{"id":{"repo_id":"unf","oai_identifier":"oai:digitalcommons.unf.edu:etd-1662"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/unf/oai:digitalcommons.unf.edu:etd-1662","repository":{"repo_id":"unf","name":"University of North Florida","base_url":"https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Pain and Principle: The Effects of Nociceptive Stimuli on Moral Decision Making","abstract":"As both a Working Memory (WM) task and as a more integrated reasoning process, moral decision making appears susceptible to interference by nociceptive stimuli. Differentiation, however, between conflicting occupation of WM resources and the influence of pain-induced autonomic activation as potential pathways of interaction represents a considerably more difficult task than simple measurement of WM performance. To clarify the basis of any noted effects, this study recorded both self-report pain intensity and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) as a separate measure of autonomic activation under a cold pressor task using a sample of 122 undergraduate participants. Recorded pain and physiological data was compared to rates of utilitarian decision making in the provided moral dilemmas. While there were significantly lower rates of utilitarian decision making in the pain condition, a warm-water painless condition showed comparably decreased rates. Comparison with GSR data suggests that the pain condition did not induce a significantly heightened state of autonomic activation. This suggests that while divided attention or occupation of WM resources does effect patterns of moral decision making, this is not reliant on a nociceptive stimulus.","abstract_html":"As both a Working Memory (WM) task and as a more integrated reasoning process, moral decision making appears susceptible to interference by nociceptive stimuli. Differentiation, however, between conflicting occupation of WM resources and the influence of pain-induced autonomic activation as potential pathways of interaction represents a considerably more difficult task than simple measurement of WM performance. To clarify the basis of any noted effects, this study recorded both self-report pain intensity and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) as a separate measure of autonomic activation under a cold pressor task using a sample of 122 undergraduate participants. Recorded pain and physiological data was compared to rates of utilitarian decision making in the provided moral dilemmas. While there were significantly lower rates of utilitarian decision making in the pain condition, a warm-water painless condition showed comparably decreased rates. Comparison with GSR data suggests that the pain condition did not induce a significantly heightened state of autonomic activation. This suggests that while divided attention or occupation of WM resources does effect patterns of moral decision making, this is not reliant on a nociceptive stimulus.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Robinson, Tyler"],"institution":"UNF Digital Commons","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:21:49Z","subjects":["Thesis; University of North Florida; UNF; Dissertations","Academic -- UNF -- Psychology; Dissertations","Academic -- UNF -- Master of Arts in General Psychology; Moral decision making; Pain; Working memory; Utilitarian; Moral dilemma; Cold pressor","Cognitive Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/627","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Robinson, Tyler"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2016-01-01T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["UNF Digital Commons"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Thesis; University of North Florida; UNF; Dissertations","Academic -- UNF -- Psychology; Dissertations","Academic -- UNF -- Master of Arts in General Psychology; Moral decision making; Pain; Working memory; Utilitarian; Moral dilemma; Cold pressor","Cognitive Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/627","https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/context/etd/article/1662/viewcontent/ETD1298PA.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["As both a Working Memory (WM) task and as a more integrated reasoning process, moral decision making appears susceptible to interference by nociceptive stimuli. Differentiation, however, between conflicting occupation of WM resources and the influence of pain-induced autonomic activation as potential pathways of interaction represents a considerably more difficult task than simple measurement of WM performance. To clarify the basis of any noted effects, this study recorded both self-report pain intensity and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) as a separate measure of autonomic activation under a cold pressor task using a sample of 122 undergraduate participants. Recorded pain and physiological data was compared to rates of utilitarian decision making in the provided moral dilemmas. While there were significantly lower rates of utilitarian decision making in the pain condition, a warm-water painless condition showed comparably decreased rates. Comparison with GSR data suggests that the pain condition did not induce a significantly heightened state of autonomic activation. This suggests that while divided attention or occupation of WM resources does effect patterns of moral decision making, this is not reliant on a nociceptive stimulus."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:source","label":"Dc Source","values":["UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Pain and Principle: The Effects of Nociceptive Stimuli on Moral Decision Making"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Robinson, Tyler"],"dc:date":["2016-01-01T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["As both a Working Memory (WM) task and as a more integrated reasoning process, moral decision making appears susceptible to interference by nociceptive stimuli. Differentiation, however, between conflicting occupation of WM resources and the influence of pain-induced autonomic activation as potential pathways of interaction represents a considerably more difficult task than simple measurement of WM performance. To clarify the basis of any noted effects, this study recorded both self-report pain intensity and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) as a separate measure of autonomic activation under a cold pressor task using a sample of 122 undergraduate participants. Recorded pain and physiological data was compared to rates of utilitarian decision making in the provided moral dilemmas. While there were significantly lower rates of utilitarian decision making in the pain condition, a warm-water painless condition showed comparably decreased rates. Comparison with GSR data suggests that the pain condition did not induce a significantly heightened state of autonomic activation. This suggests that while divided attention or occupation of WM resources does effect patterns of moral decision making, this is not reliant on a nociceptive stimulus."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/627","https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/context/etd/article/1662/viewcontent/ETD1298PA.pdf"],"dc:publisher":["UNF Digital Commons"],"dc:source":["UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations"],"dc:subject":["Thesis; University of North Florida; UNF; Dissertations","Academic -- UNF -- Psychology; Dissertations","Academic -- UNF -- Master of Arts in General Psychology; Moral decision making; Pain; Working memory; Utilitarian; Moral dilemma; Cold pressor","Cognitive Psychology"],"dc:title":["Pain and Principle: The Effects of Nociceptive Stimuli on Moral Decision Making"],"dc:type":["thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:21:49Z"}