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Context-Dependent Risk & Benefit Sensitivity Mediate Judgments About Cognitive Enhancement
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Context-Dependent Risk & Benefit Sensitivity Mediate Judgments About Cognitive Enhancement

Kiante Fernandez, Roy Hamilton, Laura Cabrera and John Dominic Medaglia
AJOB neuroscience, v 13(1)
02 Jan 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2021.2001077
PMID: 34931943
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9867800View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

Cognitive enhancement; decision making; neuroethics
Opinions about cognitive enhancement (CE) are context-dependent. Prior research has demonstrated that factors like peer pressure, the influence of authority figures, competition, moral relevance, familiarity with enhancement devices, expertise, and the domain of CE to be enhanced can influence opinions. The variability and malleability of patient, expert, and public attitudes toward CE is important to describe and predict because these attitudes can influence at-home, clinical, research, and regulatory decisions. If individual preferences vary, they could influence opinions about practices and regulations due to disagreements about the desirable levels of risks and benefits. The study of attitudes about CE would benefit from psychological theories that explain judgments. In particular, we suggest that variability in risk and benefit sensitivity could psychologically mediate judgments about CE in many contexts. Drawing from prospect theory, which originated in behavioral economics, it is likely that framing effects, shifted reference points, and the tendency to weigh losses (risks) more heavily than gains (benefits) predict decisions about CE. We suggest that public policy could benefit from a shared conceptual framework, such as prospect theory, that allows us to describe and predict real-world decisions about CE by patients, experts, and the public.

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