Kill One to Save Many? Brain Damage Makes Decision Easier

Patients with damage to the prefrontal cortex adopt a utilitarian policy when making difficult moral judgments















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U.C.L.A.'s Mendez notes that the study provides evidence that people do not need cultural and social taboos to form morality. "Part of normal development is this emotional responding to another human being," he says. "It's not something you have to learn or you have to go have a specific religious experience to pick up, or have a cultural experience…. It is based on emotionally responding to others, and there's a part of the brain dedicated to that."



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