroscience
  standpoint?
• What are the underpinnings of moral
  decision-making?
• Case Examples
• Whats important for judges relating to the
  development of morality?

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Questions to be addressed

• What is morality from a cognitive neuroscience
  standpoint?
• What are the underpinnings of moral
  decision-making?
• Case Examples
• Whats important for judges relating to the
  development of morality?

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What is morality?

• Two main viewpoints
• There is a unitary system for morality (Piaget,
  Kohlberg, Moll).
• the sets of customs and values that are embraced
  by a cultural group to guide social conduct (p.
  799 Moll, Zahn, de Oliveira-Souza, Krueger,
  Grafman, 2005).
• Piaget- Theory of Mind and intention
• 3 mountain problem

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3 Mountain Problem
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What is morality?

• Two main viewpoints
• There is a unitary system for morality (Piaget,
  Kohlberg, Moll).
• Piaget- Theory of Mind and intention
• Kohlbergs stages of moral development
• Obedience and Punishment
• Individualism and Exchange
• Good Interpersonal Relationships
• Law and Order
• Social Contract and Individual Rights
• Universal Principles

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What is morality?

• There are multiple systems engaged in a variety
  of forms of processing that fall within our
  cultural concept of morality (Turiel, Smetana,
  Nucci, Haidt, Blair).

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What is morality?

• There are multiple systems engaged in a variety
  of forms of processing that fall within our
  cultural concept of morality (Turiel, Smetana,
  Nucci, Haidt, Blair).
• Care based Amygdala (Blair, 2007)

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What is morality?

• There are multiple systems engaged in a variety
  of forms of processing that fall within our
  cultural concept of morality (Turiel, Smetana,
  Nucci, Haidt, Blair).
• Care based Amygdala (Blair, 2007)
• Social convention (Turiel/ Smetana/ Nucci)
  Inferior frontal cortex (Blair, 1995)

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What is morality?

• There are multiple systems engaged in a variety
  of forms of processing that fall within our
  cultural concept of morality (Turiel, Smetana,
  Nucci, Haidt, Blair).
• Care based Amygdala (Blair, 2007)
• Social convention (Turiel/ Smetana/ Nucci)
  Inferior frontal cortex (Blair, 1995)
• Disgust-based Insula? (Blair, 2007)

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What is morality?

• There are multiple systems engaged in a variety
  of forms of processing that fall within our
  cultural concept of morality (Turiel, Smetana,
  Nucci, Haidt, Blair).
• Care based Amygdala (Blair, 2007)
• Social convention (Turiel/ Smetana/ Nucci)
  Inferior frontal cortex (Blair, 1995)
• Disgust-based Insula? (Blair, 2007)
• Reciprocity (justice/fairness) Insula? (Hsu,
  Anen Quartz, 2008)

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Questions to be addressed

• What is morality from a cognitive neuroscience
  standpoint?
• What are the underpinnings of moral
  decision-making?
• Case Examples
• Whats important for judges relating to the
  development of morality?

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Emotional Underpinnings

• Care-based
• Fear/distress of others
• Social Convention
• anger
• Disgust
• Disgust of others, taste/smell aversion

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Cognitive Underpinnings

• Emotional responses can explain badness, but
  not wrongness (Nichols, 2002)
• Theory of Mind
• Piaget
• Intention
• Children vs. adults
• Young et al. (2010)

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Trans-cranial Magnetic stimulation
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Young et al., 2010

• By disrupting the Temporal-Parietal Junction,
  intention information processing was disrupted
  resulting in disrupted moral decision-making

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Emotional Control

• Emotional control and cognitive development do
  not progress in tandem (Dahl, 2004)
• Adolescents in particular have trouble with
  emotional control, despite good cognitive
  understanding of rules and consequences (Dahl,
  2004)
• Moral behaviors are a result of interactions
  between emotional processes, cognitive processes
  and emotional control

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Engaging in Moral Behavior

• Emotional data is fed to the orbital-frontal
  cortex (OFC)

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OFC
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Engaging in Moral Behavior

• Emotional data is fed to the orbital-frontal
  cortex (OFC)
• In the OFC, memory information, emotional input
  and sensory data are combined to form, execute,
  monitor and alter responses.
• Information about intention and emotion are
  combined in the OFC and emotional control is
  asserted in the prefrontal cortex
• The prefrontal cortex is not fully mature until
  early to mid 20s

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Questions to be addressed

• What is morality from a cognitive neuroscience
  standpoint?
• What are the underpinnings of moral
  decision-making?
• Case Examples
• Whats important for judges relating to the
  development of morality?

