Why (and how) should we study the interplay between emotional arousal, Theory of Mind, and inhibitory control to understand moral cognition?

Findings in the field of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience have shed new light on our understanding of the psychological and biological bases of morality. Although a lot of attention has been devoted to understanding the processes that underlie complex moral dilemmas, attempts to represent the way in which individuals generate moral judgments when processing basic harmful actions are rare. Here, we will outline a model of morality which proposes that the evaluation of basic harmful actions relies on complex interactions between emotional arousal, Theory of Mind (ToM) capacities, and inhibitory control resources. This model makes clear predictions regarding the cognitive processes underlying the development of and ability to generate moral judgments. We draw on data from developmental and cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and psychopathology research to evaluate the model and propose several conceptual and methodological improvements that are needed to further advance our understanding of moral cognition and its development.- We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the previous version of this manuscript. We thank Marianne Habib and Eamon McCrory for useful discussions and insights. We are also very grateful to the Fyssen Fundation whose grant to Marine Buon supported this work. During the writing of this paper, Ana Seara Cardoso was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT: SFRH/BD/60279/2009; SFRH/BPD/94970/2013), partially at the Psychology Research Centre, University of Minho (UID/PSI/01662) co-funded by FCT and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds, and by FEDER through COMPETE2020, PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653)

Why (and how) should we study the interplay between emotional arousal, Theory of Mind, and inhibitory control to understand moral cognition?

Findings in the field of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience have shed new light on our understanding of the psychological and biological bases of morality. Although a lot of attention has been devoted to understanding the processes that underlie complex moral dilemmas, attempts to represent the way in which individuals generate moral judgments when processing basic harmful actions are rare. Here, we will outline a model of morality which proposes that the evaluation of basic harmful actions relies on complex interactions between emotional arousal, Theory of Mind (ToM) capacities, and inhibitory control resources. This model makes clear predictions regarding the cognitive processes underlying the development of and ability to generate moral judgments. We draw on data from developmental and cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and psychopathology research to evaluate the model and propose several conceptual and methodological improvements that are needed to further advance our understanding of moral cognition and its development.- We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the previous version of this manuscript. We thank Marianne Habib and Eamon McCrory for useful discussions and insights. We are also very grateful to the Fyssen Fundation whose grant to Marine Buon supported this work. During the writing of this paper, Ana Seara Cardoso was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT: SFRH/BD/60279/2009; SFRH/BPD/94970/2013), partially at the Psychology Research Centre, University of Minho (UID/PSI/01662) co-funded by FCT and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds, and by FEDER through COMPETE2020, PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653)

Antisocial and Callous Behaviour in Children

Antisocial behaviour is one of the most common reasons for a childhood referral to mental health and educational services and represents a substantial public health cost. Callous-unemotional traits can be used to distinguish between children who are capable of pre-meditated antisocial behaviour and violence and children whose antisocial behaviour and violence are primarily impulsive and threat reactive. Decades of developmental psychopathology research have shown that children with antisocial behaviour are thus a heterogeneous group and, for interventions to be successful, it is critical that distinct subgroups of children receive services that best match their profile of vulnerabilities and strengths. Recent advances in genetic and brain imaging research in the field have made important contributions to our understanding of the developmental vulnerability that callous-unemotional traits represent. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current evidence base with regard to genetic and neuroscience findings of callous-unemotional traits and antisocial behaviour with callous-unemotional traits. We also discuss the implications of these findings for prevention and intervention, and finish by outlining what we consider to be necessary directions for future research

Neural and Behavioural Correlates of Empathy and Morality and their Associations with Psychopathic Traits

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that can be defined by profound disturbances in empathic response to others and repeated engagement in immoral behaviour. This thesis set out to investigate how individual differences in psychopathic traits in the general population are associated with variability in distinct components of empathy and morality. This thesis endeavoured to answer five outstanding research questions: 1) Given the complexity and multidimensionality of empathy and morality constructs, which components of these constructs are associated with psychopathic traits at the behavioural level? [Chapters 2-3] 2) Are behavioural correlates of empathy and morality in psychopathic traits specific to affective-interpersonal traits/lifestyle-antisocial traits, or common to both? [Cs. 2-3] 3) Are these correlates consistent across genders? [Cs. 2-3] 4) Are associations between psychopathic traits and empathic [C. 4] and 5) moral processing reflected at the neural level [C. 5]? This thesis’ findings suggest that: 1) individual differences in psychopathic traits are associated with lesser empathic response to emotional stimuli, lesser propensity to feel moral emotions and atypical moral decision-making; 2) empathic atypicalities are driven by the joint variance between affective-interpersonal and lifestyle-antisocial facets, but those related to affective aspects of moral cognition seem to be driven by variance in affective-interpersonal traits; 3) empathic and moral atypicalities seem to be similar in men and women; 4) atypical amygdala and anterior insula function may represent neural markers of disrupted empathic processing for individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits; and 5) atypical functioning of the vmPFC/mOFC during moral processing may contribute to the disordered lifestyle and antisocial behaviour exhibited by individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the empathic and moral processing impairments that underlie psychopathic traits

