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To illuminate the neurobiology of reconciling intuitive and emotional assessments of moral dilemmas with rational and utilitarian ones, Canadian investigators conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
The 28 normal participants were asked to appraise a series of situations on an emotional scale (extremely appealing to extremely appalling), a utilitarian scale (extremely beneficial to extremely costly), and, finally, an overall moral-value scale considering both emotional and utilitarian assessments of a decision's conflicting aspects (extremely appropriate to extremely inappropriate). Thus, after rating “evil deeds” (e.g., forcibly removing organs from a child or torturing a terrorist) and “greater goods” (e.g., saving another…