@misc{10481/29540,
year = {2013},
month = {12},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10481/29540},
abstract = {Background: Recent studies of moral reasoning in patients with alcohol use disorders have indicated
a “utilitarian” bias, whereby patients are more likely to endorse emotionally aversive actions in favor of
aggregate welfare (e.g., throwing a dying person into the sea to keep a lifeboat of survivors afloat).
Here, we investigate the underlying psychological and neuropsychological processes.
Methods: Alcohol-dependent individuals (n = 31) and healthy comparison participants (n = 34)
completed a validated moral judgment task, as well as measures of impulsivity, mood symptoms (anxiety
and depression), and emotional face recognition.
Results: Alcohol-dependent individuals were more likely to endorse utilitarian choices in personal
moral dilemmas compared with controls and rated these choices as less difficult to make. Hierarchical
regression models showed that poorer decoding of fear and disgust significantly predicted utilitarian
biases in personal moral dilemmas, over and above alcohol consumption. Impulsivity and mood symptoms
did not predict moral decisions.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that impaired fear and disgust decoding contributes to utilitarian
moral decision-making in alcohol-dependent individuals.},
organization = {This work is supported by the “Red de Trastornos Adictivos”,
RETICS Program, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish
Ministry of Health (PI: AVG) and the Junta de
Andaluc ıa under the Research Project P07.HUM 03089
(PI: MPG). MCP is funded by FPU predoctoral research
grant (AP 2008-01848) from Spanish Ministry of Education
and Science.},
keywords = {Moral decision-making},
keywords = {Utilitarian judgments},
keywords = {Alcohol dependent individuals},
keywords = {Emotional face recognition},
keywords = {Fear},
keywords = {Disgust decoding},
title = {Impaired Decoding of Fear and Disgust Predicts Utilitarian Moral Judgment in Alcohol-Dependent Individuals},
author = {Carmona-Perera, Martina and Clark, Luke and Young, Liane and Pérez García, Miguel and Verdejo García, Antonio Javier},
}