title: Moral dilemmas in cognitive neuroscience of moral decision-making: a principled review.
abstract: Moral dilemma tasks have been a much appreciated experimental paradigm in empirical studies on moral cognition for decades and have, more recently, also become a preferred paradigm in the field of cognitive neuroscience of moral decision-making. Yet, studies using moral dilemmas suffer from two main shortcomings: they lack methodological homogeneity which impedes reliable comparisons of results across studies, thus making a metaanalysis manifestly impossible; and second, they overlook control of relevant design parameters. In this paper, we review from a principled standpoint the studies that use moral dilemmas to approach the psychology of moral judgment and its neural underpinnings. We present a systematic review of 19 experimental design parameters that can be identified in moral dilemmas. Accordingly, our analysis establishes a methodological basis for the required homogeneity between studies and suggests the consideration of experimental aspects that have not yet received much attention despite their relevance.
authors.affiliation: Human Evolution and Cognition, Associated Unit to the IFISC (CSIC-UIB), Department of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, University Campus, Building: Guillem Cifre de Colonya, 07122 Palma, Spain.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gomila
mesh_terms: D019336:Cognitive Science; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D003710:Demography; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D009014:Morals; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009488:Neurosciences