Magnetic fields targeting the moral center of the brain could scramble our sense of right and wrong.
 |
Magnets were able to temporarily distort
the participants' perception of morality.
Liane Young, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
THE GIST:
- Strong magnetic fields could affect moral judgment.
- Targeted magnetic fields can make people more inclined to judge outcomes, not intentions.
- The findings could have implications for neuroscience, as well as the legal system.
Magnets can alter a person's sense of morality, according to a new report in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Using a powerful magnetic field, scientists from MIT, Harvard
University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are able to scramble
the moral center of the brain, making it more difficult for people to
separate innocent intentions from harmful outcomes. The research could
have big implications for not only neuroscientists, but also for judges
and juries.
"It's one thing to 'know' that we'll find morality in the brain,"
said Liane Young, a scientist at MIT and co-author of the article. "It's
another to 'knock out' that brain area and change people's moral
judgments."
Before the scientists could alter the brain's moral center, they first had to find it.
Young and her colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging
to locate an area of the brain known as the right temporo-parietal
junction (RTPJ) which other studies had previously related to moral
judgments. While muscle movement, language and even memory are found in
the same place in each individual, the RTPJ, located behind and above
the ear, resides in a slightly different location in each person.
For their experiment, the scientists had 20 subjects read several
dozen different stories about people with good or bad intentions that
resulted in a variety of outcomes.
One typical story was about a boyfriend who leads his girlfriend
across a bridge. In some versions, the boyfriend harmlessly walked his
girlfriend across the bridge with no ill effect. In other cases, the
boyfriend intentionally led the girlfriend along so she would break her
ankle. The subjects used a seven point scale -- one being forbidden and
seven completely permissible -- to record whether they through the
situation was morally acceptable or not.
While the subjects read the story, the scientists applied a magnetic
field using a method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. The
magnetic fields created confusion in the neurons that make up the RTPJ,
said Young, causing them to fire off electrical pulses chaotically.
The confusion in the brain made it harder for subjects to interpret
the boyfriend's intent, said Young, and instead made the subjects focus
solely on the situation's outcome. The effect was temporary and safe.
When no magnetic field was applied, the subjects focused more on the
boyfriend's good intentions, rather than a bad outcome. When a magnetic
field was applied to the RTPJ, the subjects consistently focused on a
bad outcome, rather than the intention, and rated the story as more
morally objectionable.
The scientists didn't permanently remove the subjects moral
sensibilities. On the scientists' seven point scale, the difference was
about one point and averaged out to about a 15 percent change. It's not
much, said Young, "but it's still striking to see such a change in such
high level behavior as moral decision-making." Young also points out
that the study was correlation; their work only links the the RTJP,
morality and magnetic fields, but doesn't definitively prove that one
causes another.
The research could have powerful implications not just for
neuroscientists, but for lawyers as well. Everyday jurors are asked to
weigh a person's actions against their intentions. This new study won't
transform the legal field, said Owen Jones, a professor of law and
biology at Vanderbilt University, but it could "enable sophisticated
judgments about responsibility, harm and appropriate punishment."
"This study, and other recent studies like it, are enabling us to
peer into the very brain activity that underlies and enables legal
judgments," said Jones. "Understanding how legal decisions actually work
is a potentially important step toward helping decisions be as fair,
just and effective as they can be."
What the new research won't do is allow a jury, or even an
individual, to unwittingly manipulated to favor prosecutors or
defendants. Because it was so obvious that the magnets were turned on,
it is unlikely that a person or a group, like a jury, could be swayed to
consider a criminal outcome instead of intent, said Young.
Magnetic fields made people judge outcomes more than intentions.
Whether it's possible to do the opposite -- making people focus more on
intentions than outcomes -- Young doesn't know.
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