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    Alcohol, empathy, and morality: acute effects of alcohol consumption on affective empathy and moral decision-making

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    Francis_Psychopharmacology_Final.pdf (1.427Mb)
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    Publication date
    2019-07
    Author
    Francis, Kathryn B.
    Gummerum, M.
    Ganis, G.
    Howard, I.S.
    Terbeck, S.
    Keyword
    Moral decision-making
    Moral judgment
    Moral action
    Alcohol
    Empathy
    Virtual reality
    Rights
    © The Author(s) 2019. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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    Yes
    
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    Abstract
    Rationale: Hypothetical moral dilemmas, pitting characteristically utilitarian and non-utilitarian outcomes against each other, have played a central role in investigations of moral decision-making. Preferences for utilitarian over non-utilitarian responses have been explained by two contrasting hypotheses; one implicating increased deliberative reasoning, and the other implicating diminished harm aversion. In recent field experiments, these hypotheses have been investigated using alcohol intoxication to impair both social and cognitive functioning. These studies have found increased utilitarian responding, arguably as a result of alcohol impairing affective empathy. Objectives: The present research expands existing investigations by examining the acute effects of alcohol on affective empathy and subsequent moral judgments in traditional vignettes and moral actions in virtual reality, as well as physiological responses in moral dilemmas. Methods: Participants (N = 48) were administered either a placebo or alcohol in one of two dosages; low or moderate. Both pre- and post intervention, participants completed a moral action and moral judgment task alongside behavioural measures of affective empathy. Results: Higher dosages of alcohol consumption resulted in inappropriate empathic responses to facial displays of emotion, mirroring responses of individuals high in trait psychopathy, but empathy for pain was unaffected. Whilst affective empathy was influenced by alcohol consumption in a facial responding task, both moral judgments and moral actions were unaffected. Conclusions: These results suggest that facets, beyond or in addition to deficits in affective empathy, might influence the relationship between alcohol consumption and utilitarian endorsements.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17169
    Version
    Published version
    Citation
    Francis KB, Gummerum M, Ganis G et al (2019) Alcohol, empathy, and morality: acute effects of alcohol consumption on affective empathy and moral decision-making. Psychopharmacology. 236: 3477-3496.
    Link to publisher’s version
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-019-05314-z
    Type
    Article
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    Social Sciences Publications

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