On the wrong side of the trolley track: neural correlates of relative social valuation
Open accessAbstract
Using moral dilemmas, we (i) investigate whether stereotypes motivate people to value ingroup lives over outgroup lives and (ii) examine the neurobiological correlates of relative social valuation using fMRI. Saving ingroup members, who seem warm and competent (e.g. Americans), was most morally acceptable in the context of a dilemma where one person was killed to save five people. Extreme outgroup members, who seem neither warm nor competent (e.g. homeless), were the worst off; it was most morally acceptable to sacrifice them and least acceptable to save them. Sacrificing these low-warmth, low-competence targets to save ingroup targets, specifically, activated a neural network associated with resolving complex tradeoffs: medial PFC (BA 9, extending caudally to include ACC), left lateral OFC (BA 47) and left dorsolateral PFC (BA 10). These brain regions were recruited for dilemmas that participants ultimately rated as relatively more acceptable. We propose that participants, though ambivalent, overrode general aversion to these tradeoffs when the cost of sacrificing a low-warmth, low-competence target was pitted against the benefit of saving ingroup targets. Moral decisions are not made in a vacuum; intergroup biases and stereotypes weigh heavily on neural systems implicated in moral decision making.
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The ACC has been active when participants needed to override a prepotent response to endorse sacrificing dehumanized targets.
“but more recently, has been active when participants needed to override a prepotent response to endorse sacrificing dehumanized targets (Cikara, Farnsworth, Harris, & Fiske, 2010).”
From Dehumanized Perception: A Psychological Means to Facilitate Atrocities, Torture, and Genocide? (2011) · cites this paper as Cikara, Farnsworth, Harris, & Fiske, 2010
The fMRI findings report ACC activation when participants judged sacrificing a low-warmth, low-competence target to save high-warmth, high-competence people; the paper also describes the former targets as dehumanized. But the General discussion says overriding moral aversion is a proposal, not an established explanation: participants may instead have felt less aversion, and the design cannot separate the effects of sacrificing the target from saving the ingroup. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Cikara, M., Farnsworth, R. A., Harris, L. T., & Fiske, S. T.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2010-02-11
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 404-413
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC2999760
- OpenAlex
- W2117185513
- Cited by
- 168
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 6.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24HD047879)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- ethical dilemmas, in-group favoritism, out-group bias, stereotypes, ethical decision-making, neural correlates of morality, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, warmth and competence, trolley problem
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Female, Humans, Judgment, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Morals, Photic Stimulation, Social Identification, Social Responsibility, Stereotyping
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