Cognitive Neural Mechanisms Affecting Moral Judgments Of College Students’ Moral Self-Concept:Evidence From ERPs And FNIRS

With the rapid development economics,the importance of moral and ethical issue has been greatly concerned in modern China.Moral judgment reflects the individual’s ability to evaluate and judge the appropriateness of behavior within the specific background,and modulates the relationship between moral cognition and moral behavior.Moreover,individual’s cognitive and emotional processes have been found to play a major role in shaping their moral judgment.By regulated cognitive and emotional processes,it has been assumed that moral self-concept might contribute to moral judgment.However,the neuro foundation of the relationship between moral self-concept and moral judgment is largely unknown.Thus,the present study starts from the measurement of college students’moral self-concept,and explores the effects of moral self-concept on the moral judgment(self-involvement/other-involvement scenario)from temporal(by ERP)and spatial(by fNIRS)prospective.Firstly,the study adopts psychometric methods to test the reliability and validity of MSQ-A(adolescents moral self-concept scale,Nie.,et al 2014)for college students.Based on these results,revised MSQ-A is developed.Secondly,to analyse the influence of moral self-concept on the temporal processing of moral judgment,all subjects underwent ERP assessment and perform an event-related moral-dilemma paradigms.It should be noted that the revised MSQ-A scale is adopted to recruit subjects with different moral self-concept levels(15 in the high group and 14 in the low group).Finally,to further analyzed the influence of moral self-concept on the spatial processing of moral judgment,Same subject underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy assessment and perform an event-related moral-dilemma paradigms(interval time greater than 3 months).In conclusion,(1)Although there is no difference between the structure of moral self-concept and the moral self-concept of middle school students,but the reliability and construct validity of MSQ—A is not ideal when using MSQ—A to measure the college students moral self-concept directly;the revised MSQ—A consists of 18 items,with satisfactory reliability and construct validity.(2)Compared with those with lower moral self-concept,Individuals with a higher level of moral self-concept show a lower percentage of utilitarian approval,and a greater P260,(i.e.,Individuals with higher level of moral self-concept could experience greater negative emotional experience.)Besides,significant electrodes mainly locate in Prefrontal-related electrodes,including FPz and F-z.(3)Compared with those with lower moral self-concept,Individuals with a higher level of moral self-concept show a great activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lower activation of f-rontopolar area activation under other-involvement scenario.Under this scenario,high moral self-concept individuals are more willing to control their mental process;low moral self-concept individuals are more willing to count gain and loss.(4)Compared with those with lower moral self-concept,Individuals with higher moral self-concept group reveal a great activation of the frontopolar area under self-involvement scenario.Under this scenario,emotional intuition dominates the moral judgment of low self-concept individuals;the moral judgment of high-moral self-concept is relatively more rational.(5)There is an interaction effects of moral self-concept and involvement scenario on moral judgment.