Moral cognition · Neuroscience

Research

A decade studying how people judge harm, forgive accidents, and help strangers, alongside software for reproducible research.

Press

“We May Have Been Wrong About Autism And Empathy”

— HuffPost, on our study of moral decision-making in autism

Press coverage includes Time, HuffPost, and Vice. See Publications for the full bibliography.

Three lines of enquiry

Research Lines

Moral Judgement About Harm: Emotion, Reasoning, and Their Interplay

When avoiding harm conflicts with maximising welfare, emotional harm aversion and reasoned cost-benefit analysis compete. My research examines what tips the balance.

Key findings

Across eight independent studies, reasoning ability predicts utilitarian choices independently of aversion to causing harm^[1]
Psychopathy's link to utilitarian judgement reflects reduced aversion to performing harmful acts, not its accompanying reduction in concern for victims^[3]
People who reject sacrificing one to save many in written dilemmas nevertheless do so in emotionally arousing virtual reality^[4]
Reasoning ability predicts leniency for accidental harm, but not intentional or attempted harm^[2]

Dual-process theoryMoral dilemmasfMRIVirtual realityBehavioural experiments

Relevant Publications (4)

[1] Patil, I.^* , Zucchelli, M.M.^*, Kool, W., Campbell, S., Fornasier, F., Calò, M., Silani, G., Cikara, M., & Cushman, F.A.. (2021). Reasoning supports utilitarian resolutions to moral dilemmas across diverse measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(2), 443–460.
[2] Patil, I., & Tremolière, B.. (2021). Reasoning supports forgiving accidental harms. Scientific Reports, 11:14418.
[3] Patil, I.. (2015). Trait psychopathy and utilitarian moral judgment: The mediating role of action aversion. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 27(3), 349–366.
[4] Patil, I., Cogoni, C., Zangrando, N., Chittaro, L., & Silani, G.. (2014). Affective basis of judgment-behavior discrepancy in virtual experiences of moral dilemmas. Social Neuroscience, 9(1), 94–107.

Find PDFs, supplementary materials, and data on the Publications page.

Empathy, Prosociality, and the Neural Basis of Moral Emotion

Empathic concern for victims shapes blame and helping, with distinct neural signatures for each.

Key findings

The pain-empathy network encodes outcome severity and drives blame, but contributes differently to acceptability judgements^[3]
Grey matter volume in the left anterior STS, a theory-of-mind region, predicts willingness to forgive accidents; the previously emphasised temporo-parietal junction does not^[4]
Costly personal sacrifices to rescue others in a virtual emergency are associated with a larger right anterior insula, a region central to empathic motivation^[2]
Across 24 studies (21,000+ participants), compensating victims earned more reputational benefit than punishing perpetrators by signalling genuine prosocial character^[1]

Intent-outcome matrix for moral scenarios

fMRINeuroimagingProsocialityAltruismThird-party punishmentEmpathy

Relevant Publications (4)

[1] Dhaliwal, N.A.^*, Patil, I.^* , & Cushman, F.A.. (2021). Reputational and cooperative benefits of third-party compensation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 164, 27–51.
[2] Patil, I., Zanon, M.^*, Novembre, G.^*, Zangrando, N., Chittaro, L., & Silani, G.. (2018). Neuroanatomical basis of concern-based altruism in virtual environment. Neuropsychologia, 116, 34–43.
[3] Patil, I., Calò, M., Fornasier, F., Cushman, F.^*, & Silani, G.^*. (2017). The behavioral and neural basis of empathic blame. Scientific Reports, 7:5200.
[4] Patil, I., Calò, M.^*, Fornasier, F.^*, Young, L., & Silani, G.. (2017). Neuroanatomical correlates of forgiving unintentional harms. Scientific Reports, 7:45967.

Find PDFs, supplementary materials, and data on the Publications page.

Individual Differences: Personality, Psychopathology, and Moral Judgement

Moral judgements vary with stable differences in emotional and cognitive processing.

Key findings

Alexithymia (difficulty identifying one's emotions) reduces empathic concern and increases acceptance of harmful acts, especially unintentional ones^[5]^[6]
In autistic adults, autistic traits increase harm aversion while co-occurring alexithymia reduces empathic concern; opposing effects can mask differences in group averages^[3]
People with multiple sclerosis judge others' violations more harshly than controls, explained by elevated cognitive alexithymia rather than disease-specific neurological changes^[2]
People with anxiety disorders show intact moral judgement and report no heightened emotion during dilemmas, suggesting clinical arousal differs from the emotion shaping moral judgement^[1]

AlexithymiaPsychopathyAutismMultiple sclerosisAnxietyIndividual differences

Relevant Publications (6)

[1] Patil, I.^* , Larsen, E.^*, Kichic, R., & Gleichgerrcht, E.. (2020). Moral cognition about harm in anxiety disorders: The Importance of Experienced Emotion. Psychological Reports, 124(6), 2501–2523.
[2] Patil, I., Young, L., Sinay, V., & Gleichgerrcht, E.. (2017). Elevated moral condemnation of third-party violations in multiple sclerosis patients. Social Neuroscience, 12(3), 308–329.
[3] Patil, I.^* , Melsbach, J.^*, Hennig-Fast, K., & Silani, G.. (2016). Divergent roles of autistic and alexithymic traits in utilitarian moral judgments in adults with autism. Scientific Reports, 6:23637.
[4] Patil, I.. (2015). Trait psychopathy and utilitarian moral judgment: The mediating role of action aversion. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 27(3), 349–366.
[5] Patil, I., & Silani, G.. (2014). Alexithymia increases moral acceptability of accidental harms. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(5), 597–614.
[6] Patil, I., & Silani, G.. (2014). Reduced empathic concern leads to utilitarian moral judgments in trait alexithymia. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:501.

Find PDFs, supplementary materials, and data on the Publications page.

Open tools

Research Software

The tools I built to answer my own research questions soon outgrew them.

My open-source R and Python packages support statistical visualisation, analysis, and reporting, alongside developer tools for reliable research code. They are used across fields, from ecology to clinical trials.

Explore the open-source work