Abstract
In moral dilemma tasks, high levels of psychopathic traits often predict increased utilitarian responding—specifically, endorsing sacrificing one person to save many. Research suggests that increased arousal (i.e., somatic marker production) underlies lower rates of utilitarian responding during moral dilemmas. Though deficient somatic marker production is characteristic of psychopathy, how this deficit affects the psychopathy–utilitarian connection remains unknown. We assessed psychopathic traits in undergraduates, as well as behavioral performance and skin conductance level reactivity (SCL-R; a measure of somatic marker production) during a moral dilemma task. High psychopathic traits and low SCL-R were associated with increased utilitarian decisions in dilemmas involving direct personal harm. Psychopathic traits were unrelated to SCL-R, nor did SCL-R mediate the relationship between psychopathy and utilitarianism. The present study did not find evidence that somatic marker production explains the connection between utilitarianism and psychopathy in a college population. Further research is necessary to identify the neural mechanisms relating psychopathy and moral decision-making in nonclinical samples.
Highlights
From the historical case study of Phineas Gage to the HBO documentary on Robert Durst, there remains an ongoing fascination with psychopathic individuals for both psychologists and laypersons alike
Consistent with past research and our first hypothesis, higher levels of psychopathic traits were associated with increased utilitarian responding during the moral dilemma task
This relationship was strongest for primary psychopathic traits, while secondary psychopathy trait score alone was unrelated to utilitarian response rate
Summary
From the historical case study of Phineas Gage to the HBO documentary on Robert Durst, there remains an ongoing fascination with psychopathic individuals for both psychologists and laypersons alike. An inability to experience an unpleasant “gut feeling” in response to negative stimuli, people in distress, has detrimental consequences, including diminished harm aversion Consistent with this argument, prior studies showed that in a moral dilemma task, participants produced larger SCRs during the contemplation period in personal versus impersonal scenarios [27] and that larger SCRs when contemplating moral dilemmas are related to fewer utilitarian decisions [28]. This is further supported by studies that found that utilitarian decision making was associated with antisocial traits [11,15] and reduced empathy [32,34], characteristics that are not congruent with concern for the greater good and maximization of lives saved These findings suggest that for individuals with higher levels of psychopathic traits, attenuated harm aversion is a more plausible underlying factor of increased utilitarian decisions in sacrificial personal moral dilemmas.
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