A Multinomial Process Model of Moral Judgment

NCT ID: NCT02799277

Last Updated: 2018-11-23

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: PHASE4
• Total Enrollment: 220 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2017-08-30
• Study Completion Date: 2018-06-01

Brief Summary

The main goal of this project to investigate the psychological processes underlying moral judgments in social dilemmas. We will examine neuroendocrine determinants of moral judgment by investigating the effects of exogenous testosterone

Detailed Description

• Medical Screening Interview: Participants will be asked to answer several questions to identify potential medical and non-medical conditions that would preclude the self-administration of testosterone.
• First Saliva Sample: Participants will be asked provide a saliva sample after they completed the medical screening interview.
• Testosterone Self-Administration: Immediately following the first saliva collection, participants will self-administer spray puffs of either testosterone or placebo.
• Relaxation: Participants will be given the opportunity to relax for 30 minutes.
• Moral Dilemmas Judgments: Participants will be asked to read a set of 24 moral dilemmas that describe situations in which an actor has to make a decision on whether or not to engage in a particular action (e.g., sacrifice the well-being of one person to protect the well-being of several others). Participants will be asked to indicate whether they consider the described action acceptable or unacceptable.
• Demographics: Participants will be asked to indicate their gender, age, and ethnicity.
• Ear Temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure will be measured before drug administration, and again 20 minutes after drug administration. If temperature changes more than 2 degrees, heart rate changes more than 20bmp, or if blood pressure changes more than 20%, the experiment will be terminated and subjects will be escorted across the street to the University Emergency Room.

Conditions

Testosterone; Placebos

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: TRIPLE

Study Groups

Testosterone

14mg testosterone will be administered intranasally in a 1milliliter aqueous solution

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Testosterone

Intervention Type: DRUG

Effect of testosterone on moral decision making

Placebo

1ml blank (containing no drug) aqueous solution will be administered intranasally

Group Type: PLACEBO_COMPARATOR

Placebo

Intervention Type: DRUG

Effect of testosterone on moral decision making

Interventions

Testosterone

Effect of testosterone on moral decision making

Intervention Type: DRUG

Placebo

Effect of testosterone on moral decision making

Intervention Type: DRUG

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• must be currently enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin

Exclusion Criteria

• not comfortable with the self-administration of testosterone for the purpose of our study less than 18 years old BMI less than 18 or above 27 suffer from any of the physical health conditions listed on the pre-screen questionnaire (I will not ask about mental health because our study is not about mental health) take any of the medications listed on the pre-screen questionnaire currently pregnant (females) irregular cycle in the past 6 months (females) smoke more than 5 cigarettes/day use cocaine more than once/month (**or should I exclude all those who use any drugs recreationally more than once/month?**) drink more than 10 alcoholic beverages/week

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Texas at Austin

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Robert A Josephs, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Professor

Locations

University of Texas at Austin Department of Psychology

Austin, Texas, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

2014-12-0010

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id