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Journal Article

Right or wrong? The brain's fast response to morally objectionable statements

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Van Berkum,  Jos J. A.
Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam;
Language in Action, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;
Neurobiology of Language Group, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;
Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, External Organizations;

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Critical survey statements (in Dutch)
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Citation

Van Berkum, J. J. A., Holleman, B., Nieuwland, M. S., Otten, M., & Murre, J. (2009). Right or wrong? The brain's fast response to morally objectionable statements. Psychological Science, 20, 1092 -1099. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02411.x.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-0013-165B-3
Abstract
How does the brain respond to statements that clash with a person's value system? We recorded event-related brain potentials while respondents from contrasting political-ethical backgrounds completed an attitude survey on drugs, medical ethics, social conduct, and other issues. Our results show that value-based disagreement is unlocked by language extremely rapidly, within 200 to 250 ms after the first word that indicates a clash with the reader's value system (e.g., "I think euthanasia is an acceptable/unacceptable…"). Furthermore, strong disagreement rapidly influences the ongoing analysis of meaning, which indicates that even very early processes in language comprehension are sensitive to a person's value system. Our results testify to rapid reciprocal links between neural systems for language and for valuation.