nudespook
04-24-2008, 10:12 PM
Research Article
The Value of Believing in Free Will: Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating
Kathleen D. Vohs11Department of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and and Jonathan W. Schooler22Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia1Department of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and 2Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT—Does moral behavior draw on a belief in free will? Two experiments examined whether inducing participants to believe that human behavior is predetermined would encourage cheating. In Experiment 1, participants read either text that encouraged a belief in determinism (i.e., that portrayed behavior as the consequence of environmental and genetic factors) or neutral text. Exposure to the deterministic message increased cheating on a task in which participants could passively allow a flawed computer program to reveal answers to mathematical problems that they had been instructed to solve themselves. Moreover, increased cheating behavior was mediated by decreased belief in free will. In Experiment 2, participants who read deterministic statements cheated by overpaying themselves for performance on a cognitive task; participants who read statements endorsing free will did not. These findings suggest that the debate over free will has societal, as well as scientific and theoretical, implications.
Psychological Science, 19, 49-54, 2008
OK, so essentially the implications of this study suggest that being primed for determinism over free will can increase the degree of dishonest behaviour.
Bah!
The Value of Believing in Free Will: Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating
Kathleen D. Vohs11Department of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and and Jonathan W. Schooler22Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia1Department of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and 2Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT—Does moral behavior draw on a belief in free will? Two experiments examined whether inducing participants to believe that human behavior is predetermined would encourage cheating. In Experiment 1, participants read either text that encouraged a belief in determinism (i.e., that portrayed behavior as the consequence of environmental and genetic factors) or neutral text. Exposure to the deterministic message increased cheating on a task in which participants could passively allow a flawed computer program to reveal answers to mathematical problems that they had been instructed to solve themselves. Moreover, increased cheating behavior was mediated by decreased belief in free will. In Experiment 2, participants who read deterministic statements cheated by overpaying themselves for performance on a cognitive task; participants who read statements endorsing free will did not. These findings suggest that the debate over free will has societal, as well as scientific and theoretical, implications.
Psychological Science, 19, 49-54, 2008
OK, so essentially the implications of this study suggest that being primed for determinism over free will can increase the degree of dishonest behaviour.
Bah!