Could Twitter's Realtime World Blur Our Moral Compass?

Emotions linked to our moral sense such as admiration and compassion- awaken slowly in the mind, according to a new study from a neuroscience group show that emotions linked to our sense of morality are aroused slowly. The study was led by Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California.

While Humans can sort information very quickly and can respond in fractions of seconds to signs of physical pain in others for other kinds of thought "...especially moral decision-making about other people's social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and reflection," said study author Mary Helen Immordino-Yang.

"Damasio's study has extraordinary implications for the human perception of events in a digital communication environment," said media scholar Manuel Castells, holder of the Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society at USC. "Lasting compassion in relationship to psychological suffering requires a level of persistent, emotional attention."

Brain imaging showed that the volunteers needed six to eight seconds to fully respond to stories of virtue or social pain. Once awakened, the responses lasted far longer than the volunteers' reactions to stories focused on physical pain.

The study raises questions about the emotional cost—particularly for the developing brain—of heavy reliance on a rapid stream of news snippets obtained through television, online feeds or social networks such as Twitter.

"If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states and that would have implications for your morality," Immordino- Yang said.

But fast-paced digital media tools may direct some heavy users away from traditional avenues for learning about humanity, such as engagement with literature or face-to-face social interactions.

Castells said he was less concerned about online social spaces, some of which can provide opportunities for reflection, than about "fast-moving television or virtual games."

"In a media culture in which violence and suffering becomes an endless show, be it in fiction or in infotainment, indifference to the vision of human suffering gradually sets in," he said.

Damasio agreed: "What I'm more worried about is what is happening in the (abrupt) juxtapositions that you find, for example, in the news. When it comes to emotion, because these systems are inherently slow, perhaps all we can say is, not so fast."

Posted by Casey Kazan.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Southern California.