No âmbito do projeto The Aging Social Brain – Neural and behavioral age-related changes in social cognition and decision-making, João Marques-Teixeira e colaboradores publicaram na revista Neuroscience Letters o artigo “Awareness to utilitarian responses in later life: An ERP study with moral dilemmas” com os seguintes destaques:
- O estudo investigou as diferenças de idade na tomada de decisão moral;
- Os grupos avaliados não diferiram no número de respostas utilitárias e nos tempos de reação;
- A nível neuronal, os adultos mais velhos demonstraram maiores amplitudes Positividade do Erro (Pe) do que os adultos mais jovens após as respostas utilitárias;
- O resultado neuronal sugere que as decisões utilitárias podem induzir um aumento de conflito no grupo dos adultos mais velhos.
Abstract
“The current study aims to provide the first insights into the neural correlates of utilitarian and deontological responses to moral dilemmas across the lifespan. To this purpose, younger (n = 30), middle-aged (n = 29), and older adults (n = 29) completed moral dilemmas during an EEG recording. Behaviorally, groups did not differ in the number of utilitarian responses and reaction times. However, at the neural level, older adults had higher Error Positivity (Pe) amplitudes than younger adults after utilitarian responses. As this effect was specific to utilitarian responses, it suggests that utilitarian decisions may induce increased conflict in the older group. These findings highlight that older adults may be more aware of the harmful outcomes of utilitarian decisions during moral decision-making.”
