INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 10 Program Schedule 02/17/2024 09:00 am - 10:15 am Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60) Poster Session 10: Neurodevelopmental \| Congenital Conditions Final Abstract #19 Moral Foundations Theory in Individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum Edita Shahnazarian, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States Nathan LeFebre, Fuller Grad School of Psychologyd, Pasadena, United States Kutter Callaway, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States Lynn Paul, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States Warren Brown, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States Category: Behavioral Neurology/Cerebral Lateralization/Callosal Studies Keyword 1: corpus callosum Keyword 2: congenital disorders Keyword 3: social cognition Objective: Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (ACC; congenital absence of all or part of the corpus callosum) exhibit a pattern of cognitive and psychosocial deficits, even when FSIQ is in the normal range (FSIQ > 80; Brown & Paul, 2019). This includes a core deficit in their complex reasoning and novel problem-solving (Brown & Paul, 2019) and diminished capacity for elaborative imagination in social/emotional/cognitive consequences of situations (e.g., Young et al, 2019). This constellation of deficits was shown to impact moral reasoning in our previous study (Shahnazarian et al., 2023). Results suggested that adults with ACC responded similarly to neurotypical controls with respect to the low conflict or impersonal dilemmas, but on high conflict dilemmas tended to use a more deontological basis than controls– that is, based on general principles without contextual nuance. More recent theories in moral psychology have emphasized intuitive moral foundations as the primary guide for moral decision-making, rather than deliberative reasoning (Graham et al., 2013). Thus, this study employed the Moral Foundations Dictionary 2.0 (Frimer et al., 2020) to examine the implicit moral foundations of persons with ACC vs. neurotypical controls in textual responses. It was predicted that individuals with ACC would rely more on authority foundations than neurotypical controls, consistent with their demonstrated deontological moral reasoning style. Participants and Methods: Fifty neurotypical controls and 16 participants with ACC with normal-range FSIQ (>80) participated in the study. All participants completed an online version of the Moral Dilemmas Scale (Greene, 2001). This scale consists of 25 dilemmas, of which 4 asked participants to justify their moral decisions. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software (LIWC) we employed the Moral Foundations Dictionary 2.0 (Frimer, 2020) to examine implicit moral foundations of participant justifications for these 4 questions. A series of T tests were conducted to compare ACC responses to neurotypical controls in the number of words used from each moral foundation. The foundations include: Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity, Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity. Results: Results indicated that persons with ACC used significantly more words from the Authority/Respect foundation than neurotypical controls [t (15.07) = 2.24, p < .05, d = 1.05], but used significantly fewer words from the Purity/Sanctity foundation [t (54) = -2.58, p < .05, d = -0.39. Persons with ACC averaged 0.79 (SD = 1.10) authority words, compared to controls who averaged 0.13 per response (SD = 0.41). Conversely, individuals with ACC averaged 0 purity/sanctity words, whereas controls averaged 0.24 (SD = 0.69). The groups did not significantly differ in the remaining moral foundations, overall word count, or in total Moral Foundations Dictionary words. Conclusions: These results are consistent with prior findings suggesting that persons with ACC rely more on deontological, authority-based moral reasoning styles, consistent with their overreliance to social norms (Brown et al., 2021) and diminished ability to imagine the consequences of social situations (Young et al., 2019). These results demonstrate that the corpus callosum is involved when making nuanced, utilitarian moral judgements.

Poster

02/17/2024
09:00 am - 10:15 am
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 10: Neurodevelopmental | Congenital Conditions

Final Abstract #19

Moral Foundations Theory in Individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum

Edita Shahnazarian, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States
Nathan LeFebre, Fuller Grad School of Psychologyd, Pasadena, United States
Kutter Callaway, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States
Lynn Paul, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
Warren Brown, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States

Category: Behavioral Neurology/Cerebral Lateralization/Callosal Studies

Keyword 1: corpus callosum
Keyword 2: congenital disorders
Keyword 3: social cognition

Objective:

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (ACC; congenital absence of all or part of the corpus callosum) exhibit a pattern of cognitive and psychosocial deficits, even when FSIQ is in the normal range (FSIQ > 80; Brown & Paul, 2019). This includes a core deficit in their complex reasoning and novel problem-solving (Brown & Paul, 2019) and diminished capacity for elaborative imagination in social/emotional/cognitive consequences of situations (e.g., Young et al, 2019). This constellation of deficits was shown to impact moral reasoning in our previous study (Shahnazarian et al., 2023). Results suggested that adults with ACC responded similarly to neurotypical controls with respect to the low conflict or impersonal dilemmas, but on high conflict dilemmas tended to use a more deontological basis than controls– that is, based on general principles without contextual nuance. More recent theories in moral psychology have emphasized intuitive moral foundations as the primary guide for moral decision-making, rather than deliberative reasoning (Graham et al., 2013). Thus, this study employed the Moral Foundations Dictionary 2.0 (Frimer et al., 2020) to examine the implicit moral foundations of persons with ACC vs. neurotypical controls in textual responses. It was predicted that individuals with ACC would rely more on authority foundations than neurotypical controls, consistent with their demonstrated deontological moral reasoning style.

Participants and Methods:

Fifty neurotypical controls and 16 participants with ACC with normal-range FSIQ (>80) participated in the study. All participants completed an online version of the Moral Dilemmas Scale (Greene, 2001). This scale consists of 25 dilemmas, of which 4 asked participants to justify their moral decisions. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software (LIWC) we employed the Moral Foundations Dictionary 2.0 (Frimer, 2020) to examine implicit moral foundations of participant justifications for these 4 questions. A series of T tests were conducted to compare ACC responses to neurotypical controls in the number of words used from each moral foundation. The foundations include: Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity, Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity.

Results:

Results indicated that persons with ACC used significantly more words from the Authority/Respect foundation than neurotypical controls [t (15.07) = 2.24, p < .05, d = 1.05], but used significantly fewer words from the Purity/Sanctity foundation [t (54) = -2.58, p < .05, d = -0.39. Persons with ACC averaged 0.79 (SD = 1.10) authority words, compared to controls who averaged 0.13 per response (SD = 0.41). Conversely, individuals with ACC averaged 0 purity/sanctity words, whereas controls averaged 0.24 (SD = 0.69). The groups did not significantly differ in the remaining moral foundations, overall word count, or in total Moral Foundations Dictionary words.

Conclusions:

These results are consistent with prior findings suggesting that persons with ACC rely more on deontological, authority-based moral reasoning styles, consistent with their overreliance to social norms (Brown et al., 2021) and diminished ability to imagine the consequences of social situations (Young et al., 2019). These results demonstrate that the corpus callosum is involved when making nuanced, utilitarian moral judgements.