"More support, less distress?": Examining the role of social norms in alleviating practitioners' psychological distress in the context of assisted dying services.

This study explores how providing assisted dying services affects the psychological distress of practitioners. It investigates the influence of professional norms that endorse such services within their field. Study 1 included veterinarians (N = 137, 75.2% female, Mage = 43.1 years, SDage = 12.7 years), and Study 2 health practitioner students (N = 386, 71.0% female, Mage = 21.0 years, SDage = 14.4 years). In both studies, participants indicated their degree of psychological distress following exposure to scenarios depicting assisted dying services that were relevant to their respective situations. In Study 1, we found that higher willingness to perform animal euthanasia was associated with lower distress, as were supportive norms. In Study 2, a negative association between a greater willingness to perform euthanasia and lower psychological distress occurred only when the provision of such services was supported by professional norms. In conclusion, psychological distress is buffered by supportive professional norms.

Automated patterns of head dynamics are associated with psychopathic traits in incarcerated women.

Men with elevated psychopathic traits have been characterized by unique patterns of nonverbal communication, including more fixed and focused head positions during clinical interviews, compared to men scoring low on measures of psychopathy. However, it is unclear whether similar patterns of head dynamics help characterize women scoring high on psychopathic traits. Here, we utilized an automated detection algorithm to assess head position and dynamics during a videotaped clinical interview (i.e., the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised [PCL-R]) in a sample of n = 213 incarcerated women. PCL-R Total, Factor 1 (i.e., interpersonal and affective psychopathic traits), and Factor 2 (i.e., lifestyle/behavioral and antisocial/developmental psychopathic traits) scores were associated with a pattern of head dynamics indicative of a rigid head position. The current study extends analyses of nonverbal behavior studies in men to women and highlights how individuals with elevated psychopathic traits demonstrate unique nonverbal behaviors relative to individuals who score low on psychopathic traits. The implications and clinical value of these findings are discussed.

Using Latent Profile Analysis to Understand Health Practitioners' Attitudes Toward Voluntary Assisted Dying.

Prior work has documented considerable diversity among health practitioners regarding their support for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). We examined whether their attitudes are characterised by different combinations of personal support, normative support by other health practitioners, and whether they are predisposed to vicariously experience others' emotions (i.e., empathy). We also examined whether these profiles experienced different mental health outcomes (i.e., burnout and posttraumatic stress) in relation to VAD. To test this, 104 Australian health practitioners were surveyed after VAD was legalised in Victoria, Australia in 2019. Results indicated that practitioners' attitudes were characterised by three profiles: 1) strong personal and normative support (strong VAD supporters), 2) moderate personal and normative support (moderate VAD supporters), and 3) lower personal and normative support (apprehensive practitioners). However, each profile reported similar mental health outcomes. Findings suggest that the normative environments in which health practitioners operate may explain their diverse attitudes on VAD.

Neural processing of moral content reflects moral identity in 10-year-old children.

Middle childhood seems to be crucial for the emergence of a moral identity, that is, an evaluative stance of how important it is for someone's sense of self to be moral. This study investigates the effects of moral identity on the neural processing of moral content in 10-year-old children. Participants were presented with scenes portraying prosocial and antisocial behavior, while electroencephalographic responses were collected. Analyses of event-related potentials (ERPs) showed that, for children with a strong moral identity, antisocial scenes elicited a greater early posterior negativity (EPN) as compared to prosocial scenes. Thus, for children with a strong moral identity, antisocial scenes capture more attentional resources than prosocial ones in early processing stages. In contrast to previous findings with adults, the implicit moral self-concept was not related to any ERP differences. Overall, the results show that, even in its developmental emergence, moral identity relates to the neurocognitive processing of third-party moral content. Together, the study supports the social-cognitive model of the development of moral identity, according to which moral identity is based on a chronical activation of moral schemas that guide a person's perception of the social world.

