The heart as judge: Association of heart rate variability with moral judgement—A replication study

There is growing research into contributing processes and biological correlates of moral inclinations. Recently, a negative association between utilitarianism and resting heart rate variability (HRV) as an indicator of cardiac vagal tone/parasympathetic activity was reported. We aimed to replicate and extend these findings by additionally investigating the sympathetic parameter electro-dermal activity (EDA), but found no associations in the total sample (N = 157). However, when taking sex and the use of combined oral contraceptives (COC) into account, we found a positive association between HRV and estimated deontology in women using COC and men, while in free cycling women there was a negative association. While no direct replication, our results also point to associations between higher HRV and decreased endorsement of harmful actions that serve a greater good. Unlike HRV, EDA showed no associations with moral judgements. In addition, there were correlations between personality traits and moral judgement. •We investigated associations of moral judgement with physiological parameters.•We aimed to replicate links of heart rate variability (HRV) with utilitarianism.•HRV was correlated with deontology in female oral contraceptive users and men.•In free cycling women, deontology was negatively related to heart rate variability.•Electro-dermal activity was unrelated to moral judgements.