Tech | April 01, 2010 | 7 comments

Scientists discover how to ‘turn off’ brain’s morality center

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Monkey_Films
The End of Soldiers free will!

ObeyOrdersSoldierNoConstitution

Author: Agence France-Presse

Source: The Raw Story

Date: March 30, 2010

People’s moral judgment can be altered by disrupting part of the brain, a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) disrupted activity in the right temporo-parietal junction, or TPJ, which is above and behind the right ear and is usually highly active when we think about what we believe the outcome of a particular act will be.

The researchers disrupted the TPJ by inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp and got study participants to read a series of scenarios posing moral conundrums.

In one scenario, a person called Grace and her friend are taking a tour of a chemical plant when Grace stops at the coffee machine.

Grace’s friend asks her to get her a coffee with sugar.

A container by the coffee machine is marked ‘toxic’ but contains plain old sugar — but Grace doesn’t know that.

She believes the white powder in the container is toxic but puts it in her friend’s coffee anyway. Her friend is unharmed because the substance was sugar.

Participants in the study were asked to judge on a scale of one to seven, with one being “absolutely forbidden” and seven “absolutely permissible,” if they thought what Grace and other protagonists in other scenarios did was morally acceptable.

Two experiments were conducted: during one, participants were asked to judge the scenarios’ characters after having magnetic pulses sent to their TPJs for 25 minutes, and in the other they passed judgment while undergoing very short bursts of magnetic interference.

In both experiments, disrupting normal neural activity in the right TPJ switched off the part of people’s moral judgment mechanism that looks at the protagonists’ beliefs.

When the right TPJ was disrupted, participants were more likely to judge as morally permissible failed attempts to harm another person than were control participants whose right TPJs were not tinkered with.

“When activity in the right TPJ is disrupted, participants’ moral judgments shift toward a ‘no harm, no foul’ mentality,” even though the participants should have given characters like Grace a mark in the forbidden range because they believed their actions would cause harm, the study says.
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7 comments // Scientists discover how to ‘turn off’ brain’s morality center

  • crispyfritters
  • Monkey_Films
  • bking74
    • +1
      bking74  
    • When I first read this I was sure it was left wing paranoia so I did a quick search for alternative sources of information. Sure enough, four days ago MIT itself publish it's results on it's ability to influence (not truly "Turn Off") a subject's morality center or TPJ.
      http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/moral-control-0330

      This is a truly scary field of research. I can see the benefits, mentally manipulate dangerous or anti-social behavior in the brains of criminals or the mentally ill. But, who is going to decide the limits or this manipulation, if it can abused it will be. As far as society fearing "An Army of Morally Empty Robot Soldiers" that is just insane. The Military already has an extremely effective method to transform civilians into soldiers ready to carry out orders that most people would find barbaric or evil. The Military completely breaks down and rebuilds a new recruits entire belief system and method of thinking. The Military then rebuilds the recruit to think and behave in an effective and uniform method. I am speaking from first hand knowledge of the ability of the U.S Military to transform a person's belief systems, with the abilities to take horrors in stride, and get the impossible done with an unrelenting and focussed intensity. The Military needs its soldiers to retain a powerful streak of free will and morality, it is from this well of personal strength the modern soldier draws upon during times of crisis. A soldier who has his/her brain morality center manipulated would be a just another piece of equipment and equipment breaks downs. An argument could be made that the military is already morally corrupt and if so what further crimes against humanity does the U.S Military hope to achieve with using TPJ technology?

    • 2 years ago
  • Monkey_Films
  • PressCore
    • +1
      PressCore  
    • I noticed that there are 6 TV networks in the picture above noted.
      With 5 parts shit to 1 part bona fide news that's as classic a ratio
      for mind control as any I can think of. (Keep it simple stupid, duhhh)
      Here's a rational thought. DON'T WATCH TV. AKA KEEP A LID ON
      THE METAL GARBAGE CAN AND STARVE THE GOD DAMNED TV
      RODENTS. Anyone who hasn't been so dumned down by shit TV
      that they can still know the difference between misrepresented
      entertainment and uncensored hard news which the public has a
      legitimate need to know that the sponsors don't first have to approve,
      can tell you the reason you're being mind controlled is because neither
      they nor you ever had a mind worth loosing in the first place.Because
      if you need to be told the news like children being spoon fed pablum
      then you either can't read or you're too lazy to read. Either of which
      makes you a basket case, and a disgrace as a responsible citizen in a
      democratic republic anyway. Try reading a book before your brain cells
      get to be so atophied they can't anymore. Then the only one who can
      & will think for you is you. PT Barnham was born before the advent of TV,
      but you can bet he saw those commercial Corporate turds coming.
      He knew that for every moment, there's one sucker born, and a carny
      & shill to take their money(or mind). It's easier for them to take your money
      if they can take your mind first, because to them you're their market, and their
      property. Separating you from your money is only a formality once they
      control your mind. Because once they have your mind they're guaranteed
      to have your money anyway. Wise up.

    • 2 years ago
  • good_stuff
  • Dersex
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