Attitudes Toward and Experience With Assisted-Death Services and Psychological Implications for Health Practitioners: A Narrative Systematic Review.

A narrative systematic review was conducted to review studies that examine mental health implications of involvement in assisted-death services among health practitioners. Qualitative and quantitative studies were included to understand health practitioners' attitudes and experiences with assisted dying services, as well as to identify the mental health consequences. We identified 18 articles from 1591 articles drawn from seven major scientific databases (i.e., PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus). Two raters independently evaluated the exclusion and inclusion decisions of the articles and examined methodological flaws in the selected articles. We found that engagement in assisted death services were not reliably associated with mental health outcomes such as anxiety and moral distress. Both positive and negative outcomes were reported, and psychological outcomes for practitioners were shown to vary based on factors including social support for health practitioners' views; their perceived capacity to care for the patients; and legislation.

Reduced endorsement of specific moral foundations in incarcerated adult women with elevated psychopathic traits.

Previous studies have associated adult men with elevated psychopathic traits with reduced endorsement of certain moral foundations measured with the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ), including Harm/Care (measuring one's concern for protecting individuals from harm) and Fairness/Reciprocity (measuring one's concern for the rights of individuals). However, it is not known whether such results extrapolate to women with elevated levels of psychopathic traits. Here, we examined the relationship between endorsement of moral foundations (assessed via the MFQ) and psychopathy scores (assessed via the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised [PCL-R]) in a sample of 299 incarcerated adult women. Consistent with hypotheses, higher PCL-R total scores were associated with reduced endorsement of MFQ Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity foundations. Additionally, we extended upon previous studies, observing higher PCL-R total, Factor 1 (measuring interpersonal/affective psychopathic traits), and Facet 1 (measuring interpersonal psychopathic traits) scores were associated with reduced endorsement of the MFQ Authority/Respect foundation (measuring one's respect for authority figures) in incarcerated adult women. Our results highlight reduced endorsement for similar moral foundations between men and women scoring high on psychopathic traits (i.e., Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity), while also outlining a moral foundation that may be uniquely associated with women scoring high on psychopathic traits (i.e., Authority/Respect).

The Difference Spotting Task: A new nonverbal measure of cheating behavior.

To understand when, how, and why people cheat, the ability to detect cheating in a laboratory setting is crucial. However, commonly used paradigms are confronted with a conflict between allowing participants to believe they can cheat unnoticed and allowing experimenters to detect cheating. This project aimed to develop and establish a new nonverbal task to resolve this conflict. Study 1 and Study 2 developed a new unsolvable paradigm called the Difference Spotting Task. In Study 1, participants were incentivized to indicate whether they found any difference between a pair of pictures without being asked to point the difference(s) out, so they could overreport their performance to earn extra money. Unbeknownst to them, the pairs of pictures from half of the items were identical so that the task could not be solved without cheating. This paradigm allowed experimenters to detect cheating for each unsolvable item. Study 3 examined the validity of the Difference Spotting Task and demonstrated it as a valid tool to assess cheating. The Difference Spotting Task is nonverbal and thus applicable to populations across age, educational level, and culture. In this unsolvable task, participants feel safe in cheating, and experimenters can detect cheating at the item level. The task holds the potential to gain acceptance by many researchers and facilitate the investigation of the underlying processes of cheating behavior.

Déficits précoces de l'empathie et psychopathologie Early empathy deficits and psychopathology.

