Chapter 9: The Neural Basis Of Morality

The interest in ethical and, especially, unethical behaviour is rapidly increasing as witnessed by the many articles published in magazines and news papers on fraud, corruption and bad CEO behaviour. To understand how people come to violate ethical and moral norms, it is important to arrive at a better understanding of how and why people come to behave in an ethical manner in the first place. In this chapter, we will show that moral behaviour is deeply rooted in our biological system. Throughout our evolution as human beings, the social group that we belong to has played a role of central importance: belonging to a well functioning social group is essential for the survival of the individual. It is therefore not surprising that we have developed specialized biological and neural systems that allow us to function successfully within these social groups. These neural systems are proposed to form the basis of what we now call moral behaviour: taking into account the interests and integrity of individuals other than ourselves and the strong disapproval of behaviour that would harm others or would compromise our group.