Citation

Baumeister RF, Masicampo EJ, Dewall CN. Person. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 2009; 35(2): 260-268.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA. baumeister@psy.fsu.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0146167208327217

PMID

19141628

Abstract

Laypersons' belief in free will may foster a sense of thoughtful reflection and willingness to exert energy, thereby promoting helpfulness and reducing aggression, and so disbelief in free will may make behavior more reliant on selfish, automatic impulses and therefore less socially desirable. Three studies tested the hypothesis that disbelief in free will would be linked with decreased helping and increased aggression. In Experiment 1, induced disbelief in free will reduced willingness to help others. Experiment 2 showed that chronic disbelief in free will was associated with reduced helping behavior. In Experiment 3, participants induced disbelief in free will caused participants to act more aggressively than others. Although the findings do not speak to the existence of free will, the current results suggest that disbelief in free will reduces helping and increases aggression.

Language: en