Interoceptive ability predicts moral intuition aligned with group consensus

Aligning one’s decisions with the prevailing norms and expectations of those around us constitutes a fundamental facet of moral decision-making. When faced with conflicting moral values, one adaptive approach is to rely on intuition. While there has been theoretical speculation about the connection between moral decision-making and an individual’s awareness of introspective interoceptive signals, it has not been empirically examined. This study examines this link in the context of decision-making in moral dilemma of university students. Our research demonstrates a correlation between an individual’s moral intuition towards group consensus and their interoceptive abilities. Study 1 found that interoceptive awareness and the intrinsic functional connectivity of anterior insula are associated with individuals’ moral intuition. Study 2 showed that interoceptive accuracy is associated with moral intuition toward the group consensus. These findings provide empirical evidence of the link between interoceptive abilities and moral intuition towards group consensus.