Abstract
Research in neurocriminology has explored the link between neural functions and structures and the psychopathic disposition. This online experiment aimed to assess the effect of communicating the neuroscience of psychopathy on the degree to which lay people exhibited attitudes characteristic of psychopathy in particular in terms of moral behavior. If psychopathy is blamed on the brain, people may feel less morally responsible for their own psychopathic tendencies. In the study, participants read false feedback about their own psychopathic traits supposedly inferred from their Facebook likes, described either in neurobiological or cognitive terms. Participants were randomly allocated to read that they either had above-average or below-average psychopathic traits. We found no support for the hypothesis that the neuroscientific explanation of psychopathy influences moral behavior. This casts doubt on the fear that communicating the neuroscience of psychopathy will promote psychopathic attitudes.
Highlights
With a long history of presenting scientific testimony in the courtroom (Golan, 1999), the future criminal justice system could be informed more broadly by ever-growing experimental science
We predicted that lay people would be more likely to cheat and exhibit utilitarian reasoning after reading that their moral alarm was weak (H1), especially when this feedback was stated in neurobiological terms (H2)
The participants who were attributed a weak moral alarm in the current study were no more likely to change their moral attitudes or behavior in response to the neurobiological explanation, suggesting that the communication of neuroscientific information does not affect moral behavior
Summary
With a long history of presenting scientific testimony in the courtroom (Golan, 1999), the future criminal justice system could be informed more broadly by ever-growing experimental science. The system may be informed by neurocriminology, which aims to identify the neurobiological correlates of criminal behavior (Umbach et al, 2015). If neurocriminology is integrated into the criminal justice system, this transition will take place within the view of offenders. Offenders will learn more about the cognitive, genetic and neurobiological predictors of their own antisocial behavior and mental health conditions. With advancements in science and technology, offenders may develop an understanding of the otherwise hidden contributors to their criminal behavior. While qualitative researchers have begun to probe the response of offenders to neurocriminology (Horstkötter et al, 2012, 2014), no study has considered its effects on moral behavior. The current research measured the behavioral response of lay people to the feedback about one psychopathic trait: moral alarm
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