An event related potential study of the role of religious commitment in the neural processing of moral judgements

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how religious commitment impacts the neural processing of morally laden information. Event-related potentials were recorded while 35 participants, scoring either high or low on the Religious Commitment Inventory-10, read scenarios describing a social interaction with one of three endings: moral violations, conventional violations, or neutral acts. Participants judged all scenarios as either “OK” or “Not OK.” Right brain hemisphere amplitudes were significantly larger than the left hemisphere for participants with high religious commitment. This finding suggests those with high religious commitment may process morally laden stimuli less abstractly and more veridically than those with low religious commitment.