Moral Violations and the Experience of Disgust and Anger

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Oaten, Megan
Stevenson, Richard J
Williams, Mark A
Rich, Anina N
Butko, Marina
Case, Trevor I
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2018
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract

Disgust is a natural defensive emotion that has evolved to protect against potential sources of contamination and has been recently linked to moral judgements in many studies. However, that people often report feelings of disgust when thinking about feces or moral transgressions alike does not necessarily mean that the same mechanisms mediate these reactions. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (n = 22) to investigate whether core and moral disgusts entrain common neural systems. We provide evidence that: (i) activation of overlapping brain regions between core and moral disgust is the result of content overlap in the vignettes—core disgust elicitors—across conditions, and not from moral violations per se, and (ii) moral residue (i.e., the remaining or “residual” activation after the influence of core disgust elicitors have been taken into account) produced a pattern of activation that is more consistent with moral anger, than one of “residual disgust.” These findings run contrary to the premise that our “moral center” is connected to the area of the brain in which physical revulsion is located.

Journal Title

FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

12

Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© 2018 Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Neurosciences

Psychology

Cognitive and computational psychology

Persistent link to this record
Citation
Collections