Making sense of agency: Belief in free will as a unique and important construct

Abstract

Belief in free will is the general belief that human behavior is free from internal and external constraints across situations for both self and others. In the last decade, scholars in social-cognitive psychology and experimental philosophy have made progress in defining free will terms, exploring how laypersons think of free will, discovering related cognitive processes and biases, and examining the behavioral outcomes of believing in free will. The growing interest in this construct raises the need for a discussion of what is new about free will beliefs, and how this construct differs from and relates to other well-known agency constructs in the literature. In this review, we integrate conceptual discussions and empirical findings in the existing literature to highlight the belief in free will as a separate and important construct, different from existing constructs in the literature, and capturing unique aspects of agency. We conclude by calling researchers to recognize these differences and to leverage the potential in the construct of the belief in free will as a predictor of cognition and behavior. KEYWORDSbelief in free will, beliefs, agencyThe question of whether free will exists has fascinated mankind for over two millennia, with heated philosophical debates among the greatest of human minds. To date, the debate is still far from any resolution. However, the last decade has seen the emergence of a research literature based in social-cognitive psychology and experimental philosophy offering a fresh perspective on this ancient question by moving beyond a debate on the existence of free will to the examination of laypersons' understanding of the idea and related beliefs. At the center of inquiry is the lay-beliefThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

A free will needs a free mind: Belief in substance dualism and reductive physicalism differentially predict belief in free will and determinism

“…This seems especially important, given that questions on the issue of free will and determinism immediately also raise questions about moral responsibilityÑand hence praise, blame, and criminal accountability (see Greene & Cohen, 2004, for a review). In fact, psychological research on lay theories about free will and determinism found that these beliefs indeed crucially affect peopleÕs cognitions and behaviors in various domains, and that they are important constructs that capture unique aspects of agency (Feldman, 2017).…”

Agency Beliefs Over Time and Across Cultures: Free Will Beliefs Predict Higher Job Satisfaction

“…For example, a person may perceive that everything in life is causally determined by the laws of nature or that all actions are predestined by the rule of God or fate, with no capacity for humans to effectively choose their own course of action. Importantly, in both the academic conceptualization and in laypersons’ understanding of the concept of free will, free will is not about metaphysics and is not a mysterious dualistic force, but rather it is a concept representing the capacity for choice and agency ( Baumeister, 2008 ; Feldman, 2017 ; Monroe, Dillon, & Malle, 2014 ; Monroe & Malle, 2014 ; Nadelhoffer, Shepard, Nahmias, Sripada, & Ross, 2014 ; Nahmias, Shepard, & Reuter, 2014 ).…”

“… Feldman (2017) provided an in-depth review highlighting belief in free will as a unique and important agency construct, discussing conceptual differences from other well-known agency constructs in the literature and the related empirical evidence.…”

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“…43 Self-efficacy on the other hand, has been described as a core judgment or evaluation of one's ability to perform and succeed at tasks. 44,45,46 Researchers argue that self-efficacy is different from free will in that self-efficacy is concerned with one's personal evaluation of efficacy, whereas free will captures aspects of choice and agency. 47 The differences between the two constructs have been described as being centered on the fact that "one can perceive the self as incapable and still believe that self is free to choose whether to undertake the action or not."…”