Free will is about choosing: The link between choice and the belief in free will

Expert opinions have yielded a wide and controversial assortment of conceptions of free will, but laypersons seem to associate free will more simply with making choices. We found that the more strongly people believed in free will, the more they liked making choices, the higher they rated their ability to make decisions (Study 1), the less difficult they perceived making decisions, and the more satisfied they were with their decisions (Study 2). High free will belief was also associated with more spontaneous associating of choice with freedom, and with the perception of actions as choices. Recalling choices (Study 3) and making choices (Study 4) led to a stronger endorsement of the belief in free will, with an additional effect for the level of choice involved. These findings suggest that the everyday social reality of beliefs about free will is a matter of how people think and feel about choice.

[1]  Shaun Nichols,et al.  Experimental Philosophy and the Problem of Free Will , 2011, Science.

[2]  K. Vohs,et al.  Free will in consumer behavior: Self-control, ego depletion, and choice , 2008 .

[3]  Jason Turner,et al.  Surveying Freedom: Folk Intuitions about free will and moral responsibility , 2005 .

[4]  John Baer,et al.  Are We Free? , 2008 .

[5]  B. Schwartz.  Self-determination. The tyranny of freedom. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[6]  J. Bargh.  7 Free Will Is Un-natural , 2007 .

[7]  J. Sartre,et al.  Being and Nothingness , 2022 .

[8]  Joshua Knobe,et al.  Experimental philosophy. , 2012, Annual review of psychology.

[9]  H. Markus,et al.  The Unanticipated Interpersonal and Societal Consequences of Choice , 2011, Psychological science.

[10]  R. Dhar,et al.  Preference Fluency in Choice , 2007 .

[11]  Petra Holtzmann,et al.  Escape To Freedom , 2016 .

[12]  P. Montague.  Free will , 2008, Current Biology.

[13]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Prosocial Benefits of Feeling Free: Disbelief in Free Will Increases Aggression and Reduces Helpfulness , 2009, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[14]  D. Paulhus,et al.  The FAD–Plus: Measuring Lay Beliefs Regarding Free Will and Related Constructs , 2011, Journal of personality assessment.

[15]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Free Will in Scientific Psychology , 2008, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[16]  Bertram F. Malle,et al.  From Uncaused Will to Conscious Choice: The Need to Study, Not Speculate About People’s Folk Concept of Free Will , 2010 .

[17]  Stephanie A. Fryberg,et al.  When Choice Does Not Equal Freedom , 2011 .

[18]  Robert S. Wyer,et al.  7. Belief formation, organization, and change: cognitive and motivational influences , 2005 .

[19]  D. Wegner.  The mind's best trick: how we experience conscious will , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[20]  B. Schwartz.  The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less , 2004 .

[21]  H. Markus,et al.  What Counts as a Choice? , 2010, Psychological science.

[22]  James B Miles.  ‘Irresponsible and a Disservice’: The integrity of social psychology turns on the free will dilemma , 2013, The British journal of social psychology.

[23]  Shaun Nichols.  Folk Intuitions on Free Will , 2006 .

[24]  B. Mellers.  Choice and the relative pleasure of consequences. , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[25]  Robert L. Kane,et al.  The Oxford handbook of free will , 2005 .

[26]  Simona Botti,et al.  Power and Choice , 2011, Psychological science.

[27]  R. Rakos,et al.  Belief in Free Will: Measurement and Conceptualization Innovations , 2008 .

[28]  Kathleen D. Vohs,et al.  Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: A limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative. , 2014 .

[29]  Kathleen D. Vohs,et al.  The Value of Believing in Free Will , 2008, Psychological science.

[30]  M. Lepper,et al.  The Construction of Preference: When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? , 2006 .

[31]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models , 2008, Behavior research methods.

[32]  B. Schwartz,et al.  Does Choice Mean Freedom and Well‐Being? , 2010 .

[33]  Alfred R. Mele,et al.  Free will in everyday life: Autobiographical accounts of free and unfree actions , 2011 .

[34]  P. Laplace.  A Philosophical Essay On Probabilities , 1902 .

[35]  Bertram F. Malle,et al.  At the Heart of Morality Lies Folk Psychology , 2009 .

[36]  Krishna Savani,et al.  A Choice Mind-Set Increases the Acceptance and Maintenance of Wealth Inequality , 2012, Psychological science.

[37]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .