Roman Catholic beliefs produce characteristic neural responses to moral dilemmas

Abstract

This study provides exploratory evidence about how behavioral and neural responses to standard moral dilemmas are influenced by religious belief. Eleven Catholics and 13 Atheists (all female) judged 48 moral dilemmas. Differential neural activity between the two groups was found in precuneus and in prefrontal, frontal and temporal regions. Furthermore, a double dissociation showed that Catholics recruited different areas for deontological (precuneus; temporoparietal junction) and utilitarian moral judgments [dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC); temporal poles], whereas Atheists did not (superior parietal gyrus for both types of judgment). Finally, we tested how both groups responded to personal and impersonal moral dilemmas: Catholics showed enhanced activity in DLPFC and posterior cingulate cortex during utilitarian moral judgments to impersonal moral dilemmas and enhanced responses in anterior cingulate cortex and superior temporal sulcus during deontological moral judgments to personal moral dilemmas. Our results indicate that moral judgment can be influenced by an acquired set of norms and conventions transmitted through religious indoctrination and practice. Catholic individuals may hold enhanced awareness of the incommensurability between two unequivocal doctrines of the Catholic belief set, triggered explicitly in a moral dilemma: help and care in all circumstances-but thou shalt not kill.

The Franciscan Prayer Elicits Empathic and Cooperative Intentions in Atheists: A Neurocognitive and Phenomenological Enquiry

“…These differences are not present among nonbelievers, who manifest superior parietal activity for both kinds of moral judgments. These findings may suggest that Catholic practices influence moral judgments through learning to help and care for others (deontological judgment), but inhibit decisions that may damage other people even if this damage represents welfare for others (utilitarian judgment) (Christensen et al, 2014).Regarding attribution and the self, activation in the insular cortex is reported when believers and nonbelievers judge whether religious statements are true or false, such as "Jesus Christ really performed the miracles attributed to him in the Bible" (Harris et al, 2009). Since insular functions relate to representing internal states, empathy, and experiencing moral emotions (Mercadillo and Díaz, 2013;Mutschler et al, 2013;Decety and Cowell, 2014), its participation may involve morality and emotional processes inserted in religiosity.…”

“…These differences are not present among nonbelievers, who manifest superior parietal activity for both kinds of moral judgments. These findings may suggest that Catholic practices influence moral judgments through learning to help and care for others (deontological judgment), but inhibit decisions that may damage other people even if this damage represents welfare for others (utilitarian judgment) (Christensen et al, 2014).…”

Neural evidence of motivational conflict between social values

“…Choices between values should reveal heightened activity in brain regions implicated in conflict resolution, but more so when the choices involve two motivationally compatible rather than opposing values. The present study tested whether Schwartz's (1992) circular model of values is capable of identifying the value choices that lead to more activation in regions that have been linked to processing conflict (e.g., Caspers et al, 2011;Christensen et al, 2014;Fedota et al, 2014;Rae et al, 2014). Supporting the model, choosing between values that it identifies as serving congruent motives led to more The SMA is involved in situations of response conflict, like motor response inhibition in the go/no-go and stop-signal tasks (Fedota et al, 2014;Rae et al, 2014).…”

“…Referring to the latter, the DLPFC was engaged in responding to difficult as compared to easy personal moral dilemmas, in which utilitarian values require "personal" moral violations (Greene et al, 2004), and in utilitarian moral judgments to impersonal moral dilemmas (Christensen et al, 2014).…”

“…Both collectivists and individualists recruited the DLPFC equally strongly, yet individualists additionally activated the medial superior frontal cortex, while collectivists showed increased engagement of the middle cingulate cortex. The DLPFC was also important in a study by Christensen, Flexas, de Miguel, Cela-Conde, and Munar (2014), who found that the DLPFC, temporal poles and posterior cingulate cortex were activated during utilitarian but not during deontological moral judgments in Catholics. Deontological moral judgments likely involved less cognitive/ psychological conflict compared to utilitarian judgments because they are based on rules and norms rather than on anticipated consequences (as utilitarian norms).…”