Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Birmannsgasse 8, CH-4055 Basel, Switzerland.
Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Birmannsgasse 8, CH-4055 Basel, Switzerland.
Neuroimage. 2013 Nov 1;81:317-324. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.047. Epub 2013 May 18.
The moral force of impartiality (i.e. the equal treatment of all human beings) is imperative for providing justice and fairness. Yet, in reality many people become partial during intergroup interactions; they demonstrate a preferential treatment of ingroup members and a discriminatory treatment of outgroup members. Some people, however, do not show this intergroup bias. The underlying sources of these inter-individual differences are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the larger the gray matter volume and thickness of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), the more individuals in the role of an uninvolved third-party impartially punish outgroup and ingroup perpetrators. Moreover, we show evidence for a possible mechanism that explains the impact of DMPFC's gray matter volume on impartiality, namely perspective-taking. Large gray matter volume of DMPFC seems to facilitate equal perspective-taking of all sides, which in turn leads to impartial behavior. This is the first evidence demonstrating that brain structure of the DMPFC constitutes an important source underlying an individual's propensity for impartiality.
公正（即平等对待所有人类）的道德力量对于提供公正和公平至关重要。然而，在现实生活中，许多人在群体间互动中会变得有偏见；他们对内群体成员表现出优待，对外群体成员则表现出歧视。然而，有些人则不会表现出这种群体偏见。这些个体差异的潜在来源还不太清楚。在这里，我们证明了，背内侧前额皮质（DMPFC）的灰质体积和厚度越大，作为一个不相关的第三方，个体越会公正地惩罚外群体和内群体的犯罪者。此外，我们还为一个可能的机制提供了证据，该机制解释了 DMPFC 的灰质体积对公正性的影响，即换位思考。DMPFC 的大量灰质似乎有助于平等地从各方的角度看待问题，从而导致公正的行为。这是第一个证明 DMPFC 的大脑结构是个体公正性倾向的重要潜在来源的证据。
