Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.
Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.
Neuropsychologia. 2022 Jul 29;172:108267. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108267. Epub 2022 May 12.
Moral judgment is known to be affected by factors such as color. Previous research has shown that the colors black and white are particularly important, however, the neural mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between specific brain regions (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, left DLPFC and occipital cortex, OC) and their impact of black and white moral judgement by using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The results of Experiment 1 (N = 54) and Experiment 2 (N = 66) showed that anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC inhibited the impact of black and white on moral judgment while cathodal tDCS over the left DLPFC enhanced the effect. Conversely, anodal tDCS over the OC enhanced the impact of white on moral judgment, while cathodal tDCS over the OC inhibited it. Together these results suggest that moral judgment relies not only on the cognitive control network, but also brain regions important for sensory perception. The current findings provide enhanced insight into how colors can impact moral judgments.
道德判断已知受到颜色等因素的影响。先前的研究表明，黑色和白色这两种颜色尤为重要，然而，这种影响的神经机制仍不清楚。本研究旨在通过经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）来探讨特定脑区（左背外侧前额叶皮层、左 DLPFC 和枕叶皮层、OC）与黑白色道德判断之间的因果关系。实验 1（N=54）和实验 2（N=66）的结果表明，左 DLPFC 的阳极 tDCS 抑制了黑白色对道德判断的影响，而左 DLPFC 的阴极 tDCS 则增强了这种影响。相反，OC 的阳极 tDCS 增强了白色对道德判断的影响，而 OC 的阴极 tDCS 则抑制了这种影响。这些结果共同表明，道德判断不仅依赖于认知控制网络，还依赖于对感官感知很重要的脑区。目前的研究结果提供了对颜色如何影响道德判断的更深入的理解。
