Lost your prefrontal lobe? Out of the boat!
From a Caltech press release: Study implies certain types of brain damage can improve utilitarian moral judgments
The study constrained itself to “utilitarian moral judgments” which were themselves limited to having only two allowed answers, so maybe people with damaged prefrontal cortexes (cortexen?) are just faster at choosing between two options. You should read the paper and let me know. I’m not going to bother :) Here’s an excerpt from the press release, though.
Quick response! What’s the best thing to do on a lifeboat with one too many people on board? Should one throw a mortally injured person overboard to ensure definite survival for everyone else, or refuse to act and ensure certain death for all individuals in the boat?
If you said “throw the injured person overboard”, science has concluded that you have brain damage.
