Parisi Irene, Mancini Alessandra, Mancini Francesco, Aglioti Salvatore Maria, Panasiti Maria Serena
Center for Life Nano- & Neuro-Science, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome & Sapienza University of Rome.
Social Neuroscience Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Via Ardeatina, 306 - 00179.
Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2021 Aug;18(4):196-210. doi: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20210403.
Deontological Guilt (DG), and Altruistic Guilt (AG) emerge from the appraisal of violating an internalized rule or an altruistic principle, respectively. DG is strictly connected with Disgust Sensitivity and plays a key role in the development and maintenance of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Previous studies investigated how DG affects responses to hypothetical moral dilemmas, however how DG and Disgust Sensitivity interact modulating moral behavior is still unknown.
STUDY 1. 46 healthy participants performed an ecological paradigm in which people can spontaneously decide to lie to obtain a reward (egoistic lie) or give it away (altruistic lie) after three emotional inductions: DG, AG or neutral. Furthermore, OCD traits, Morality, Guilt Propensity and Disgust Sensitivity were assessed by means of questionnaires. STUDY 2. 27 participants from the original sample were retested during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy to ascertain whether the pandemic modified traits related to morality, disgust, guilt or OCD symptoms and whether these changes modulated moral behavior (measured by a task in which cheating was associated to higher pay-offs).
STUDY 1. Compared to the neutral, after the DG induction participants produced less altruistic and more egoistic lies. This effect was stronger in participants with high Disgust Sensitivity. STUDY 2. During the COVID-19 lockdown participants became more sensitive to the Authority pillar of the Moral Foundations and more sensitive to Disgust: this increment in deontological morality affected (im) moral behavior depending on changes in Disgust Sensitivity.
Our data suggest that people with high Disgust Sensitivity are more affected by deontological inductions which translate to higher immorality, supposedly by lowering their moral self-image. These results might have important clinical implications as they suggest that addressing Disgust Sensitivity in therapy, might also decrease the effect of guilt on patients' behavior.
道义内疚（DG）和利他内疚（AG）分别源于对违反内化规则或利他原则的评估。DG与厌恶敏感性密切相关，并在强迫症（OCD）的发展和维持中起关键作用。以往的研究调查了DG如何影响对假设性道德困境的反应，然而，DG和厌恶敏感性如何相互作用调节道德行为仍不清楚。
研究1。46名健康参与者进行了一种生态范式实验，在三种情绪诱导（DG、AG或中性）后，人们可以自发决定说谎以获得奖励（利己谎言）或放弃奖励（利他谎言）。此外，通过问卷评估强迫症特质、道德、内疚倾向和厌恶敏感性。研究2。对原始样本中的27名参与者在意大利新冠疫情封锁期间进行重新测试，以确定疫情是否改变了与道德、厌恶、内疚或强迫症症状相关的特质，以及这些变化是否调节了道德行为（通过一项将作弊与更高回报相关联的任务来衡量）。
研究1。与中性诱导相比，DG诱导后参与者产生的利他谎言更少，利己谎言更多。这种效应在高厌恶敏感性的参与者中更强。研究2。在新冠疫情封锁期间，参与者对道德基础的权威支柱变得更加敏感，对厌恶也更加敏感：道义道德的这种增加根据厌恶敏感性的变化影响（不）道德行为。
我们的数据表明，高厌恶敏感性的人更容易受到道义诱导的影响，这可能会降低他们的道德自我形象，从而导致更高的不道德行为。这些结果可能具有重要的临床意义，因为它们表明在治疗中解决厌恶敏感性问题，也可能会减少内疚对患者行为的影响。
