This manuscript explores situational impacts on moral decision-making and robust adaptive control in a series of studies. The first examines prosocial behavior depending on whether a fundraising appeal was presented in virtual reality or on a screen, showing that virtual reality elicited slightly higher donations and providing insights into the drivers of this effect. The second explores the situational effects of stress on honesty where lying increases the probability of monetary rewards. Findings show that considering honesty a protected value and the reward for lying continue to reliably predict honesty decision-making under stress, which had no significant effect on honesty. A follow-up study validated a paradigm for presenting an honesty task during a stressor. The final study investigates the role of the anterior insula in surprise and robust adaptive control using stereoencephalographic recordings during an instrumental task. Preliminary findings (case study) are presented comparing two models for adaptation.