英语听力文摘 English Digest 699 大脑哪个部分与做道德决策有关？

（单词翻译）

Where Does The Brain Process Moral Decisions?

Ya?l And Don Try An Experiment…

Don: Ya?l, suppose there’s a trolley¹ that’s about to run over five people. Do you flip² the switch that will steer³ the trolley onto a different track if that means only one person will die?

Ya?l: I sure would.

Don: Okay, now what if the only way you can save those five people is by pushing the stranger next to you into the trolley’s path?

Ya?l: Yuck, Don. That would be wrong.

Don: You know, Ya?l, most people, when asked this question, answered the same way. And moral philosophers and psychologists have been trying to figure out why. After all, in both cases, one person dies to save five.

Inside The Science

In one study, scientists discovered that these two scenarios⁴ are processed by different parts of the brain. Flipping⁶ a switch, because it’s more impersonal⁷, activates⁸ the part of the brain associated with memory. But the more personal scenario⁵ that requires actively⁹ killing¹⁰ a person activates the part of the brain associated with emotions.

Scientists speculate that a lot of our gut¹¹ reactions to moral dilemmas¹² may be affected¹³ by our upbringing. After all, as children we internalize the emotional reactions of those around us and store them in emotional brain circuits. Then, later, when we encounter a moral problem, these automatic gut feelings guide our decision-making.

Scientists hope that by figuring out how the brain behaves when people wrestle¹⁴ with difficult issues, we’ll be able to understand how people with different backgrounds reach different conclusions on when it’s okay to take a life. And everyone knows we could use a little more understanding.