Do Impairments in Fear Conditioning Predict Reduced Arousal and the Endorsement of Utilitarian Moral Decision-making in Psychopathy?

• In Event: The Neurobiology of Antisocial and Psychopathic Behavior: Evidence from Psychophysiological, Neuroimaging, and Brain Stimulation Studies

Abstract

From the historical case study of Phineas Gage to the HBO documentary on Robert Durst, there remains an ongoing fascination with psychopathic individuals and their moral deficiencies for both psychologists and laypersons alike. Previous research has shown that psychopaths tend to make utilitarian decisions in both impersonal and personal moral dilemmas. According to the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, autonomic or visceral responses function as alarm signals to alert an individual to the potential negative outcome of a certain action (Damasio, 1994). However, psychopaths tend to demonstrate poor fear conditioning which has the potential to disrupt negative feedback learning and directly impact moral decision making. We examined fear conditioning and moral decision making as a function of psychopathy in a sample of undergraduate students. Participants completed a fear conditioning task and a moral dilemma task. Skin conductance was continuously recorded throughout. We hypothesized that higher psychopathy would be associated with poorer conditioning and more utilitarian judgments. We also predicted that poorer conditioning would be associated with lower autonomic responses during moral dilemmas, which in turn may contribute to their increased utilitarian decision-making. Results will be considering in the context of current neurophysiological research on the underlying affective deficits in psychopathy.

Authors

• Shawn Fagan, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY

• Yu Gao, Brooklyn College, City University of New York