The Dark Side of Morality - Neural Mechanisms Underpinning Moral Convictions and Support for Violence.
The Dark Side of Morality - Neural Mechanisms Underpinning Moral Convictions and Support for Violence.
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DOI：
10.1080/21507740.2020.1811798
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发表时间：
2020-10
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Decety J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Workman CI;Yoder KJ;Decety J
共同的社会价值观激励着人们，当人们以道德信念持有这些价值观时，这些价值观可以成为能够促进支持意识形态暴力的强制性任务。目前的研究通过识别与社会政治暴力的适当性相关的信念的特定认知和神经机制，并确定这些机制的参与程度由道德信念预测来研究道德的这一黑暗面。参与者在接受功能性MRI扫描之前报告了他们对各种社会政治问题的道德信念。在扫描过程中，他们被要求评估表面上与他们对社会政治问题的看法一致或不一致的暴力抗议的适当性。互补的单变量和多变量的分析策略比较一致和不一致的暴力神经反应确定的神经机制涉及处理显着性和编码的主观价值。正如所预测的那样，神经血流动力学反应调制参数由个人的信念一致相对于不一致的社会政治暴力在腹内侧前额叶皮层的适当性，并在腹侧纹状体的道德信念。整体道德信念预测的神经反应一致的相对于不一致的暴力杏仁核。总之，这些发现表明，对社会政治问题的道德信念有助于增加他们的主观价值，压倒了对人际伤害的自然厌恶。
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.