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How obeying orders impacts moral decision-making remains an open question, despite its significant societal implications. The goal of this study was to determine if cognitive conflict, indexed by mid-frontal theta activity observed before an action, is influenced by the context of obedience. Participants came in pairs and were assigned roles as either agent or victim. Those in the agent role could either decide freely or follow the experimenter's instructions to administer (or refrain from administering) a mildly painful electric shock to the victim in exchange for a small monetary reward. Mid-frontal theta activity was recorded before the agent made their keypress. Results indicated that mid-frontal theta activity was reduced when participants obeyed the experimenter's orders compared to when they acted of their own volition, even though the outcomes of the actions were similar. This finding suggests that obeying orders diminishes cognitive conflict preceding moral decisions that could harm another person. This study sheds light on a potential mechanism explaining how obedience can blurr morality and lessen our natural aversion to harming others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical scientific and societal challenge involves developing and evaluating interventions that reduce prejudice towards outgroups. Video games appear to be a promising method, but several holes in the current scientific literature prevent fully understanding the sizeable potential impact of video games on reducing prejudice. The present study investigated to what extent a video game designed to reduce prejudice towards minorities in a fictional society has the potential to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities. Participants played either a recently developed game designed to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities (hereafter referred to as the test game) or a control game. After playing at home, participants performed two tasks in a lab context. We observed overall a positive effect of playing the test game compared to the control game on attenuating prejudice towards an outgroup individual. We indeed observed that players of the control game had increased midfrontal theta activity, reflecting a higher degree of cognitive conflict when they acted prosociality towards the outgroup participant and a lower neural response to the outgroup participant's pain than compared to the ingroup participants. These effects were attenuated for players of the test game. We also observed that players of the test game had a higher sense of agency when they decided to help the outgroup participant than when they did not help the outgroup participant, an effect not observable in control game players. These results are promising as they support evidence that using fictional characters in video games may induce positive changes toward non-fictional individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying what factors influence the ability to resonate with the pain of others in the aftermath of a genocide and how this extends to the following generation is critical to better understand the perpetuation of conflicts. In the present study conducted in Rwanda, we recruited former genocide perpetrators and survivors, and their respective children and investigated how their neural response to the pain of others is modulated when they visualized pictures of former perpetrators or survivors, or their offspring. We further evaluated how the impact of the genocide and psychological factors associated with trauma influenced the results. Results showed that the intergroup empathy bias--that is, a reduced neural response to the pain of the outgroup--is present for both individuals alive during the genocide and their offspring. We also observed that a higher number of stressors experienced during the genocide was associated with a higher reduction of the neural response to the pain of others, even toward the children of one's own ingroup. Finally, we observed that a deliberate and free decision to reconcile is associated with a higher neural response to the pain of others. The results may be central to encouraging reconciliation in peacebuilding programs and to fostering empathic repair after trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]