Neuroscientists link low self-awareness to stronger brain reactions to moralized issues

A new study published in the journal Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience reveals that people who hold strong moral convictions about political issues make decisions more quickly—but that these choices are shaped by both emotional brain responses and metacognitive ability. The research shows that moral conviction activates specific brain regions involved in emotion and cognitive control, and that people with lower self-awareness about their own decision accuracy show stronger brain responses to morally charged political issues.

The findings help explain why deeply moralized political beliefs can feel so non-negotiable. When people see political positions as morally right or wrong, they not only respond more quickly but also engage brain systems associated with salience, conflict monitoring, and goal-driven thinking. But this fast, confident decision-making comes with a caveat: people who are less able to distinguish between correct and incorrect judgments—a trait known as low metacognitive sensitivity—appear to rely more heavily on these moral signals in the brain. This could help explain why some individuals become more rigid or dogmatic in their political beliefs.

The researchers behind the study, led by Jean Decety, an Irving B. Harris Distinguished Professor at the University of Chicago and the director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, sought to better understand how moralized beliefs contribute to political polarization and intolerance. Moral convictions are beliefs that people view as tied to fundamental principles of right and wrong. Unlike regular opinions, they tend to be perceived as universal, unchangeable, and non-negotiable.

Prior studies have shown that people with strong moral convictions are more likely to engage in collective action—but also more likely to justify prejudice or violence against ideological opponents. While the emotional and behavioral consequences of moral conviction have been studied extensively, the brain mechanisms behind these effects remain poorly understood. The new study aimed to explore how moral conviction is processed during real-time political decisions and how it interacts with people’s ability to evaluate their own judgments.

To investigate these questions, the researchers recruited participants from the Chicago area for a two-part study. First, 80 adults completed an online survey about their attitudes toward a range of sociopolitical issues, such as gun control or climate change. They rated how strongly they supported or opposed each issue and how morally important those views felt. The researchers then selected 49 participants to complete a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session, during which 44 participants provided usable brain data.

During the scan, participants viewed pairs of photographs showing protest groups advocating for or against various political causes. For each pair, they had to quickly decide which group they supported more. All issues had been previously rated in the online survey, allowing the researchers to match brain activity during the scan to each person’s level of moral conviction and support for those causes.

Before the scan, participants also completed a perceptual task to measure their metacognitive sensitivity. In this task, they had to judge which of two images contained more dots and then rate their confidence in their decision. By comparing accuracy with confidence, researchers could determine how well participants could tell when they were right or wrong—essentially measuring their insight into their own judgments.

The researchers found that participants made faster decisions when choosing between protest groups involving issues they felt strongly about morally. This was true even when controlling for how much they supported the issues or how familiar they were with them. In other words, moral conviction sped up decision-making above and beyond basic preference. Brain activity mirrored these effects. When making decisions about more morally convicted issues, participants showed increased activation in the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and lateral prefrontal cortex. These brain regions are known to be involved in emotional salience, conflict monitoring, and cognitive control.

The lateral prefrontal cortex was especially active in these high-conviction trials. This area of the brain is often involved in setting and pursuing goals, as well as enforcing social norms. Its increased activity suggests that moral conviction might engage higher-level thinking that treats political positions not just as opinions, but as imperatives that must be acted upon. The anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex, by contrast, likely reflect the emotional intensity and personal significance of the issues.

When the researchers looked at overall support for the two protest groups shown in each trial, rather than moral conviction, they saw stronger activation in brain regions involved in value assessment—especially the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. These areas are commonly involved in subjective valuation and emotional reactions, suggesting that agreement with an issue feels rewarding, even if the belief is not morally framed.

To explore how these systems work together, the researchers conducted a functional connectivity analysis. They found that the lateral prefrontal cortex showed stronger connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex during decisions involving higher moral conviction. This suggests that the brain integrates moral information into the valuation process—essentially, moral beliefs are being factored into how much a person values a given choice.

But one of the most striking findings came from comparing brain responses with metacognitive sensitivity. Participants with lower ability to distinguish between correct and incorrect judgments—those with poor metacognitive insight—showed stronger brain activity in response to moral conviction. This was particularly evident in the lateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. These individuals also showed more activity in valuation regions like the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum when moral conviction was high.

In contrast, support-related brain activity in these regions did not correlate with metacognitive ability. This means that people with low metacognitive sensitivity are not necessarily more supportive of political issues—but they do show a stronger neural response when their beliefs feel morally justified.

These findings support the idea that low metacognitive sensitivity might amplify the influence of moral conviction on both decision-making and brain function. In practical terms, people who lack insight into the accuracy of their own beliefs may be more likely to treat political issues as moral imperatives and less willing to consider alternative viewpoints. This could help explain why low metacognitive ability has been linked to greater dogmatism and political extremism in previous research.

The study is not without limitations. The decisions made during the scan involved simplified visual comparisons between protest groups, which may not fully capture the complexity of real-world moral reasoning. Additionally, while the study shows that moral conviction affects brain activity and decision speed, it cannot prove that these brain responses cause moral conviction or rigidity. The researchers also note that moral conviction overlaps with related concepts like attitude strength, familiarity, and emotional arousal, making it difficult to isolate its specific effects.

Future research could investigate how moral conviction influences decision-making in more complex social contexts, such as conversations or negotiations. It could also explore whether training or interventions to improve metacognitive sensitivity might reduce dogmatic thinking and promote more flexible political reasoning.

The study, “Moral conviction interacts with metacognitive ability in modulating neural activity during sociopolitical decision‑making,” was authored by Qiongwen Cao, Michael S. Cohen, Akram Bakkour, Yuan Chang Leong, and Jean Decety.