Empathy is a complex social-cognitive ability that is best understood by distinguishing its emotional, cognitive and motivational dimensions, which from early childhood interact between the child and her/his social environment. To date, among the many factors that are acknowledged to influence the development of empathy, children's temperament and parenting behaviors have been identified as interacting in predicting the extent to which children demonstrate empathic responses. Recent studies in developmental social neuroscience cast light on the neural networks engaged in the development of each of the dimensions that constitute empathy, which are needed to navigate social interaction and establishing positive social relationships. Indeed, early deficits in empathic processes can lead to difficulties in socialization, particularly associated with reduced attention to others' emotions, especially when they are suffering, a lesser degree of remorse and guilt, and a greater tendency to ignore social norms or break the rules. Difficulties in socialization are particularly visible in two well-known developmental disorders: children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with conduct disorder and callous unemotional traits (CU). This paper provides a critical and selective review of recent empirical studies in psychopathology and developmental neuroscience by addressing the dimensions underlying empathy, specifically emotional sharing and caring for others. For children with ASD, some studies report that they pay less attention to another person in distress. However, functional neuroimaging studies conducted with ASD adolescents indicate that the emotional dimension appears to be preserved, but a lack of emotional self-regulation may impair them from experiencing empathic concern. Children with conduct disorder and CU traits clearly manifest a reduced autonomic nervous system response to others' distress or suffering. This may account for their disregard or contempt for others' well-being and social norms. Functional neuroimaging studies show that atypical patterns of brain activity at 15 months of age can predict later severe conduct disorder. Neural regions engaged in emotional processing such as the anterior cingulate cortex, insula and amygdala shown reduced activation to empathy-eliciting stimuli in children with CU. Finally, the genetic nature of CU traits is highlighted in several studies. We conclude by proposing several avenues for developmental research to identify biomarkers from an early age and by inviting to focus on psychological interventions with those populations accordingly.

L'empathie est un phénomène complexe dont la compréhension est améliorée par la distinction de ses dimensions émotionnelle, cognitive et motivationnelle, qui interagissent entre I'individu et son l'environnement dès le plus jeune âge. Des déficits précoces dans les processus empathiques peuvent conduire à des difficultés de socialisation qui se manifestent particulièrement chez les enfants présentant des troubles du spectre de l'autisme et le trouble des conduites. Cette revue critique des connaissances en psychopathologie et neuroscience développementale aborde les dimensions sous-jacentes à l'empathie que sont le partage affectif et le souci de l'autre. L'article conclut en proposant des pistes de recherche pour identifier des biomarqueurs précoces.

Psychopathy is associated with fear-specific reductions in neural activity during affective perspective-taking.

Psychopathic individuals are notorious for their callous disregard for others' emotions. Prior research has linked psychopathy to deficits in affective mechanisms underlying empathy (e.g., affective sharing), yet research relating psychopathy to cognitive mechanisms underlying empathy (e.g., affective perspective-taking and Theory of Mind) requires further clarification. To elucidate the neurobiology of cognitive mechanisms of empathy in psychopathy, we administered an fMRI task and tested for global as well as emotion-specific deficits in affective perspective-taking. Adult male incarcerated offenders (N = 94) viewed images of two people interacting, with one individual's face obscured by a shape. Participants were cued to either identify the emotion of the obscured individual or identify the shape from one of two emotion or shape choices presented on each trial. Target emotions included anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral. Contrary to predictions, psychopathy was unrelated to neural activity in the Affective Perspective-taking > Shape contrast. In line with predictions, psychopathy was negatively related to task accuracy during affective perspective-taking for fear, happiness, and sadness. Psychopathy was related to reduced hemodynamic activity exclusively during fear perspective-taking in several areas: left anterior insula extending into posterior orbitofrontal cortex, right precuneus, left superior parietal lobule, and left superior occipital cortex. Although much prior research has emphasized psychopathy-related abnormalities in affective mechanisms mediating empathy, current results add to growing evidence of psychopathy-related abnormalities in a cognitive mechanism related to empathy. These findings highlight brain regions that are hypoactive in psychopathy when explicitly processing another's fear.

The effect of hunger on children's sharing behavior and fairness preferences.

