Journal article
Soft on crime: Patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage allocate reduced third-party punishment to violent criminals
Cortex, Vol.119, pp.33-45
10/2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.03.024
PMCID: PMC7771036
PMID: 31071555
Abstract
The human impulse to punish those who have unjustly harmed others (i.e., third-party punishment) is critical for stable, cooperative societies. Punishment selection is influenced by both harm outcome and the intent of the moral agent (i.e., the offender's knowledge of wrongdoing and desire that the prohibited consequence occur). We allocate severe punishments to those who commit violent crimes and milder punishments to those who commit non-violent crimes; and we allocate severe punishments to criminals who have malicious intent and milder punishments to criminals who lack malicious intent. Prior research has indicated that aversive, emotional responses of third-party judges may influence punishment allocation, as increased negative emotion correlates with more punitive punishments. Here, we show that patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC; a region necessary for the normal generation of emotion), compared to other neurological patients and healthy adult participants, allocate more lenient third-party punishment to criminals who commit emotionally-evocative, violent crimes. By contrast, patients with vmPFC damage did not differ from comparison participants on punishment allocation for non-emotional, non-violent crimes. These results demonstrate the necessity of the vmPFC for the integration of emotion into third-party punishment decisions, and indicate that negative emotion influences third-party punishment allocation particularly for scenarios involving physical harm to another.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Soft on crime: Patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage allocate reduced third-party punishment to violent criminals
- Creators
- Erik W Asp - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA; Department of Psychology, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN, USA; Wesley & Lorene Artz Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN, USA. Electronic address: easp02@hamline.eduJames T Gullickson - Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USAKelsey A Warner - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA; Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis, MN, USATimothy R Koscik - Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USANatalie L Denburg - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USADaniel Tranel - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Cortex, Vol.119, pp.33-45
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.03.024
- PMID
- 31071555
- PMCID
- PMC7771036
- NLM abbreviation
- Cortex
- ISSN
- 0010-9452
- eISSN
- 1973-8102
- Publisher
- Italy
- Grant note
- P50 MH094258 / NIMH NIH HHS U01 NS103780 / NINDS NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/2019
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Psychiatry; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984070487602771
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