Moral Judgment Under Induced Anxiety: Threat-of-Shock Reduces Sensitivity to Immoral Acts and Alters Neural Processing

Thirty-seven right-handed individuals were recruited from Shenzhen University, all with normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Participants scoring more than two standard deviations above the mean on the Trait Anxiety Inventory (T-AI) or the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were excluded during pre-screening (Cheung, 1996; Shek, 1988). One participant was further excluded due to excessive EEG artifacts, resulting in fewer than 75% of trials available for analysis. The final sample comprised 36 participants (16 males; mean age = 20.14 ± 2.22 years [mean ± standard deviation]). All procedures complied with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and subsequent amendments, as well as relevant ethical standards. The study protocol was approved by the local ethics committee (protocol number: PN-202200067).

本研究从深圳大学招募37名右利手被试，所有被试视力均正常或经矫正后可达正常水平。预筛选阶段，在特质焦虑量表（Trait Anxiety Inventory, T-AI）及自评抑郁量表（Self-Rating Depression Scale, SDS）上得分高于均值两个标准差以上的被试均被排除（Cheung, 1996; Shek, 1988）。另有1名被试因脑电（Electroencephalogram, EEG）伪迹过多，可用于分析的有效试次占比不足75%，故将其剔除。最终有效样本共36名被试（其中男性16名；平均年龄为20.14±2.22岁，即均值±标准差）。本研究所有实验流程均符合1964年《赫尔辛基宣言》及其后续修订版本，以及相关伦理规范。本研究方案已获当地伦理委员会批准（批准号：PN-202200067）。