Desafios e boas práticas na ação humanitária e de emergência em Portugal

Com dezenas de graves crises humanitárias distintas, o mundo depara-se na necessidade de desenvolver a área da Ação Humanitária e de Emergência (AHE), através de práticas que vão de encontro às necessidades das populações vulneráveis. Assim, a presente investigação visa explorar as perspetivas de profissionais de AHE acerca dos desafios e boas práticas desse tipo de intervenção, em Portugal. Os participantes foram seis profissionais de AHE, selecionados através de um processo de amostragem não probabilística por conveniência. Baseado numa metodologia qualitativa, realizaram-se entrevistas semiestruturadas. Posteriormente, foi realizada uma abordagem indutiva e interpretativa da informação, com recurso ao software NVivo. Os resultados principais demonstraram que é fundamental a realização de um trabalho em rede e de colaboração, bem como da profissionalização do trabalho humanitário. Noutra vertente, os resultados mostraram que o cidadão comum pode ter um papel importante na AHE, tais como o de voluntário e o de promoção da atenção mediática de crises esquecidas pela população geral. Por fim, aponta-se a permanência de atitudes e comportamentos discriminatórios e racistas face às populações vulneráveis, como um grande desafio na AHE. Os resultados refletem a necessidade de continuar a desenvolver as boas práticas da AHE combatendo, simultaneamente, os desafios deste trabalho.With dozens of different serious humanitarian crises, the world is faced with the urge to develop Humanitarian and Emergency Action (AHE) through practices that meet the needs of vulnerable populations. Thus, the present investigation aims to explore the perspectives of AHE professionals regarding the challenges and practices of this type of intervention in Portugal. The participants were six AHE professionals, selected through a non-probabilistic convenience sampling process. Based on a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were carried out. Subsequently, an inductive and interpretative approach to the information was carried out, using the NVivo software. The main results showed that networking and collaboration are essential, as well as the professionalization of humanitarian work. Additionally, the results showed that common citizens can play an important role in AHE, through activities such as volunteering and promoting media attention to crises forgotten by the general population. Finally, the permanence of discriminatory and racist attitudes and behaviors towards vulnerable populations is pointed out as a major challenge faced by AHE. The results of this research reflect the need to continue to develop AHE's good practices while simultaneously tackling its challenges for the present and future

Empathy, morality and psychopathic traits in women

Empathic and moral processing correlates of psychopathic personality have seldom been studied in women. In this study, we experimentally tested associations between psychopathic personality traits and empathic and moral processing in a female sample, and further directly compared them to results from a male sample. We found that high levels of affective-interpersonal traits were associated with diminished affective response to sad and fearful emotions in others; lower propensity to feel moral emotions; higher endorsement of utilitarian solutions to moral dilemmas involving direct harm; and less self-reported difficulty when performing moral decision making. Overall, our findings strengthen the view that the two dimensions of psychopathy make distinct contributions to emotional and moral processing; and demonstrate that, in women, psychopathic personality traits are associated with a similar pattern of empathic and moral processing biases as the one that has been previously reported in men

Investigating associations between empathy, morality and psychopathic personality traits in the general population

Although atypical moral and empathy processing are considered core features of psychopathic personality, little is known about how these constructs are associated with psychopathic traits in the general population. One-hundred and twenty-four adult males from the community were administered the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale 4 Short Form, as well as a wide battery of affect, empathy and morality tasks and questionnaires. Our findings indicate that both core affective-interpersonal, as well as lifestyle-antisocial features of psychopathy are associated with weaker empathic responses to fearful faces. However, only the unique variance of the affective-interpersonal features is associated with weaker empathic response to happy stories, lower propensity to feel empathic concern and less difficulty in making decisions on moral dilemmas. In contrast, the unique variance of the lifestyle-antisocial features is associated with greater propensity to feel empathic concern. These preliminary findings extend previous research and suggest that, while the joint variance between affective-interpersonal and lifestyle-antisocial features might drive some ‘deficits’ associated with psychopathy, there also appears also to be unique ‘deficits’ associated with the core affective-interpersonal features, particularly in relation to affective aspects of moral processing

Affective resonance in response to others' emotional faces varies with affective ratings and psychopathic traits in amygdala and anterior insula.

Despite extensive research on the neural basis of empathic responses for pain and disgust, there is limited data about the brain regions that underpin affective response to other people's emotional facial expressions. Here, we addressed this question using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neural responses to emotional faces, combined with online ratings of subjective state. When instructed to rate their own affective response to others' faces, participants recruited anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus, and amygdala, regions consistently implicated in studies investigating empathy for disgust and pain, as well as emotional saliency. Importantly, responses in anterior insula and amygdala were modulated by trial-by-trial variations in subjective affective responses to the emotional facial stimuli. Furthermore, overall task-elicited activations in these regions were negatively associated with psychopathic personality traits, which are characterized by low affective empathy. Our findings suggest that anterior insula and amygdala play important roles in the generation of affective internal states in response to others' emotional cues and that attenuated function in these regions may underlie reduced empathy in individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits