Moral Enhancement Should Target Self-Interest and Cognitive Capacity
Neuroethics – April 26, 2017
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Moral enhancement might be more effective by decreasing self-interested motivation than by directly increasing prosociality or empathy. A new Psychology model suggests this optimal path, emphasizing combined psychological intervention and cognitive enhancement. Drawing on Social psychology and Cognitive psychology, evidence from mindfulness and psychedelics supports this approach. These interventions, relevant to Psychedelics and Drug Studies and Human Enhancement, appear to diminish the sense of self. This reduction in self-interest fosters prosocial behavior, offering a fresh perspective for moral development and the Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment.
Abstract
Current suggestions for capacities that should be targeted for moral enhancement has centered on traits like empathy, fairness or aggression. The literature, however, lacks a proper model for understanding the interplay and complexity of moral capacities, which limits the practicability of proposed interventions. In this paper, I integrate some existing knowledge on the nature of human moral behavior and present a formal model of prosocial motivation. The model provides two important results regarding the most friction-free route to moral enhancement. First, we should consider decreasing self-interested motivation rather than increasing prosociality directly. Second, this should be complemented with cognitive enhancement. These suggestions are tested against existing and emerging evidence on cognitive capacity, mindfulness meditation and the effects of psychedelic drugs and are found to have sufficient grounding for further theoretical and empirical exploration. Furthermore, moral effects of the latter two are hypothesized to result from a diminished sense of self with subsequent reductions in self-interest.