Brain Injury Affects Moral Choices

[Wynton]

Anyone see this story from the NYT yesterday?

It's entitled "Brain Injury Said to Affect Moral Choices," and based on a study appearing in "Nature" magazine. The brain injuries supposedly showed a different approach when people were faced with a "moral decision" whether to cause harm to a small number of individuals in order to save a greater number. Here's an excerpt of the article:

"A large difference in the participants’ decisions emerged when there was no switch to flip — when they had to choose between taking direct action to kill or harm someone (pushing him in front of the runaway boxcar, for example) and serving a greater good.

Those with ventromedial injuries were about twice as likely as other participants to say they would push someone in front of the train (if that was the only option), or suffocate a baby whose crying would reveal to enemy soldiers where the subject and family and friends were hiding."

The online version does not include one graph I found interesting. One of the moral hypotheticals posed involved people on a small, sinking boat. The question was whether you would push off an invalid, who was going to die anyway, if you knew that doing so would save everyone else on the boat. If I read the graph correctly (which I think I did), only 20% of the "normal" group said they would push the guy off. But 80% of those with brain injuries said they would push him off.

I found this somewhat disconcerting, since I was inclined to push the guy off the boat as well.

[gamblore99]

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I found this somewhat disconcerting, since I was inclined to push the guy off the boat as well.


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I push here as well.

[4_2_it]

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I found this somewhat disconcerting, since I was inclined to push the guy off the boat as well.


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I push here as well.

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Standard.

[Autocratic]

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I found this somewhat disconcerting, since I was inclined to push the guy off the boat as well.


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I push here as well.

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Yeah, definite value shove.

[TiK]

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I found this somewhat disconcerting, since I was inclined to push the guy off the boat as well.


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I push here as well.

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Yeah, definite value shove.

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Do you all think that the poker player in us affects the same brain area as is affected by this brain injury causing us to act similarly? I.e. Are we brain damaged from poker? Or is it something about that region of our brains that pushed us to play poker in the first place?

[mosdef]

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Are we brain damaged from poker? Or is it something about that region of our brains that pushed us to play poker in the first place?

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I vote for the second, and I wouldn't call it "brain damage" necessarily. It sounds more like we don't have an undesirable blocking mechanism in our brains.

[kerowo]

"normal" people in studies are more likely to try and please the questioner so I doubt they are giving as true a response as a bunch of people on an internet board who don't really care about anyone else's opinion. The invalid would have to have a gun or a real great personality to not be the first one to go in a life raft situation.

[Autocratic]

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"normal" people in studies are more likely to try and please the questioner so I doubt they are giving as true a response as a bunch of people on an internet board who don't really care about anyone else's opinion. The invalid would have to have a gun or a real great personality to not be the first one to go in a life raft situation.

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Yeah this is a definite validity problem in studies like this, no way does 80% of the population not push that dude off.

[4_2_it]

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"normal" people in studies are more likely to try and please the questioner so I doubt they are giving as true a response as a bunch of people on an internet board who don't really care about anyone else's opinion. The invalid would have to have a gun or a real great personality to not be the first one to go in a life raft situation.

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Yeah this is a definite validity problem in studies like this, no way does 80% of the population not push that dude off.

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Make the invalid a cute 5 year kid and it gets tougher. Most adults have an instinct to protect children from harm.

If the option was to throw a healthy 5 year old girl into a pit of crocodiles or 20 adults get fed feet first into a wood chipper, I think many people would choose the latter.

[gamblore99]

ya if its a kid it gets much tougher, i think I then go for someone really old, or someone I don't like. Maybe I would ask this question and the first person to suggest throwing someone off would get pushed. One things for sure, someone is getting pushed off.