Stress alters personal moral decision making
Stress alters personal moral decision making
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DOI：
10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.07.017
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发表时间：
2012-04-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Legall, George
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Youssef, Farid F.;Dookeeram, Karine;Legall, George
早期关于道德决策的研究强调了涉及额叶激活的理性、有意识的执行过程的作用，但最近的研究表明，情感和直觉反应在道德推理中起着关键作用。考虑到压力可以激活许多与情绪处理相关的大脑中心重要的大脑区域，我们试图评估压力是否会影响道德决策。65名大学生志愿者被随机分为对照组（n = 33）和实验组（n = 32）。后者接受特里尔社会压力测试（TSST），并通过测量唾液皮质醇水平来评估压力诱导。然后，研究对象被要求通过电脑界面对30个道德困境做出反应，并记录下他们的决定和反应时间。使用了三种类型的困境：非道德、非个人道德和个人道德。使用二元逻辑模型，在非道德和非个人道德困境中，功利主义反应没有显著的预测因子。然而，研究发现，压力组和女性对个人道德困境的反应更功利。当比较功利主义反应的百分比时，在非道德和非个人道德困境中没有发现显著差异，但压力组的功利主义反应明显低于对照组。应激反应与功利反应呈显著负相关。女性的功利主义反应也明显低于男性。我们得出结论，当面对高冲突的个人道德困境时，应激反应的激活使参与者倾向于较少的功利主义反应，这进一步支持了道德判断的双重过程理论。我们还得出结论，与男性相比，女性倾向于做出更少功利的个人道德决定，这进一步证明了道德推理存在性别差异。(C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd.版权所有。
While early studies of moral decision making highlighted the role of rational, conscious executive processes involving frontal lobe activation more recent work has suggested that emotions and gut reactions have a key part to play in moral reasoning. Given that stress can activate many of the same brain regions that are important for and connected to brain centres involved in emotional processing we sought to evaluate if stress could influence moral decision making. Sixty-five undergraduate volunteers were randomly assigned to control (n = 33) and experimental groups (n = 32). The latter underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and induction of stress was assessed by measurement of salivary cortisol levels. Subjects were then required to provide a response to thirty moral dilemmas via a computer interface that recorded both their decision and reaction time. Three types of dilemmas were used: non-moral, impersonal moral and personal moral. Using a binary logistic model there were no significant predicators of utilitarian response in non-moral and impersonal moral dilemmas. However the stressed group and females were found to predict utilitarian responses to personal moral dilemmas. When comparing percentage utilitarian responses there were no significant differences noted for the non-moral and impersonal moral dilemmas but the stressed group showed significantly less utilitarian responses compared to control subjects. The stress response was significantly negatively correlated with utilitarian responses. Females also showed significantly less utilitarian responses than males. We conclude that activation of the stress response predisposed participants to less utilitarian responses when faced with high conflict personal moral dilemmas and suggest that this offers further support for dual process theory of moral judgment. We also conclude that females tend to make less utilitarian personal moral decisions compared to males, providing further evidence that there are gender differences in moral reasoning. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.