Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23887810›Full record

ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2014

An fMRI investigation of the effects of belief in free will on third-party punishment.

Frank Krueger, Morris Hoffman, Henrik Walter, Jordan Grafman

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Neurobiological Mechanisms of Responding to Injustice.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2018
    Trial
  2. Free will belief predicts everyday punitiveness across 44 countries.The British journal of social psychology · 2026
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  16. Neurolaw: A brief introduction.Iranian journal of neurology · 2015
    Article
  17. Neural systems involved in moral judgment and moral action.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2014
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Frank KruegerMolecular Neuroscience Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, District Judge, Second Judicial District, State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Nashville, TN, USA,Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and Brain Injury Research Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USAMolecular Neuroscience Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, District Judge, Second Judicial District, State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Nashville, TN, USA,Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and Brain Injury Research Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA FKrueger@gmu.edu.
Morris HoffmanMolecular Neuroscience Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, District Judge, Second Judicial District, State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Nashville, TN, USA,Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and Brain Injury Research Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USAMolecular Neuroscience Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, District Judge, Second Judicial District, State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Nashville, TN, USA,Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and Brain Injury Research Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Henrik WalterMolecular Neuroscience Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, District Judge, Second Judicial District, State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Nashville, TN, USA,Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and Brain Injury Research Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Jordan GrafmanMolecular Neuroscience Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, District Judge, Second Judicial District, State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Nashville, TN, USA,Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and Brain Injury Research Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

Funding

Intramural NIH HHS
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The relationship between belief in free will (BFW) and third-party punishment (TPP) of criminal norm violations has been the subject of great debate among philosophers, criminologists and neuroscientists. We combined a TPP task with functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how lay people's BFW might affect their punishment of hypothetical criminal offenses varying in affective content. Our results revealed that people with strong BFW punished more harshly than people with weak BFW, but only in low affective cases, likely driven by a more robust commitment to moral responsibility. This effect was mirrored by a stronger activation in the right temporo-parietal junction, a region presumably involved in attentional selection to salient stimuli and attribution of temporary intentions and beliefs of others. But, for high affective cases, the BFW-based behavioral and neural differences disappeared. Both groups similarly punished high affective cases and showed higher activation in the right insula. The right insula is typically activated during aversive interoceptive-emotional processing for extreme norm violations. Our results demonstrated that the impact of BFW on TPP is context-dependent; perhaps explaining in part why the philosophical debate between free will and determinism is so stubbornly persistent.

Indexed as

CulturePersonal AutonomyAdultBrainBrain MappingCriminal LawEmotionsFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMental ProcessesNeuropsychological TestsPunishmentcriminal lawfree willneurolawsocial cognition

Identifiers

PMID23887810
PMCPMC4127017

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.