Abstract
Persons have different value preferences. Neuroimaging studies where value-based decisions in actual conflict situations were investigated suggest an important role of prefrontal and cingulate brain regions. General preferences, however, reflect a superordinate moral concept independent of actual situations as proposed in psychological and socioeconomic research. Here, the specific brain response would be influenced by abstract value systems and moral concepts. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such responses are largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a forced-choice paradigm on word pairs representing abstract values, we show that the brain handles such decisions depending on the person's superordinate moral concept. Persons with a predominant collectivistic (altruistic) value system applied a “balancing and weighing” strategy, recruiting brain regions of rostral inferior and intraparietal, and midcingulate and frontal cortex. Conversely, subjects with mainly individualistic (egocentric) value preferences applied a “fight-and-flight” strategy by recruiting the left amygdala. Finally, if subjects experience a value conflict when rejecting an alternative congruent to their own predominant value preference, comparable brain regions are activated as found in actual moral dilemma situations, i.e., midcingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results demonstrate that superordinate moral concepts influence the strategy and the neural mechanisms in decision processes, independent of actual situations, showing that decisions are based on general neural principles. These findings provide a novel perspective to future sociological and economic research as well as to the analysis of social relations by focusing on abstract value systems as triggers of specific brain responses.
Highlights
Research on value systems is of interest in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, socioeconomics, and related fields
Individualists are understood as persons, who prefer an egocentric strategy by exerting their own strengths and abilities for personal success, whereas collectivists rely on an altruistic strategy, relationships to other people, and ranking obligations and duties higher than their personal needs
The hierarchy of complexity started with a first level of values relevant to family and self, followed by a second level with reference to the peer-group of a person, and reached the third level with values related to mankind (Fig. 1, Table 1)
Summary
Research on value systems is of interest in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, socioeconomics, and related fields. Independent of a particular value theory, it is widely accepted that values and personal ideals influence a person’s mindset and behaviour Neuroscience touched this topic by investigating the neural correlates of moral judgement and morality [12,13,14], primarily assessing decision processes in actual dilemma situations. Dealing with abstract values might involve comparable brain areas as recruited in moral judgement tasks, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal, medial frontal, and anterior to midcingulate cortex It remains elusive how activation in these brain regions might be modulated depending on different moral concepts in different persons. We could reveal differential neural strategies in different persons
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