Socioemotional dysfunction and the greater good: a case study

Moral cognition has largely been studied via dilemmas in which making a utilitarian choice causes instrumental harm (negative dimension). Studies of utilitarianism link this behavior with socioemotional unresponsiveness. However, there is a positive dimension of utilitarianism in which one sacrifice...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neurocase 2024-08, Vol.30 (4), p.125-134
Main Authors: Antoniou, Rea, Callahan, Patrick, Kramer, Joel H., Miller, Bruce L., Chiong, Winston, Rankin, Katherine P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
bvFTD
Case studies
case study
Cognition
Dementia disorders
Emotions - physiology
Frontotemporal dementia
Frontotemporal Dementia - physiopathology
Frontotemporal Dementia - psychology
Humans
impartial choices
Moral cognition
Morals
Social behavior
socioemotional responsiveness
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Summary:Moral cognition has largely been studied via dilemmas in which making a utilitarian choice causes instrumental harm (negative dimension). Studies of utilitarianism link this behavior with socioemotional unresponsiveness. However, there is a positive dimension of utilitarianism in which one sacrifices the good of oneself or close others for the overall welfare. We measured utilitarian choices multidimensionally in a patient with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), incorporating dilemmas accounting for negative and positive dimensions. Despite socioemotional deficits our patient was highly utilitarian in the positive, dimension of utilitarianism. This case study challenges the tendency to automatically associate bvFTD with antisocial tendencies.
ISSN:1355-4794
1465-3656
1465-3656
1362-4970
DOI:10.1080/13554794.2024.2404682