A brief announcement and.... How do we make moral decisions, and lie?

Mystic Pizza, where we have been meeting, says they will be charging us $20 an event for room rental. The easiest way around this us for all of us to chip in $1 (cash) at each event. I hope you will accept this!

Scientific American had an article about morality, and how we can descend into the slippery slope of immoral (however you personally define it) behavior. (As it's behind a paywall, I can't provide a link to the article.)

Whenever we commit an immoral act, the same circuits in our brain that react to stinky smells get activated. We have this, "eww", disgusted feeling.

In addition the amygdala portion of our brain is activated. This is part of the stress response, where we feel anxiety about our (and other's ) actions.

Unfortunately, we habituate to this, and if we continue to act immorally, we become less and less anxious. ....

And the behavior becomes more acceptable. If it's reinforced by social pressure, it becomes even more acceptable.

How do we deal with this, in ourselves and others?

Is this really a one-way street, or can we dig ourselves out of a hole of our own creation?

The same question goes for when our friends and relatives have the same hole?