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Common Medications Sway Moral Judgment
sciencehabit sends news that two commonly-prescribed drugs have been shown to influence how the human brain makes moral decisions. Citalopram is an SSRI used to treat depression, and levodopa is often used to combat Parkinson's disease. A new study (abstract) asked subjects to set a monetary value on receiving painful electric shocks — for themselves and for others (e.g. "Would you rather endure seven shocks to earn $10 or 10 shocks to earn $15?"). The study found that subjects on citalopram (which affects serotonin levels) were willing to give up more money to reduce shocks, both for themselves and others. Those on levodopa (which affects dopamine levels) made people just as willing to shock others as they were to shock themselves, when those on a placebo tended to be more reluctant to shock others.
[Neuroscientist Molly] Crockett says those effects could suggests multiple underlying mechanisms. For example, excess dopamine might make our brain's reward system more responsive to the prospect of avoiding personal harm. Or it could tamp down our sense of uncertainty about what another person is experiencing, making us less hesitant to dole out pain. Serotonin, meanwhile, appeared to have a more general effect on aversion to harm, not just a heightened concern for another person. Such knowledge could eventually develop drugs that address disorders of social behavior, she says.
Unfathomable! Stop the press!
I bet if you did a study on how sleep, hunger, low-level chronic pain, being annoyed (e.g. arriving late at work after being stuck in traffic), or just about anything else affected moral thinking, I bet you would find most things that affect emotions also affect moral decision-making. I know from a lifetime of empirical study on myself that sleep, hunger, etc. do affect my emotions and general decision-making. I have not studied my moral decision-making in light of these factors enough to draw a firm conclusion. Since the sample size (n=1) is small and there was no control group, I hesitate to extrapolate even the results that I do have to the general population. More study is required.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I want to be on the committee that decides what sort of behavior justifies drug intervention.
Have gnu, will travel.
Did anyone seriously doubt that psychoactive drugs can and do affect just about all decision making processes ?
This isn't new.
Side effects of SSRI based anti-depressants - in addition to subduing the creative thought process and destroying the sex drive - include what has been termed emotional blunting.
In effect, blunting erodes one's ability to feel emotional response or empathy - such as being able to feel the 'warm fuzzies' in a relationship. This is a very dangerous road that can lead to sociopathy.
The stated side effects of SSRI based anti-depressants also include violent and/or suicidal behavior.
It is also interesting to note that the majority of mass shooters in the last 25 years have been under the influence of - or withdrawing from - SSRI based anti-depressents. John DeCamp, lawyer for the Columbine shooters, and author of The Franklin Cover-up, attempted to use the side effects of SSRI's as a defense. Details here.
Simply put, these drugs are terrible and should never have been allowed to be marketed.
Instead of reaching for pills, people with depression should instead get some regular exercise, a good diet and a positive attitude.
Pills are not the answer. Especially these pills.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
, but that the patent protection is long since expired.
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I'm seeing a lot of negative postings about unnecessary drugs and implying doctor's don't know what they're doing. I went through an episode about a year ago where if I tried to sleep my face would start burning. If I got up, it would fade away. I suffered on roughly one hour's sleep per night for a year before I went to see a doctor. The solution was to take one pill per day, and in a few weeks I was sleeping full nights again. It took years to recover though, because that level of extended sleep deprivation is very damaging. Even now, I'm still not quite as sharp as I was before.
When I look back I can see how stupid I was. I suffered that entire year, and had years of recovery, for nothing. Why? Because people who don't have a hot clue about psychology said that the doctors don't know what they're doing, the medicine is as bad as the disease, those pills are over-prescribed, etc. etc. But guess what? If your meds turn out to have bad side effects you can stop taking them, or just ask for different ones. Such a simple thing. And yet so many people who could benefit from them are turned away by fear, uncertainty and doubt.
When someone uses the phrase "common drugs" it is assumed that they are OTC drugs that are commonly found in people's homes. There is nothing "common" about either of the drugs in the summary unless you are being treated for depression or Parkinson's disease! Way to go with the tabloid headline writing and the death of editorial ethics in its entirety on /.
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"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."