How does feeling hungry affect children's sharing and evaluations of others' moral decision making? To examine this question, we gave 4- to 9-year-old children the opportunity to share resources with an anonymous other child and to evaluate third-party resource allocation decisions between hungry and full recipients. We also measured children's subjective reports of their own hunger, predicting that hungry children would be less generous in their own sharing and more likely to prefer distributions that favor the hungry recipient. Children's sharing increased with age, as did positive evaluations of equitable third-party distributions. Hungrier children were less likely to share overall, but particularly when sharing food-relevant resources. Hunger did not influence third-party resource allocation evaluations, and children still expected fairness from others even when behaving differently themselves.

The development of social comparisons and sharing behavior across 12 countries.

Humans are social beings, and acts of prosocial behavior may be influenced by social comparisons. To study the development of prosociality and the impact of social comparisons on sharing, we conducted experiments with nearly 2500 children aged 3-12 years across 12 countries across five continents. Children participated in a dictator game where they had the opportunity to share up to 10 of their stickers with another anonymous child. Then, children were randomized to one of two treatments. In the "shared a little" treatment children were told that another child from their school had shared 1 sticker, whereas in the "shared a lot" treatment children were told that another child from their school had shared 6 stickers in the same game. There was a strong increase in baseline sharing with age in all countries and in both treatments. The "shared a lot" treatment had a positive treatment effect in increasing sharing overall, which varied across countries. However, cross-cultural comparisons did not yield expected significant differences between collectivist and individualist countries. Our results provide interesting evidence for the development of sharing behavior by age across the world and show that social information about the sharing of peers is important for children's decision making.

Conflicting influences of justice motivations on moral judgments.

Humans are motivated by justice concerns, yet vary in their reactions to observing or experiencing injustice. At a proximate level, approach and avoidance represent core fundamental motivational systems which have been proposed to be involved in two independent moral systems: a prescriptive system responsive to obligations ("shoulds") and a proscriptive system concerned with prohibitions ("should nots"). It is unclear whether these motivational systems or personal involvement better explain the influence of justice dispositions on moral judgments. To clarify this theoretical argument, two experiments examined how dispositional self-oriented and other-oriented justice sensitivity influence condemnation of prescriptive and proscriptive violations while manipulating perspective between-subject or within-subject. Participants rated the permissibility of everyday moral transgressions, from the perspective of the victim or a neutral observer. In Study 1 (n = 235), self-oriented dispositions increased and other-oriented dispositions decreased the probability of rating prescriptive violations as permissible. Study 2 (n = 468) replicated the effect of other-oriented justice sensitivity. Overall, these results bridge the gap between motivational systems and self-other processing. They suggest that justice sensitivity is better conceptualised as distinct motivations which can exert opposing influences on moral decision-making. Moreover, personal involvement may not be as important as individual justice motivations for explaining everyday moral decision-making.

Machine learning of brain gray matter differentiates sex in a large forensic sample.

Differences between males and females have been extensively documented in biological, psychological, and behavioral domains. Among these, sex differences in the rate and typology of antisocial behavior remains one of the most conspicuous and enduring patterns among humans. However, the nature and extent of sexual dimorphism in the brain among antisocial populations remains mostly unexplored. Here, we seek to understand sex differences in brain structure between incarcerated males and females in a large sample (n = 1,300) using machine learning. We apply source-based morphometry, a contemporary multivariate approach for quantifying gray matter measured with magnetic resonance imaging, and carry these parcellations forward using machine learning to classify sex. Models using components of brain gray matter volume and concentration were able to differentiate between males and females with greater than 93% generalizable accuracy. Highly differentiated components include orbitofrontal and frontopolar regions, proportionally larger in females, and anterior medial temporal regions proportionally larger in males. We also provide a complimentary analysis of a nonforensic healthy control sample and replicate our 93% sex discrimination. These findings demonstrate that the brains of males and females are highly distinguishable. Understanding sex differences in the brain has implications for elucidating variability in the incidence and progression of disease, psychopathology, and differences in psychological traits and behavior. The reliability of these differences confirms the importance of sex as a moderator of individual differences in brain structure and suggests future research should consider sex specific models.

Affective and interpersonal psychopathic traits associated with reduced corpus callosum volume among male inmates - RETRACTED.

