The Role of Affect in the Neurodevelopment of Morality Jean Decety and Lauren H. Howard The University of Chicago ABSTRACT—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 behav- ior. 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 intercon- nect over the course of development to produce adaptive social behavior. KEYWORDS—emotion; morality; development Morality, in general, has been defined as prescriptive norms regarding how people should treat one another, including con- cepts such as justice, fairness, and rights (Killen & Rutland, 2011). In the past decade, research in many academic domains has tried to more clearly define and investigate this construct. These studies suggest that mature moral abilities emerge from a sophisticated integration of emotional, cognitive, and motiva- tional mechanisms. However, many of these theories lack the ability to test specific hypotheses about when and how these components combine. A more accurate examination of the development of a mature moral self requires an increased focus on neurobiological per- spectives. Establishing neurological methods within a develop- mental framework provides a more accurate account of moral mechanisms, bridging the gap between behaviors and their underlying neural correlates. Neuroscientific data may also allow us to better understand ambiguous behaviors early in life, taking into consideration the contributions of so-called emotional ver- sus cognitive brain systems in response to morally laden stimuli. Furthermore, focusing on the ontogeny of morality provides opportunities to examine the interaction of moral systems before such components are fully developed and operational. In this article, we use a multidisciplinary approach to investi- gate the role of affect in morality. First, we examine the develop- mental literature on early moral behavior, emphasizing the cognitive and affective changes that evolve during infancy. Then, we investigate the neural systems supporting these changes, focusing on the link between the maturation of the neural network and outward moral responses. Specifically, we argue that current data support the view of morality as a functionally integrated ability, made up of several distributed neural networks that change in activation and inte- gration over time. This moral development is not unidirectional, originating from purely emotional activations and developing into higher level cognizance. Rather, it involves nuanced changes in children’s abilities to integrate their own affective reactions with the thoughts and desires of those around them. EARLY MORAL SENSITIVITY Most newborns are biologically prepared to enter the world ready to attend to social stimuli and engage in social inter- actions. After only a few days of life, neonates prefer prosocial stimuli, looking longer at happy facial expressions than at fearful or neutral ones (Farroni, Menon, Rigato, & Johnson, 2007). As they develop, infants are increasingly able to evaluate Jean Decety, Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago; Lauren H. Howard, Department of Psychology, The Univer- sity of Chicago. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jean Decety, Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, 5848 S. University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637; e-mail: decety@uchicago.edu. © 2013 The Authors Child Development Perspectives © 2013 The Society for Research in Child Development DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12020 Volume 7, Number 1, 2013, Pages 49–54 CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES