Is Free Will Defeating the Motivation to Cheat?

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Students who got threatening free will passage were more likely to cheat. Study looked at students given the opportunity to solve math problems in exchange for money. The study concluded that denying free will simply provides the ultimate excuse to behave as one likes.

Tamler and David discuss whether giving up our belief in free will makes us more likely to abandon our moral standards.

Links

“You Can’t Handle the Truth!”

Jesse Bering “Scientists say free will probably doesn’t exist, but urge: “Don’t stop believing!” Excellent accessible description of the Vohs and Schooler study that we discuss.

Tamler’s blog post in Psychology Today criticizing the pessimistic views of Smilansky and Vohs and Schooler: "No Soul? I can live with that. No free will? Aaahhhh!".

“Eat the poo-poo.” “Like ice cream…”

Josh Knobe on free will and experimental philosophy.

Tamler's dialogue on some of the problems with current experimental work on free will: "Free Will and Experimental Philosophy: An Intervention."

“I want him dead! I want his family dead!”

Uhlmann, Zhu, Pizarro & Bloom “Blood is Thicker: Moral Spillover Effects Based on Kinship”

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