BACKGROUND: Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with severe emotional and interpersonal consequences and persistent antisocial behavior. Neurobiological models of psychopathy emphasize impairments in emotional processing, attention, and integration of information across large-scale neural networks in the brain. One of the largest integrative hubs in the brain is the corpus callosum (CC) - a large white matter structure that connects the two cerebral hemispheres. METHOD: The current study examines CC volume, measured via Freesurfer parcellation, in a large sample (n = 495) of incarcerated men who were assessed for psychopathic traits using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). RESULTS: Psychopathy was associated with reduced volume across all five sub-regions of the CC. These relationships were primarily driven by the affective/interpersonal elements of psychopathy (PCL-R Factor 1), as no significant associations were found between the CC and the lifestyle/antisocial traits of psychopathy. The observed effects were not attributable to differences in substance use severity, age, IQ, or total brain volume. CONCLUSIONS: These findings align with suggestions that core psychopathic traits may be fostered by reduced integrative capacity across large-scale networks in the brain.

The development of children's preferences for equality and equity across 13 individualistic and collectivist cultures.

A concern for fairness is a fundamental and universal element of morality. To examine the extent to which cultural norms are integrated into fairness cognitions and influence social preferences regarding equality and equity, a large sample of children (N 2,163) aged 4-11 were tested in 13 diverse countries. Children participated in three versions of a third-party, contextualized distributive justice game between two hypothetical recipients differing in terms of wealth, merit, and empathy. Social decision-making in these games revealed universal age-related shifts from equality-based to equity-based distribution motivations across cultures. However, differences in levels of individualism and collectivism between the 13 countries predicted the age and extent to which children favor equity in each condition. Children from the most individualistic cultures endorsed equitable distributions to a greater degree than children from more collectivist cultures when recipients differed in regards to wealth and merit. However, in an empathy context where recipients differed in injury, children from the most collectivist cultures exhibited greater preferences to distribute resource equitably compared to children from more individualistic cultures. Children from the more individualistic cultures also favored equitable distributions at an earlier age than children from more collectivist cultures overall. These results demonstrate aspects of both cross-cultural similarity and divergence in the development of fairness preferences.

Third-Party Sociomoral Evaluations in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We examined explicit and implicit processes in response to third-party moral transgressions in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty 4- to 7-year-old children with ASD and 19 typically developing controls evaluated dynamic visual stimuli depicting intentional or accidental harm to persons or damage to objects. Moral evaluations, eye fixations, and pupil dilations toward the stimuli were collected. Results indicate a preserved capacity to understand the mental states of perpetrators and an implicit moral sensitivity to the third-party harms in children with ASD. Nonetheless, children with ASD showed specific sensitivity and emotional arousal when viewing damage to objects. These findings contribute to the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of moral reasoning in ASD and its possible association with the autistic symptoms.

Aberrant functional network connectivity in psychopathy from a large (N = 985) forensic sample.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by antisocial behavior, lack of remorse and empathy, and impaired decision making. The disproportionate amount of crime committed by psychopaths has severe emotional and economic impacts on society. Here we examine the neural correlates associated with psychopathy to improve early assessment and perhaps inform treatments for this condition. Previous resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in psychopathy have primarily focused on regions of interest. This study examines whole-brain functional connectivity and its association to psychopathic traits. Psychopathy was hypothesized to be characterized by aberrant functional network connectivity (FNC) in several limbic/paralimbic networks. Group-independent component and regression analyses were applied to a data set of resting-state fMRI from 985 incarcerated adult males. We identified resting-state networks (RSNs), estimated FNC between RSNs, and tested their association to psychopathy factors and total summary scores (Factor 1, interpersonal/affective; Factor 2, lifestyle/antisocial). Factor 1 scores showed both increased and reduced functional connectivity between RSNs from seven brain domains (sensorimotor, cerebellar, visual, salience, default mode, executive control, and attentional). Consistent with hypotheses, RSNs from the paralimbic system-insula, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, orbital frontal cortex, and superior temporal gyrus-were related to Factor 1 scores. No significant FNC associations were found with Factor 2 and total PCL-R scores. In summary, results suggest that the affective and interpersonal symptoms of psychopathy (Factor 1) are associated with aberrant connectivity in multiple brain networks, including paralimbic regions.

