Individual Differences in Moral Behaviour: A Role for Response to Risk and Uncertainty?
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Individual Differences in Moral Behaviour: A Role for Response to Risk and Uncertainty? Colin J. Palmer & Bryan Paton & Trung T. Ngo & Richard H. Thomson & Jakob Hohwy & Steven M. Miller
Received: 30 January 2012 / Accepted: 22 March 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Abstract Investigation of neural and cognitive processes underlying individual variation in moral preferences is underway, with notable similarities emerging between moral- and risk-based decision-making. Here we specifically assessed moral distributive justice preferences and non-moral financial gambling preferences in the same individuals, and report an association between these seemingly disparate forms of decisionmaking. Moreover, we find this association between distributive justice and risky decision-making exists primarily when the latter is assessed with the Iowa Gambling Task. These findings are consistent with Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12152-012-9158-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. C. J. Palmer : B. Paton : T. T. Ngo : R. H. Thomson : S. M. Miller Perceptual and Clinical Neuroscience Group, School of Psychology & Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia C. J. Palmer (*) : B. Paton : J. Hohwy Monash Philosophy & Cognition Lab, Philosophy Department, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3168, Australia e-mail: [email protected] T. T. Ngo : R. H. Thomson : S. M. Miller Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
neuroimaging studies of brain function during moral and risky decision-making. This research also constitutes the first replication of a novel experimental measure of distributive justice decision-making, for which individual variation in performance was found. Further examination of decision-making processes across different contexts may lead to an improved understanding of the factors affecting moral behaviour. Keywords Decision making . Morality . Distributive justice . Risk . Uncertainty . Individual differences
Moral scenarios have only recently begun to be explored in the neurobiology of decision making (DM), and little is as yet known about how moral DM relates to other kinds of DM or how a relationship between different forms of DM might be grounded in their neural substrates. Similarities have now emerged, however, between the processes linked to individual variation in moral distributive justice DM and in nonmoral risky DM. For example, neuroimaging investigation of a distributive justice task revealed that individuals who tended to make decisions favouring equity over efficiency show greater activity in insular cortex during their DM [1]. Individual differences in insular cortex activity are also related to the tendency to reject inequitable offers in a financial sharing game [2]. These findings parallel studies examining risky
C.J. Palmer
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