Is a bad will a weak will? Cognitive dispositions modulate folk attributions of weakness of will

Abstract

In line with recent efforts to empirically study the folk concept of weakness of will, we examine two issues in this paper: (1) How is weakness of will attribution [WWA] influenced by an agent's violations of best judgment and/or resolution, and by the moral valence of the agent's action? (2) Do any of these influences depend on the cognitive dispositions of the judging individual? We implemented a factorial 2x2x2 between-subjects design with judgment violation, resolution violation, and action valence as independent variables, and measured participants' cognitive dispositions using Frederick's Cognitive Reflection Test [CRT]. We conclude that intuitive and reflective individuals have two different concepts of weakness of will. The study supports this claim by showing that: a) the WWA of intuitive subjects is influenced by the action's (and probably also the commitment's) moral valence, while the WWA of reflective subjects is not; b) judgment violation plays a small role in the WWA of intuitive subjects, while reflective subjects treat resolution violation as the only relevant trait. Data were collected among students at two different universities. All subjects (N=710) answered the CRT. A three--way ANOVA was first conducted on the whole sample and then on the intuitive and reflective groups separately. This study suggests that differences in cognitive dispositions can significantly impact the folk understanding of philosophical concepts, and thus suggests that analysis of folk concepts should take cognitive dispositions into account.

What’s inside is all that counts? The contours of everyday thinking about self-control

“…Each participant saw three vignettes describing a character facing a motivational conflict. Given the known effects of morality on self-control attributions (Rosas et al 2018 ; Sousa and Mauro 2014 )⁠, we varied the moral nature of the agent’s commitment. In the neutral vignette , someone’s boss is hosting a dinner party for a big client.…”

“…Despite the prevalence of philosophical theorizing about self-control and its importance in different Western religious traditions, there has been very little work done to understand how people attribute self-control to others. Typically, discussions of self-control attribution have investigated the conditions under which people think that a failure of self-control constitutes weakness of will (Doucet and Turri 2014 ; May and Holton 2012 ; Mele 2010 ; Newman et al 2014 ; Rosas et al 2018 ; Sousa and Mauro 2014 ). In what follows, we sketch several lines of evidence that indicate people are pluralists about what kinds of processes and strategies constitute self-control.…”

What's inside is all that counts? The contours of everyday thinking about self-control

“…Despite the prevalence of philosophical theorizing about self-control and the importance of self-control in different Western religious traditions, there has been very little work done to understand how people attribute self-control to others. Typically, discussions of self-control attribution have investigated the conditions under which people think that a failure of selfcontrol constitutes weakness of will (Doucet & Turri, 2020;May & Holton, 2012;Mele, 2010;6 Newman et al, 2014;Rosas et al, 2018;Sousa & Mauro, 2014). In what follows, we outline several lines of evidence that indicate people are pluralists about what kinds of processes and strategies constitute self-control.…”

“…Each participant saw three vignettes describing a character facing a motivational conflict. Given the known effects of morality on self-control attributions (Rosas et al, 2018;Sousa & Mauro, 2014) , we varied the moral nature of the agent's commitment. In the neutral vignette, someone's boss is hosting a dinner party for a big client.…”