Liu Zhengxian, Yang Lan, Long Siyu, Wang Junce, Si Yajing, Huang Lihui, Huang Binxin, Ding Rui, Lu Jing, Yao Dezhong
The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Sciences and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2022 Aug 1;16:890739. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.890739. eCollection 2022.
Whether music can influence moral judgment is controversial in the aesthetics and philosophy of music. Aesthetic Autonomy pointed out that music had a morally educational function because of its lyrics or a particular context. The key to resolving the divergence is to select absolute music without lyrics or specific context as the eliciting material. In this study, 84 participants were recruited and randomly divided into three groups to complete the Ultimatum Game (UG) after listening to different stimuli: absolute music, white noise, and no sound. Behavioral results indicated that the participants' acceptance of unfair offers was significantly lower in the music group. Also, participants in the music group have a shorter reaction time for rejecting an unfair offer than other unfair conditions. However, ERP comparison showed no significant difference in medial frontal negativity (MFN) amplitude, which reflects fairness levels, between the music group and the no sound group for either accepting or rejecting the moderately unfair offer. Brain network analyses revealed that participants in the music group showed stronger activation of rewarding circuits, including the ventral striatum, during the decision-making process of rejecting unfair offers, before the decision especially, compared to the no sound group. These results suggest that absolute music can influence fair decision-making. The reward activated by music compensates participants vicariously for the reward they receive for choosing self-interest in an unfair offer, participants no longer have to choose between self-interest and fairness norms, so the participants reject the unfair offer due to the negative emotions induced by the unfair offer.
音乐是否能影响道德判断在音乐美学和哲学领域存在争议。审美自主性观点认为，音乐因其歌词或特定情境而具有道德教育功能。解决这一分歧的关键在于选择无歌词且无特定情境的纯音乐作为引发材料。在本研究中，招募了84名参与者，并随机分为三组，在聆听不同刺激后完成最后通牒博弈（UG）：纯音乐、白噪音和无声音。行为结果表明，音乐组参与者对不公平提议的接受度显著较低。此外，音乐组参与者拒绝不公平提议的反应时间比其他不公平条件下的参与者更短。然而，ERP比较显示，在接受或拒绝适度不公平提议时，音乐组和无声音组之间反映公平水平的内侧额叶负波（MFN）幅度没有显著差异。脑网络分析显示，与无声音组相比，在拒绝不公平提议的决策过程中，尤其是在决策前，音乐组参与者的奖励回路（包括腹侧纹状体）表现出更强的激活。这些结果表明，纯音乐可以影响公平决策。音乐激活的奖励替代补偿了参与者在不公平提议中选择自身利益所获得的奖励，参与者不再需要在自身利益和公平规范之间做出选择，因此参与者因不公平提议引发的负面情绪而拒绝不公平提议。
