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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 30, 2026

Assessment of Mouse Judgment Bias through an Olfactory Digging Task

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Published on: March 4, 2022

Utilitarian moral judgment in psychopathy.

Michael Koenigs¹, Michael Kruepke, Joshua Zeier

¹Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 6001 Research Park Blvd., Madison, WI 53719, USA. mrkoenigs@wisc.edu

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

|July 20, 2011

Summary

Psychopaths show distinct moral judgment differences, particularly low-anxious psychopaths who favor utilitarian choices. This research highlights the importance of considering psychopathic subtypes in moral decision-making studies.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Criminology

Background:

Psychopathic behavior is often characterized as amoral.
Previous research has not consistently identified differences in moral judgment between psychopaths and non-psychopaths.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate moral judgment differences between psychopathic subtypes.
To explore if phenotypic heterogeneity impacts moral decision-making in psychopaths.

Main Methods:

Study involved three groups of incarcerated individuals: low-anxious psychopaths, high-anxious psychopaths, and non-psychopaths.
Participants completed a moral judgment test using hypothetical dilemmas involving personal (direct harm) or impersonal (indirect harm) actions.

Main Results:

Both psychopath groups were more likely to endorse impersonal actions compared to non-psychopaths.
Low-anxious psychopaths uniquely endorsed personal harms when it maximized overall welfare (utilitarian choice).
High-anxious psychopaths and non-psychopaths showed no significant difference in personal moral judgments.

Conclusions:

Provides laboratory evidence of abnormal moral judgment in psychopaths.
Supports the significance of differentiating psychopathic subtypes in research.
Suggests distinct moral processing in low-anxious versus high-anxious psychopaths.