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Case Examples

• Care-based morality relies on the amygdala
• OFC is necessary to integrate emotional
  information into decision-making
• Pseudo-psychopathy
• OFC damage
• Psychopathy

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Pseudo-psychopathy
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Psychopathy

• Psychopathy is associated with (Frick White,
  2008 White Frick, 2010)
• Antisocial behavior
• Instrumental Aggression
• More severe, chronic and violent offending

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Hares (2003) Psychopathy Checklist Revised

• Glibness/ superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of self worth
• Pathological lying and deception
• Conning/ manipulative/lack of sincerity
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Lack of affect and emotional depth
• Callous/ lack of empathy
• Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
• Lack of friends or interpersonal relationships

• Stimulation seeking
• Parasitic lifestyle
• Poor anger control
• Early behavioural problems
• Lack of goals
• Impulsivity
• Irresponsible behaviour
• Promiscuity
• Early behavior problems lt 10 y.o.
• Criminal behavior
• Revocation of release
• Criminal versatility

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How does this moral deficiency develop in
psychopaths?

• Possible pathways to morality

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How does this moral deficiency develop in
psychopaths?

• Possible pathways to morality
• We beat it into our children (Eysencks).
  Predicts
• Punishment based socialization strategies should
  be successful.
• BUT they arent.

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How does this moral deficiency develop in
psychopaths?

• Possible pathways to morality
• We beat it into our children (Eysencks). NO.
• We tell it to our children (Schweder). Predicts
• The moral/ conventional distinction should not
  exist.
• BUT it does.

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How does this moral deficiency develop in
psychopaths?

• Possible pathways to morality
• We beat it into our children (Eysencks). NO.
• We tell it to our children (Shweder). NO.
• We work it out as rational human beings
  (Kohlberg). Predicts
• Individuals who dont understand the moral/
  convention distinction must show some form of
  impairment in rational thought. Prediction
  disconfirmed (Hare, Blair).
• Individuals with some form of impairment in
  rational thought must show impairment in moral
  reasoning. No evidence of this found.

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How does this moral deficiency develop in
psychopaths?

• Possible pathways to morality
• We beat it into our children (Eysencks). NO.
• We tell it to our children (Shweder). NO.
• We work it out as rational human beings
  (Kohlberg). NO.
• We work it out through Theory of Mind. Predicts
• -A population with pronounced Theory of Mind
  impairment (individuals with autism) should show
  profound difficulties with morality.

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How does this moral deficiency develop in
psychopaths?

• Possible pathways to morality
• We beat it into our children (Eysencks). NO.
• We tell it to our children (Shweder). NO.
• We work it out as rational human beings
  (Kohlberg). NO.
• We work it out through Theory of Mind.
• Healthy individuals are predisposed to find the
  distress of others aversive. We learn to avoid
  actions associated with harm to others (Blair,
  1995). Predicts

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Prediction 1 We find the distress of others
aversive.

• Human work
• Animal work

Prediction 2 If you have a population who fails
to find the distress of others aversive.
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Individuals with psychopathy and the distress of
others.

• Reduced autonomic responses to the distress of
  others (Aniskiewicz, 1979 House Mulligan,
  1976 Blair et al., 1997 Blair, 1999).

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The amygdala and vmPFC
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Prediction If the amygdala is necessary for
appropriate responding to the fear of others,
then children with psychopathic tendencies should
show problems in their amygdala response to
fearful faces (N 12)
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Questions to be addressed

• What is morality from a cognitive neuroscience
  standpoint?
• What are the underpinnings of moral
  decision-making?
• Case Examples
• Whats important for judges relating to the
  development of morality?

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Take home

• Moral decision-making depends on several
  different neural systems
• Emotion plays a much bigger role than
  traditionally thought in moral decision-making
• Emotion is key in developing morality
• The primacy of cognition in moral decision-making
  has been strongly questioned
• Emotional control is the likely limiting
  developmental factor in moral behavior choices
• Disruptions in certain neural networks can have
  important implications in the justice-system