CNN did an article (03.26.14) on moral decision-making – citing a few of our favorite scientists in the field of psychopathy. Link to CNN article
The article raises a number of important issues, but one central to our field is:
“Are psychopaths impaired in their ability to make moral decisions?”
The short answer to this question is:
It depends.
There is ample evidence that psychopaths, compared to the rest of us, commit more moral wrongs in all domains of life. Psychopaths are more likely than the rest of us to commit criminal behavior, to be unfaithful to our wives, to cheat on taxes, to not pay bills, to borrow money from friends and family and never pay it back, to cheat on tests in school, and to steal from employers – all moral wrongs. Thus, to an observer, psychopaths have serious problems making appropriate moral decisions and it makes sense then that psychopath’s moral abilities must be impaired.
However, when you get a psychopath into the laboratory (always be careful with them in such settings J) they appear to pass moral decision-making tasks that scientists give them. That is, when you ask a psychopath if a picture depicts a moral wrong, they get the answer right most of the time. When you ask a psychopath to decide if a vignette depicts a moral violation – they get it right.
Thus, psychopaths present with a conundrum: They appear to know how to act morally, but they just don’t act that way in the real world.
How might we resolve this problem?
The answer may lie in some of the latest neuroscience of moral decision-making. Studies using brain imaging show that moral decision-making includes both cognitive AND emotional regions of the brain.
Studies have shown that when most of us are faced with making an important moral decision, the decision process activates emotional systems in the brain in addition to cognitive systems. These emotional brain systems help to make sure we are paying attention to the importance of the decision before us.
Recent forensic studies show that these emotional brain regions are not working properly in psychopaths. Some scientists have said that psychopaths ‘know the words but not the music’. That is, psychopaths understand that they are making a decision, but the emotion associated with making that moral decision is lost upon them.
A study from my laboratory, lead by Dr. Carla Harenski, found that criminal psychopaths had deficits in the amygdala and orbital frontal cortex when processing moral pictures. The amygdala and orbital frontal cortex are critical brain regions associated with emotional processing. Link to Aberrant neural processing of moral violations in criminal psychopaths. Harenski, CL, et al.
So, whereas psychopaths appear to be able to make moral decisions in the laboratory, the emotional systems that help govern behavior in the real world are impaired. For more details on this issue, read ‘The Psychopath Whisperer: The science of those without conscience,” a book available for pre-order on Amazon today (delivery 4/22/14).
