Moral judgments can be altered by disrupting specific brain region
“Previous studies have shown that a brain region known as the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) is highly active when we think about other people’s intentions, thoughts and beliefs. In the new study, the researchers disrupted activity in the right TPJ by inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp. They found that the subjects’ ability to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people’s intentions — for example, a failed murder attempt — was impaired.”
There is, it seems, a switch for everything. It’s just a matter of finding the hand that can flip it. In this case, it’s a magnetic field. Hard to believe concepts like right and wrong are tied so closely to biological reactions. Tweak them, and I wonder if crimes are made easier to commit.
If human beings lacked volition, I might be tempted to call us human machines.