The development of cognitive empathy and concern in preschool children: A behavioral neuroscience investigation.

This developmental neuroscience study examined the electrophysiological responses (EEG and ERPs) associated with perspective taking and empathic concern in preschool children, as well as their relation to parental empathy dispositions and children's own prosocial behavior. Consistent with a body of previous studies using stimuli depicting somatic pain in both children and adults, larger early (~200 ms) ERPs were identified when perceiving painful versus neutral stimuli. In the slow wave window (~800 ms), a significant interaction of empathy condition and stimulus type was driven by a greater difference between painful and neutral images in the empathic concern condition. Across early development, children exhibited enhanced N2 to pain when engaging in empathic concern. Greater pain-elicited N2 responses in the cognitive empathy condition also related to parent dispositional empathy. Children's own prosocial behavior was predicted by several individual differences in neural function, including larger early LPP responses during cognitive empathy and greater differentiation in late LPP and slow wave responses to empathic concern versus affective perspective taking. Left frontal activation (greater alpha suppression) while engaging in affective perspective taking was also related to higher levels of parent cognitive empathy. Together, this multilevel analysis demonstrates the important distinction between facets of empathy in children; the value of examining neurobehavioral processes in development. It provides provoking links between children's neural functioning and parental dispositions in early development.

Children's neural processing of moral scenarios provides insight into the formation and reduction of in-group biases.

Survival is dependent on sociality within groups which ensure sustenance and protection. From an early age, children show a natural tendency to sort people into groups and discriminate among them. The computations guiding evaluation of third-party behaviors are complex, requiring integration of intent, consequences, and knowledge of group affiliation. This study examined how perceiving third-party morally laden behavior influences children's likelihood to exhibit or reduce group bias. Following a minimal group paradigm assignment, young children (4-7 years) performed a moral evaluation task where group affiliations and moral actions were systematically juxtaposed, so that they were exposed to disproportionately antisocial in-group and prosocial out-group scenarios. Electroencephalography was recorded, and group preference was assessed with a resource allocation game before and after the EEG session. Across all children, evaluations of others' moral actions arose from early and automatic processing (~150 ms), followed by later interactive processing of affiliation and moral valence (~500 ms). Importantly, individual differences in bias manifestation and attitude change were predicted by children's neural responses. Children with high baseline bias selectively exhibited a rapid detection (~200 ms) of scenarios inconsistent with their bias (in-group harm and out-group help). Changes in bias corresponded to distinct patterns in longer latency neural processing. These new developmental neuroscience findings elucidate the multifaceted processing involved in moral evaluation of others' actions, their group affiliations, the nature of the integration of both into full judgments, and the relation of individual differences in neural responses to social decision-making in childhood.

A Developmental Neuroscience Study of Moral Decision Making Regarding Resource Allocation.

Distinguishing between equity and equality is essential when making social and moral decisions, yet the related neurodevelopmental processes are unknown. Evaluations of contextually based third-party distributions incorporating recipient need and resource importance were examined in children and adolescents (N = 82; 8-16 years). Spatiotemporal neurodynamic responses show distinct developmental profiles to viewing such distributions. Event-related potentials (ERPs) differentially predicted real-life behaviors based on age, where older children's (8-10 years) evaluations were related to a fairly rapid, automatic ERP component (early posterior negativity), whereas adolescent and preadolescent (11-16 years) evaluations, first-person allocations, and prosocial behaviors were predicted by later, cognitively controlled ERP components (P3 and late positive potential). Together, these results reveal age-related changes regarding the neural responses that correspond to distributive justice decisions.