儘管道德許可現象已經在心理學與行銷領域累積一些行為研究，但吾人對其背後心智過程，了解仍有限，故本研究嘗試以功能性磁振造影實驗來進一步分析相關行為背後之大腦神經機制。藉由第一階段隨機決定參與者是否捐錢予慈善機構，我們觀察其隨後在特定預算下，針對不同性質(享樂型、實用型、加倍享樂型)商品之選擇行為是否有所調整。在行為的結果上，我們發現參與者在捐錢相較於不捐錢的情況下，的確顯著購買更多享樂型的商品，呈現道德許可現象。而腦造影的分析主要有三個發現，(1)相較於文獻紀錄兩種商品在獎酬相關腦區有類似之價值編碼，我們發現，在選擇享樂性商品時，參與者大腦之警覺迴路與執行控制相關的神經迴路相較其選擇實用性商品時更為活化。(2)當參與者完成捐款時，其警覺迴路相對較其未能捐款時不活化。(3)選擇享樂性商品比例愈高的受試者，在捐款後，其腦島和楔前葉在購買享樂性商品相較於實用性商品時，會相對的更不活化；且此關係僅見於捐款後。我們猜測：捐款所產生的道德許可，來自於其降低決策者之警覺與購買享樂性商品的抑制，從而使其在購物選擇時，提高消費較為享樂性商品的機率。

Although several studies in psychology and marketing had documented the moral licensing effect, understanding of its neural mechanism was still limited. This study aimed to explore its underlying process using the fMRI experiment. With the first-stage tasks randomly determining whether participants would donate to charities or NGOs, we’d like to examine how their subsequent choices were modulated in purchasing among hedonic, utilitarian, and double hedonic goods. Behaviorally, participants exhibited a significantly higher percentage in choosing hedonic goods after donation as compared to no donation, resembling the moral licensing phenomenon. For main fMRI analysis results: (1) in contrast to the existing findings that the value encoding was similar for hedonic and utilitarian goods, we found participants’ cerebral salience network more activated when they chose the hedonic goods as compared to utilitarian ones; (2) their salience network was more depressed after having completed donation relative to no donation; (3) only after donation but not after no donation, activations in insula and precuneus were lower for participants with a higher percentage shopping hedonic goods. In summary, we speculated that the donation-induced moral licensing effect rose from participants’ relatively depressed salience network activities after donation, resulting in a lower inhibition in consuming the hedonic goods.

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