eprintid: 3619
rev_number: 10
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/36/19
datestamp: 2017-01-09 09:34:59
lastmod: 2018-02-28 11:40:40
status_changed: 2017-01-09 09:34:59
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Rota, Giuseppina
creators_name: Palumbo, S.
creators_name: Lattanzi, Nicola
creators_name: Manfrinati, A.
creators_name: Sarlo, M.
creators_name: Lotto, L.
creators_name: Pietrini, Pietro
creators_name: Rumiati, R.
creators_name: Pellegrini, Silvia
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: nicola.lattanzi@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: pietro.pietrini@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: Harm aversion explains utilitarian choices in moral decision-making in males but not in females
ispublished: pub
subjects: RC0321
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: restricted
keywords: Moral judgments; Harm aversion; Utilitarian choices; Impulsiveness; Venturesomeness
note: PMID: 27918062; SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85007007183
abstract: In recent years, a great deal of research has relied on hypothetical sacrificial dilemmas to investigate decision-making processes involved in pro-social utilitarian choices. Recent evidence, however, has suggested that moral sacrificial choices may actually reflect reduced harm aversion and antisocial dispositions rather than an utilitarian inclination. Here, we used moral dilemmas to confront healthy volunteers with controversial action choices. We measured impulsiveness and venturesomeness personality traits, which have been shown to influence harm aversion, to test their role in utilitarian action and evaluation of moral acceptability. The results of the present study show that, in males, venturesomeness drives engagement in actions and increases moral acceptability. In contrast, in females no effects of venturesomeness were observed on moral action and evaluation. Rather, in females empathetic concern and personal distress, elicited by the vicarious experience of the other’s emotional states, exerted an inhibitory effect on action. Taken together, these findings indicate that the “harm aversion hypothesis” may contribute to explain utilitarian choices in males but not in females. In both genders, no association was observed between impulsiveness and moral action.
date: 2016
date_type: published
publication: Archives Italiennes de Biologie. A journal of Neuroscience
volume: 154
number: 2/3
publisher: Pisa University Press
pagerange: 50-58
id_number: 10.12871/00039829201622
refereed: TRUE
issn: 0003-9829
official_url: http://www.architalbiol.org/aib/article/view/15450
citation:   Rota, Giuseppina and Palumbo, S. and Lattanzi, Nicola and Manfrinati, A. and Sarlo, M. and Lotto, L. and Pietrini, Pietro and Rumiati, R. and Pellegrini, Silvia  Harm aversion explains utilitarian choices in moral decision-making in males but not in females.  Archives Italiennes de Biologie. A journal of Neuroscience, 154 (2/3).  pp. 50-58.  ISSN 0003-9829      (2016)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3619/1/Rota_et_al_AIB_2016.pdf