Han Xiaochun, Zhou Shuai, Fahoum Nardine, Wu Taoyu, Gao Tianyu, Shamay-Tsoory Simone, Gelfand Michele J, Wu Xinhuai, Han Shihui
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Nat Hum Behav. 2021 Sep;5(9):1214-1225. doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01064-1. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
Civilian casualties occur during military attacks. Such 'collateral damage' is prohibited by international laws but increases with substantial consequences when intergroup conflict escalates. Here, we investigate cognitive and neural bases of decision-making processes resulting in civilian harm, using a task that simulates punishment decision-making during intergroup conflict. We test two groups of Chinese participants in a laboratory setting, and members of two ethnic groups (Jewish and Palestinian) in Israel. The results dissociate two psychological constructs, harm preference and harm avoidance, which respectively characterize punishment decision-making related to outgroup combatants and outgroup noncombatants during intergroup conflict. In particular, individuals show decreased avoidance of harming outgroup noncombatants when conflict escalates. Brain imaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging) reveals that decreased harm avoidance is predicted by inhibition of the left middle frontal activity during selection of punishment decisions. Our findings provide insight into the cognitive and neural bases of decision-making involving civilian harm during intergroup conflict.
平民伤亡发生在军事攻击期间。这种“附带损害”为国际法所禁止，但随着群体间冲突的升级而增加，且后果严重。在此，我们使用一项模拟群体间冲突中惩罚决策的任务，来研究导致平民伤害的决策过程的认知和神经基础。我们在实验室环境中测试了两组中国参与者，以及以色列两个族群（犹太人和巴勒斯坦人）的成员。结果区分了两种心理结构，即伤害偏好和伤害回避，它们分别表征了群体间冲突期间与外群体战斗人员和外群体非战斗人员相关的惩罚决策。特别是，当冲突升级时，个体对伤害外群体非战斗人员的回避减少。脑成像（功能磁共振成像）显示，在选择惩罚决策时，左侧额中回活动受到抑制预示着伤害回避的减少。我们的研究结果为群体间冲突中涉及平民伤害的决策的认知和神经基础提供了见解。
