The heart as judge: Association of heart rate variability with moral judgement—A replication study
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
There is growing research into contributing processes and biological correlates of moral inclinations. Recently, a negative association between utilitarianism and resting heart rate variability (HRV) as an indicator of cardiac vagal tone/parasympathetic activity was reported. We aimed to replicate and extend these findings by additionally investigating the sympathetic parameter electro-dermal activity (EDA), but found no associations in the total sample (N = 157). However, when taking sex and the use of combined oral contraceptives (COC) into account, we found a positive association between HRV and estimated deontology in women using COC and men, while in free cycling women there was a negative association. While no direct replication, our results also point to associations between higher HRV and decreased endorsement of harmful actions that serve a greater good. Unlike HRV, EDA showed no associations with moral judgements. In addition, there were correlations between personality traits and moral judgement.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 108284 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Biological psychology |
Volume | 169 |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2022 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
PubMed | 35122889 |
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unpaywall | 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108284 |
WOS | 000779727900001 |
ORCID | /0000-0002-9426-5397/work/141543202 |
Keywords
Research priority areas of TU Dresden
DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards
Subject groups, research areas, subject areas according to Destatis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Deontology, Electro-dermal activity, Heart rate variability, Moral judgement, Personality, Utilitarianism, Heart, Heart Rate/physiology, Humans, Male, Morals, Female, Ethical Theory, Judgment