BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Emotion Regulation and Processing
This article is part of the Research TopicBeyond the Lab: Addressing Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Studying Emotions through Bodily Postures and Facial ExpressionsView all articles
From the Lab to the real world: emotions serving morality in dyadic negotiation
Provisionally accepted
- Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milano, Italy
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Introduction: Confronting moral choices in contexts of limited resources requires individuals to integrate reasoning, emotions, and interpersonal dynamics. However, most research on moral decision-making relies on laboratory paradigms that limit ecological validity, restricting natural emotional expression. To address this limitation, this study examined how dyads converge on moral choices through real-time negotiation, focusing on the interplay between cognitive and emotional processing. Methods: Fifteen same-sex adult dyads participated in a moral evaluation task, deciding which of two patients to prioritise for treatmentDuring the negotiation, conducted in direct social interaction rather than in isolated lab-based evaluation, prefrontal cortex activity was simultaneously recorded in both participants using fNIRS hyperscanning, a paradigm suited to naturalistic interpersonal contexts. Results: Results revealed a significant increase in the dissimilarity in the deoxygenated haemoglobin (HHb) activity between channel 6 (F6-F4, right hemisphere) and channel 3 (F5-F3, left hemisphere); no significant effects were observed for oxygenated haemoglobin (O2Hb); This, may suggest a differentiated engagement of analytical reasoning (left hemisphere) and emotional-social processing (right hemisphere). The latter – expressed through subtle embodied cues – plays a central regulatory role in influencing each other’s judgment. Discussion: These findings support the view that moral negotiation is a dynamic, affectively grounded process, shaped not only by cognitive deliberation but also by emotional information expressed through bodily and facial cues. By integrating hyperscanning with a naturalistic interpersonal setting, this study can contribute to bridging the gap between lab-based and real-world moral decision-making, offering insights into the neural underpinnings of shared evaluation.
Keywords: Brain-to-brain, cognitive system, Emotional system, fNIRS, hyperscanning, moral negotiation
Received: 10 Dec 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Balconi, Allegretta and Daffinà. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Angelica Daffinà
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