The Role of Affect in the Neurodevelopment of Morality

Human social existence is characterized by an intuitive sense of fairness, concern for others, and the observance of cultural norms. This prosocial sensitivity is the foundation for adult morality, emanating from the sophisticated integration of emotional, motivational, and cognitive mechanisms across development. In this article, we discuss how an integrated neurodevelopmental approach helps us understand moral judgment and behavior. We examine data emphasizing the importance of affect in moral development and we suggest that moral cognition is underpinned by specific, although not unique, neural networks. The regions recruited in moral cognition underlie specific states of emotion, along with cognitive and motivational processes, which emerge and interconnect over the course of development to produce adaptive social behavior.