Updated: 16/06/2025 por Jennifer Delgado | Published: 17/09/2024
When people join a group, they feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves, and sometimes this feeling leads them to disconnect from their moral values and to make decisions and perform actions that they would never have done if they had been alone. Or at least that is what we have been able to observe throughout many centuries of history.
Now a very interesting study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University has delved deeper into this phenomenon to help us understand how it is possible for “good” people to commit evil acts or ignore their moral principles.
This study compared how people’s brains worked when they were alone and when they were in a group. The research was inspired by an experience the experimenter herself had at a football match. On that occasion, her husband was wearing his team’s cap but was surrounded by fans of the opposing team and was showered with obscenities.
The psychologist thought that by wearing the cap herself, the men would be a little more careful with their language, out of respect for the fact that she was a woman. But that was not what happened. At that moment, the psychologist wondered if there was some secret neurological reason.
When “me versus you” becomes “us versus them”
Basically, there are two fundamental reasons why people behave differently when they are part of a group, these are:
1. They feel anonymous
2. They believe that they are less likely to be punished for misbehaving
However, in this study they wanted to go a step further; the researchers asked themselves whether our moral compass also loses its way when we are in a group.
They asked a number of people to answer questions that offered insight into their moral sense. In this way, the researchers were able to create personalized statements such as: “I have stolen food from a communal refrigerator ” or “I always apologize after bumping into someone.”
The subjects then simply immersed themselves in a game, and as they did so, their brains were scanned. The difference was that in some cases they played alone and in others they were part of a team.
What were the results?
When people played the game alone and saw the moral judgments, their brains showed increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area associated with thinking about ourselves. These results are not surprising considering that people identified deeply with the statements they were shown.
What was surprising was that when people played in a group, these same moral statements generated a less intense response, suggesting a weaker degree of identification with their own ideals and beliefs.
The diffusion of the self
According to researchers, our moral judgments become more flexible when we are part of a group because we feel that our personality is diluted. We become anonymous people because our priorities change from “me” to “we.” Consequently, we adapt our values to the beliefs of the masses, which has repercussions even at the brain level. This transformation becomes a boomerang because by no longer recognizing certain values as our own, we do not feel remorse and we give free rein to dishonest or even violent behavior.
Reference:
Cikara, M. et. Al. (2014) Reduced self-referential neural response during intergroup competition predicts competitor harm. NeuroImage; 96(1): 36-43.
