Abstract: How cognition and emotion influences moral judgment has been the focus of dispute for decades in moral psychology and in the social neuroscience research. The present project proposes that there might be a universal moral intuition which consists of moral knowledge and emotions and drives our moral judgment in a fast and automatic way. Three studies are planned to be carried out to examine the hypothesis: In study 1, transcranial magnetic stimulation technique is employed to explore the possibility that moral intuitions are used to make moral judgment; In study 2, event–related potential technique is used to investigate the temporal features of moral intuition; In study 3, lateralized readiness potential is derived to examine how moral intuitions dissociate from basic disgust emotion.

Key words: moral intuition, emotional intuition, cognitive control, event-related potential, transcranial magnetic stimulation