Can pills change our morals?

Molly Crockett

Could we change the way people respond to moral situations by manipulating their brain chemistry with antidepressant pills? Molly Crockett is a neuroscientist investigating this question.

It seems that if we can just wrap our heads around the idea that peoples’ attachment to their ideals is not fixed, but can change, we’re more likely to listen to each other. It’s unclear whether we will ever be able to create a “morality pill”—in part because we have yet to reach consensus on what is “moral” in the first place.4 And we still have a long way to go before we fully understand how brain chemistry shapes moral judgment and behaviour.5 But preliminary work suggests we ought to cultivate a healthy skepticism towards our own sense of right and wrong – it may well be vulnerable to factors below our awareness and beyond our control.

Can pills change our morals? | thInk