ArticleScientific reports2017
The behavioral and neural basis of empathic blame.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Empathy and moral judgment: Systematic review and meta-analysis of ERP studies.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on pain empathy: investigating the role of visual information and observers' perspective.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Tryptophan-enriched diet or 5-hydroxytryptophan supplementation given in a randomized controlled trial impacts social cognition on a neural and behavioral level.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- The prefrontal cortex and (uniquely) human cooperation: a comparative perspective.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Review
- Reasoning supports forgiving accidental harms.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The Critical Role of the Right Dorsal and Ventral Anterior Insula in Reciprocity: Evidence From the Trust and Ultimatum Games.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
- Volitional Modulation of the Left DLPFC Neural Activity Based on a Pain Empathy Paradigm-A Potential Novel Therapeutic Target for Pain.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Article
- Effects of early adversity and social discrimination on empathy for complex mental states: An fMRI investigation.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Cognitive-Emotional and Inhibitory Deficits as a Window to Moral Decision-Making Difficulties Related to Exposure to Violence.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Review
- Increased moral condemnation of accidental harm in institutionalized adolescents.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- The neuroscience of morality and social decision-making.Psychology, crime & law : PC & L · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mature moral judgments rely both on a perpetrator's intent to cause harm, and also on the actual harm caused-even when unintended. Much prior research asks how intent information is represented neurally, but little asks how even unintended harms influence judgment. We interrogate the psychological and neural basis of this process, focusing especially on the role of empathy for the victim of a harmful act. Using fMRI, we found that the 'empathy for pain' network was involved in encoding harmful outcomes and integrating harmfulness information for different types of moral judgments, and individual differences in the extent to which this network was active during encoding and integration of harmfulness information determined severity of moral judgments. Additionally, activity in the network was down-regulated for acceptability, but not blame, judgments for accidental harm condition, suggesting that these two types of moral evaluations are neurobiologically dissociable. These results support a model of "empathic blame", whereby the perceived suffering of a victim colors moral judgment of an accidental harmdoer.
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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.