A study analysed the brain activity of military officer cadets and civilians while they were making moral decisions and concluded that the perception of being the author of our actions and their consequences decreases when we follow orders, whether we are civilians or military. Understanding how the brain processes moral responsibility is important because of the implications it can have for ethics, justice, and the psychology of human behaviour.

A new study from UCLA Health shows that the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit helped prevent energy insecurity among middle-class families with children but provided no measurable benefit to the lowest-income households.

  An agile, transparent, and ethics-driven oversight system is needed for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to balance innovation with patient safety when it comes to artificial intelligence-driven medical technologies. That is the takeaway from a new report issued to the FDA, published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Leo Celi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleagues.

A well-meaning environmental tax turned into a cultural flashpoint: a new study shows that Israel’s 2021 tax on single-use plastics caused a sharp and lasting drop in climate support among the ultra-Orthodox community. Driven by a deep sense of political victimization—not financial burden—many saw the tax as an attack on their way of life. Even years after the tax was repealed, the damage to environmental trust still lingers.

Even though the topic seems to have slipped down the political agenda, comprehensive measures to combat global heating enjoy widespread public support around the world. A study co-authored by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the renowned journal Nature Human Behaviour now takes a scientific look at the acceptance of global climate policies. The research team draws on surveys that it initiated around the globe specifically for this purpose. It shows that there is strong and genuine support for international carbon pricing, per capita reimbursement of revenues, and thus redistribution to poorer countries.