Why do people pirate? A neuroimaging investigation

ABSTRACT

It is not uncommon for people to openly admit to pirating information from the internet despite the known legal consequences. Those same people are often less inclined to steal the same physical item from a shop. This raises the question, why do people have fewer reservations with stealing intangible items compared to tangible? Using questionnaires and fMRI we provide evidence across three studies as to the differences between tangible and intangible theft. In a questionnaire (Study 1), participants revealed that across different conditions they were more willing to steal intangible compared to tangible goods. Study 2a used fMRI to reveal that a network involved in imagining objects was more active when participants were representing intangible versus tangible objects, suggesting people have greater difficulty representing intangible items. Study 2b used fMRI to show that when stealing tangible objects versus intangible, participants had increased activation in left lateral orbitofrontal cortex, an area typically activated in response to morally laden situations. The findings from the current investigation provide novel insights into the higher prevalence of intangible theft and suggest that differential neural representation of tangible and intangible items may, in part, explain why people are more willing to steal intangible items.

KEYWORDS:

• Morality
• guilt
• fMRI
• piracy
• theft
• orbitofrontal cortex

Acknowledgments

This project was funded by an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE130100120), Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (100458), and an ARC Discovery Grant (DP130100559) awarded to P.M., Australian Postgraduate Award awarded to R.E., and an ARC Discovery Grant (DP1092490) awarded to W.L. We gratefully acknowledge the input and suggestions provided by the research panel at the Centre for Advanced Imaging located at the University of Queensland, as well as Dr. Merryn Constable who, through many conversations, helped propagate the current research direction of R.E.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award [grant number DE130100120]; Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship [grant number 100458]; and an ARC Discovery: [grant number DP130100559]; awarded to P.M., Australian Postgraduate Award awarded to R.E., and an ARC Discovery: [grant number DP1092490] awarded to W.L.