Abstract
People’s belief in free will is shown to influence the perception of personal control in self and others. The current study tested the hypothesis that individuals who believe in free will attribute stronger personal blame to obese people and to people with mental illness (schizophrenia) for their adverse health outcomes. Results from a sample of 1110 participants showed that the belief in free will subscale is positively correlated with perceptions of the controllability of these adverse health conditions. The findings suggest that free will beliefs are correlated with attribution of blame to people with obesity and mental health issues. The study contributes to the understanding of the possible negative implications of people’s free will beliefs.
Highlights
The questions concerning the nature and existence of free will have captured the imagination of philosophers and laypersons alike
The results indicated that the belief in free will subscale was positively correlated with blame attribution to obese people
The belief in free will subscale was positively correlated with blame attribution toward the mentally ill person described in the scenario
Summary
The questions concerning the nature and existence of free will have captured the imagination of philosophers and laypersons alike. On the other hand, weakening the belief in free will has been shown to induce maladaptive behaviors, such as racism (Zhao, Liu, Zhang, Shi, & Huang, 2014) and aggression toward others (Baumeister, Masicampo, & DeWall, 2009). This strand of studies finds an adaptive socio-functional role of believing in free will, and documents the positive outcomes for individuals with stronger belief in free will. Researchers have investigated the implications of free will beliefs on the underlying perceptions of moral responsibility. Reducing belief in free will makes people less retributive in their punishments (Shariff et al, 2014)
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