Neural mechanisms behind support for political violence

Psychologists have often studied the "bright side" of morality—its role in promoting cooperation, for example. But new research from the University of Chicago suggests that morality also has a "dark side": Sometimes, social values held with moral conviction can be used to justify violence.

The study, led by Prof. Jean Decety, used MRI scanning to map participants' evaluations of photos of political violence—defined as physical assaults of other people, not property damage—that were either aligned with or contrary to the views they held.

"When study participants held strong moral convictions and saw photos of violent protests that were congruent with their own views, we detected activation in the reward system in the brain—almost as if the violence was a 'valuable' thing," said Decety, a cognitive neuroscientist and leading scholar of moral psychology.

Thanks:Robert Stonjek

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