On the intersection between descriptive ethics and cognitive neuroscience

DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS studies empirically the moral views, principles, thoughts, intuitions and emotions held by people. Descriptive ethics studies resemblances and differences among moral views, systems, theories and traditions. COGNITIVE/AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE is the field of mind and brain research that investigates the psychological, computational, and neuroscientific bases of cognition and emotion.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Oxytocin, trust, empathy and morality (Paul Zak)

Trust, morality — and oxytocin: Paul Zak on TED.com

What drives our desire to behave morally? Neuroeconomist Paul Zak shows why he believes oxytocin (he calls it “the moral molecule”) is responsible for trust, empathy, and other feelings that help build a stable society. (Recorded at TED Global, July 2011, in Edinburg, Scotland. Duration: 16:35.

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1 comment:

MsituaMarch 29, 2012 at 1:49 PM
Robert from Neuroethics class here - my mind is blown away. Very interesting. The problem is of evolutionary hawks and pigeons. 95% respond more trusting on increased oxytocin - which will leave the 5% not responding to rule the world if we massvaccinate the populaiton with oxytocin.
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