Fellow-Klasse 2017/18 Prof. Dr. Friederike Nüssel

Arbeitsvorhaben am Marsilius-Kolleg

Narrative Codierung von Werten in theologischer und neurowissenschaftlicher Perspektive 

Prof. Herpertz and I plan to investigate the narrative encoding of moral values from theological and neurological perspectives. We will develop a functional neuroimaging study using magnet resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate brain mechanisms that underlie the processing of narratives mediating culturally deeply imbedded moral values. In addition to elucidating the brain mechanisms that mediate these processes in normal volunteers we aim to detect the abnormal processing of moral values in psychopaths who are known to habitually break the moral code of society. The study will be performed in three steps: (1) We will develop narratives or modify existing narratives on moral values, respectively, in the way that they meet with the experimental conditions of a fMRI scanner environment. (2) The experiment has to be designed in details and has to enter a small pilot study. (3) The actual study including data analyses has to be conducted. We will recruit subjects from the general population scoring high vs. low on the three traits of the Dark Triad (DT) - machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Within the fMRI environment, participants listen to narratives which encode either protected moral values or conventional values. Data analyses will be connected using SPM and then published in a journal of neuroscience. Theological interpretation of the role of narrative in value formation will be published in the International Journal for Systematic Theology.