Humans face moral dilemmas, from fleeting everyday decisions to
life-or-death questions.
Should I give up my seat on the train for a frail, elderly
person? Do I snatch a cab from another who has been waiting longer
just because I have a pressing matter to attend to?
Should I have an affair?
If there are two similar, competing organ recipients, which one
deserves that second shot at life more?
Morality is a murky soup of nature versus nurture, it seems.
Some scientists believe that our moral compass is hardwired into
our brains while others believe that our surroundings and people
close to us help shape our thoughts and actions.
While the experts have their disagreements on this subject, they
concur on this: The tussle between doing good or evil resides in
the brain.
Dr Melanie Storry Chan, a consultant psychologist at The
Counselling Place, said: 'Moral decisions reside in the
ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMFC).
'This area of the brain is responsible for highly complex
functioning such as empathy and the ability to make moral
judgments.'
The VMFC in an adult is the size of a large plum and is found
about 5cm behind a person's forehead.
The case of Phineas Gage, a railway construction foreman in
Vermont in the United States, famously illustrates how the VMFC
affects one's moral bearings.
In an accident on Sept 13, 1848, a steel rod entered the
25-year-old's left cheek bone and exited through the top of his
head.
Although he later recovered, his personality was forever altered
as most of the frontal cortex of his brain was destroyed.
Dr Storry Chan said: 'Before the brain injury, Gage was
considered a good worker, popular and efficient.
'But after that, he was angry, used the grossest profanities,
became impatient and was 'no longer Gage'.'
Indeed, a 2007 American study of patients with ventromedial
injuries and those without such injuries found that the VMFC is key
to making a moral call.
Dr James Khoo, a consultant neurosurgeon at Neurological
Surgery, gave the example of a brain that is damaged by
dementia.
'I see a change in people who develop dementia. They swear more,
may steal things or do things they previously knew were bad,' he
said.
The ventromedial area is connected to other regions like the
brain stem, responsible for bodily functions like breathing and
heart rate; and the amygdala, important for perceiving and reacting
to emotional or affective behaviour and feelings like fear and
anger.
It thus acts as a central system, collating information from
these various brain regions to come up with an appropriate social
response. Damage to this area disrupts or severs this vital
function.
Another major area also comes into play in moral decisions - the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which approaches situations in a
strictly cost-benefit analysis way.
A study last year by the University of Illinois,
Champaign-Urbana and the California Institute of Technology found
that our moral decisions are also affected by how much weight our
brain places on fairness.
Just last month, a study published in the scientific journal
PNAS found that individuals who behave dishonestly exhibit
increased activity in parts of the prefrontal cortex, whether they
chose to behave dishonestly or not.
So, it looks like issues of morality are parsed and processed in
the brain. However, researchers do not know if the parameters
within which the brain works are a matter of biology or the
environment.
Dr Khoo believes that it is a canny mix of evolutionary biology
and socio-environmental factors.
He said: 'Most humans have a sense of what's right or wrong.
From an evolutionary perspective, what's good for the tribe is
good. We act on what we think protects our group.
'But how we've been brought up, how we think, parental teaching,
religion and all that come into play.'
Indeed, most children are able to differentiate between right
and wrong by the time they go to pre-school or nursery school.
Moral behaviour is often learnt first via concrete rules set by
authority figures like parents or teachers, and then by
understanding abstract concepts about morality.
Dr Storry Chan said: 'We tend to first tell the child something
like 'It is not nice and against the rules to take your friend's
toys. I will punish you if you do that again'.
'As the child grows older and begins to think more abstractly,
we can tell the child 'Your friend will be angry if you take his
things and you will feel bad for doing it'.'
It has been observed that, in making moral decisions, boys focus
on 'justice' while girls tend to be more concerned about
maintaining relationships and will change the activity rather than
argue or fight.
Dr Khoo suggested that exposure to morally upright people can
help strengthen the brain mechanisms which deal with moral
decisions.
He said: 'I don't think people are born to do good or bad.
They're influenced by their early childhood and own ways of
thinking.
'Mother Teresa probably had poor but good parents. She was
exposed to religion in her early life so she decided to dedicate
her life to doing good. People do stumble on such things in an
experiential way.'
The late Mother Teresa was born in Albania in 1910 to Nikola and
Drane Bojaxhiu. Her father Nikola died when she was eight, leaving
the family financially poor but Drane raised the children lovingly,
influencing Mother Teresa's character and later vocation.
How willing are we to help others? We seem to be more compelled
to help those around us.
Dr Storry Chan explained it thus: 'Choosing to help people near
us is a function of many factors, for example, cultural,
governmental and proximity. It is easier to remember to help
someone you see every day rather than someone you see on TV once a
fortnight.
'Needy people close to us are able to 'push our emotional
buttons' much more effectively than those far away, leading to our
greater desire to help those closest.'
As for the 'pay-offs' in doing good, these come in positive
things like an increased sense of satisfaction with life, higher
levels of self-esteem and a slight reduction of heart rate and
blood pressure.
The converse can happen if we choose to do something bad.
People who have done wrong things often report feelings of low
self-worth, guilt and anxiety. They may get symptoms like
difficulty in sleeping, nervousness or heightened feelings of
depression and anxiety.
Dr Storry Chan said: 'However, the impact on the person after
choosing to do something 'bad' depends on how much the behaviour
deviates from his own moral values.
'For example, a person who does something considered amoral or
completely against his morals will have a higher rate of negative
experiences than if he does something he can justify or
excuse.'
She added that guilt is a healthy, natural emotion which
reflects a conflict between our actions and our moral compass.
Asked how a person who has committed a bad deed can address his
guilt, Dr Storry Chan said: 'You would look at what's the reason
for the behaviour, the damage done.
'Also, whether there are avenues for restitution or apologies or
penance, alternative choices if put in similar situations in the
future, seeking forgiveness from others and then seeking
self-forgiveness.'