Higher Levels of Moral Reasoning Stoke Brain's Gray Matter, Study

In an interesting, new discovery, individuals who have higher levels of moral reasoning skills have more gray matter in those areas of the brain that are involved in "complex social behavior, decision making, and conflict processing " as opposed to those who have lower levels of moral reasoning, said a study by the psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg.

The moral development research revealed that even as the cognitive abilities improve, the people progress through various phases of moral reasoning, according to medindia.

Hengyi Rao, research assistant professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, said, "The new study adds an investigation of individual differences in moral reasoning to the expanding landscape of moral neuroscience."

After studying MBA students between 24 to 33 years at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, Diana Robertson, Professor and author, said: "MBA students were ideal candidates for this work as the Wharton curriculum addresses issues of moral decision-making and reasoning."

With MRI scanning, students were able to detect variations in the gray matter volume between students who reached the post-conventional level of moral reasoning compared to those who have not reached that level yet. They also underwent personality testing and were placed into one of the following categories: "neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness and agreeableness."

It was seen that higher scores in openness to experience and lower scores in neuroticism for study participants at the more advanced levels of moral development. With regard to brain structure, the research team observed increased gray matter in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain in subjects who reached the post-conventional level of moral reasoning compared to those who are still at a pre-conventional and conventional level. In other words, gray matter volume in the brain was correlated with the subject's degree of post-conventional thinking.

The study has helped to show brain structural difference on the stages of moral reasoning, with a study published in PLOS ONE.