The Influence Of Empathy And Self-relevance On Moral Decision-making

Objective: There are many influencing factors of moral decision,which can be roughly divided into objective influencing factors of moral situation and subjective factors of individual characteristics of moral actor.Previous studies have shown that the individual's ability to empathize affects the principles that the individual follows in moral decision-making,and then affects his choice of moral behavior.In the moral situation,the distance between others and self is close,that is,the self-correlation will affect the individual's behavior choice.However,there has not been much research on how these two factors affect individual behavior choices when they exist in moral situations.Therefore,the purpose of this study is to explore the influence of individual empathy and self-correlation on moral decision making and cognitive processing mechanism in moral dilemma situation by using ERP.Methods: Twenty-seven college students,with an average age of 20.96 years old,were selected to participate in the experiment,among whom 12 were in the high empathy group and 15 were in the low empathy group.The mixed experiment design of 2(high and low empathy)× 3(high,medium and low self-relevance)was adopted,and the classic Moral dilemma paradigm was used in combination with incident related potential technology(ERP).The selection ratio,reaction time,emotion score and ERP indexes were analyzed.Results: Behavior results show that high empathy ability will do more than utilitarian choice(Non-utilitarian choice),low empathy subjects make more utilitarian options(utilitarian choice).When decision-making object and ego in dilemma situation have different degree of correlation,individuals tend to high self correlation others choose the least utilitarian,medium times,utility of low self correlation of others will make more choice;When the decision object in the situation is different from the self relation,the difference of empathy ability will affect the individual's choice.People with low empathy ability will make fewer utilitarian choices for others with high self-relevance,and more utilitarian choices for others with low self-relevance.People with high empathy ability will have no difference.The electroencephalogram results showed that the main effect of individual self-correlation on component P2 was significant,and the amplitude of high self-correlation was larger,followedby medium,and the low self-correlation was the least.On the N2 component,the main effect of empathic ability was significant,and the interaction between the two was significant.Compared with those with low empathic ability,those with high empathic ability had a larger amplitude,and those with high empathic ability had a larger amplitude to others with low self-relevance.In the late P3 component,the main effect of self-correlation is significant,and the main effect of empathy is significant,which is manifested in the significant amplitude of moderate degree self-correlation and the significant amplitude of low empathic ability.In the incubation period of P3,the interaction between the two is significant,the low empathic ability has a larger amplitude of moderate degree self-correlation,and the high empathic ability has a larger amplitude of low self-correlation.Conclusion: In the moral dilemma situation,people with high empathy will have more emotional processing,make more non-utilitarian choices,and follow the principle of "deontological theory".The closer the relationship with the self is,the more likely the individual is to make less harmful choices.In other words,the higher the self-relevance is,the more likely the individual is to make non-utilitarian choices.At the same time,the moral decisions by individual empathy ability and self correlation from the combined impact of low empathy ability of high self correlation decision-making of others to do the least harm,the harm of low self correlation of others to make the most decisions,make decisions,to moderate self correlation others hurt proportion center,but will be the most cognitive processing,a longer reaction time;People with high empathy had no difference in the proportion of the three kinds of injuries,but they had longer responses to people with moderate self-relevance,and more emotional and cognitive processing to people with low self-relevance.These results show that in the moral dilemma situation,the individual's moral decision will be affected by the individual's empathy ability and self-relevance.