<p>Moral decision-making is the internal process of individuals making choices regarding moral norms or social values. Based on the dual-process theory, this study investigated how cognitive load, empathy for pain, presentation modes, and moral dilemmas influence moral decision-making tendencies. Experiment 1 investigates the impact of cognitive load on moral decision-making tendencies in individuals under text-based and virtual reality (VR) moral dilemmas. Experiment 2 explores the influence of moral dilemmas, cognitive load, and empathy for pain on moral decision tendencies in a brain-machine interface-based VR environment. The results showed that individuals with high cognitive load demonstrated reduced mental effort and increased relaxation degree when experiencing empathy for pain. In a VR environment, individuals facing impersonal dilemmas and those experiencing high cognitive load were more likely to make utilitarian decisions when feeling empathy for pain. The study revealed the mechanisms by which cognitive load and empathy for pain affected moral decision tendencies in virtual reality, elucidating the role of empathy for pain between cognitive load and moral decision-making.</p>