Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgements
Open accessAbstract
The psychological and neurobiological processes underlying moral judgement have been the focus of many recent empirical studies. Of central interest is whether emotions play a causal role in moral judgement, and, in parallel, how emotion-related areas of the brain contribute to moral judgement. Here we show that six patients with focal bilateral damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), a brain region necessary for the normal generation of emotions and, in particular, social emotions, produce an abnormally 'utilitarian' pattern of judgements on moral dilemmas that pit compelling considerations of aggregate welfare against highly emotionally aversive behaviours (for example, having to sacrifice one person's life to save a number of other lives). In contrast, the VMPC patients' judgements were normal in other classes of moral dilemmas. These findings indicate that, for a selective set of moral dilemmas, the VMPC is critical for normal judgements of right and wrong. The findings support a necessary role for emotion in the generation of those judgements.
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Damage to MPFC regions causes disturbances in moral behavior and moral reasoning.
“Convergent evidence from neuropsy- chological studies suggests that damage to these regions causes disturbances in moral behavior and moral reasoning (33–35).”
From The neural basis of the interaction between theory of mind and moral judgment (2007) · cites this paper as [35]
Ventromedial patients more often than controls choose to push an innocent man to death to save five others.
“they would decide to push an innocent man to death on the tracks of a runaway trolley to save five other individuals more often than controls (Ciaramelli et al., 2007;Koenigs et al., 2007).”
From Affective Cognition and its Disruption in Mood Disorders (2011) · cites this paper as Koenigs et al., 2007
The RTPJ appears to be strongly connected to other regions implicated in mental state attribution and moral cognition, such as the left TPJ, precuneus, and medial prefrontal cortex.
“The RTPJ appears to be strongly connected to other regions implicated in mental state attribution (4, 13, 28–30) and moral cognition (16, 19, 31–34), such as the left TPJ, precuneus, and medial prefrontal cortex.”
From Disruption of the right temporoparietal junction with transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces the role of beliefs in moral judgments (2010) · cites this paper as [32]
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- Authors
- Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., & Damasio, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Adolphs, Ralph
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2007-03-21
- Volume
- 446
- Issue
- 7138
- Pages
- 908-911
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- PMC
- PMC2244801
- OpenAlex
- W2140241886
- Cited by
- 1,545
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 96 · 2020: 61 · 2019: 81 · 2018: 76 · 2017: 108 · 2016: 86 · 2015: 82 · 2014: 92 · 2013: 100 · 2012: 99
- FWCI
- 46.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA022549)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Keywords
- ventromedial prefrontal cortex, moral judgment, utilitarianism, ethical dilemmas, emotions and morality, brain lesions, psychopathy, social emotions, aggregate welfare
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Decision Making, Emotions, Empathy, Female, Guilt, Humans, Judgment, Male, Models, Neurological, Models, Psychological, Morals, Shame, Case-Control Studies, Prefrontal Cortex
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