1. Billy Chen The fMRI Evidence of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgments

2. Consider these 2 scenarios Trolley dilemma Footbridge dilemma Which scenario do you find easier to make judgments?

3. Why did you pick scenario 1?

4. Emotional Salience is the Key! Make quicker/automatic decisions No contemplation No conscious processing

5. Hypothesis We make judgments differently based on the number of emotional engagement Individuals would have more active brain activities with areas associated with emotions during contemplation of dilemmas like the footbridge vs trolley. Footbridge scenarios will also require more time to make the judgment since it will not be as automatic ->idea is from stroop task

6. Stroop Task Helps to demonstrate the cognitive load a footbridge dilemma would have on us -> longer reaction time when making inconsistent judgment with the emotional interference.

7. Method Pool of 60 dilemma questions - Moral (personal) ie. Footbridge - Moral (impersonal) ie. Trolley - Non-moral ie. Train or Bus 9 participants fMRI scan

8. Results – brain activities

9. Results – reaction time Emotional congruency

10. Implications Psychological puzzles Personal vs Impersonal What is better?

11. Questions?