<i>"During the behavior-evaluation exercise, people with high justice sensitivity showed more activity than average participants in parts of the brain associated with higher-order cognition. Brain areas commonly linked with emotional processing were not affected.<p>The conclusion was clear, Decety said: “Individuals who are sensitive to justice and fairness do not seem to be emotionally driven. Rather, they are cognitively driven.”"</i><p>While this is a very interesting study, that conclusion does <i>not</i> follow from the previous paragraph. I'd even bet that specific claim is not made in the original paper but was convenient to state in a non-peer-reviewed news story.<p>fMRI studies are extremely easy to perform and, frankly, if you put someone in a brain scanner bits of the brain will light up. I know this because my PhD was on the topic of human emotion and decision-making and I used fMRI (as well as PET). I'm going to skim the paper now and see if my earlier statement holds up.<p>EDIT: As I suspected, their claim is not made (even slightly) in the peer-reviewed work. I still find the study interesting but I see flaws in the study design as there isn't an attempt at a baseline condition which (imho) is important for any claims about emotional processing.