76 Scientific American, uneJ 2014 Photograph by Tktk Tktk

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What happenswıll to a society that people have no conscious control over their actions? By Azim F. Shariff and Kathleen D. Vohs

IN BRIEF

In the past decade an increasing number of neurosci- In parallel, recent studies suggest that the more peo- But science-informed doubt of free could actually entists and have argued that ple doubt free will, the less they support criminal pun- help us improve our legal system by focusing less on does not exist. Rather we are pushed around by our un- ishment and the less ethically they behave toward doling out jail solely for the sake of retribution and conscious , with the illusion of conscious control. one another. more on discouraging further crime.

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will wouldbelesspunitivethan ourworldistoday. In survey outcome, implyingthat that infree asociety abandoneditsbelief     have, however, hintedat amorebenign of in free will of maybelief end up tearing social organization apart. Insome ofwhicharedisturbing. particular, weseesigns that alack look like? Ourresearchintothisissueo ers inklingsofananswer, willsociety,a post–free orrather infreewillsociety, apost–belief people’s infreewill—justifi belief ed ornot—isshaken? What does What happenswhen by arelated ofequal importance: question of freewillcontinuetorage.two ofus,however, The areintrigued we do without feels “our” likehelp—it just we haveerything a say. notthecauseofthem. Ourbrains decideev duce humanaction, - is the ofconscious thatfuel tothat theexperience notionbysuggesting havenot allowforfreewill.Recentneurosciencestudies added universesimplydoes out of ourcontrol.The that iscompletely fect human behavior sequence of cause results andef from a complex - Human events. beingsareorganisms.Thus, the resultofprevious is bound bythephysical laws ofauniversewhereinevery free an will illusion. is just tions ofourunconsciousminds.Even whenwearewideawake, andbythebehind-the-scenes machina- events around bypast theintentionalauthorsofourlives,wearesimplypushed brain—we are all ina way sleepwalking all the time. Instead of ofthehuman understanding argued that—based onacurrent have ly anincreasingnumberofphilosophersandneuroscientists withoutengagingtheirfullconsciouscooperation.actions Recent- people’swill. Duringsleepwalkingthebrain clearlycandirect he had not consciously chosen to attack her. went free. Thomas not aware ofwhat hewasdoingwhenchoked hiswife andthat was psychiatristthat Thomas explained learned.Anexpert of . He hadbeenpronetosleepwalkingsincechildhood, the SCIENTIFIC ONLINE AMERICAN Not everyone agrees, of course, and debates over the agrees,ofcourse,anddebates overtheexistence Not everyone arguethat allorganismsare Philosophers withthisviewpoint Such cases force people to consider what it means to have free The next year a jury had to decide whether Thomas was guilty wasguilty Thomas hadtodecidewhether yearajury next The EXONERATION CRIMINALS FOR outcome of theunderlyingneural processes that pro- and strangled her to death. is how he told That the story, anyway. biker ken heslept,confusedhiswifewiththeimaginary intothe van. As dreamedthat thatoneofthebikersa nearbyinn.Later nightThomas hadbro- thecouplerelocated loudstunts, totheparkinglotof motorbikes performing their campervan toasmallseasidevillage inWales. bymenon Disturbed  Readmore the about of freewill at 2008     ,  ,  ScientificAmerican.com/jun2014/free-will to give a supposed criminal a shorter prison sentence. prison sentence. to give a supposed criminal a shorter essentially takes overaperson’s brain, judges areespeciallylikely inscientificriminal isexplained that c language assomething showedthat whenamentaldisorder ofasupposed dence. They the University ofUtah andhercolleaguesaddstothislineofevi- have similar e by Lisa G. Aspinwall A of recent experiment ects. for murder. aboutthebrain inacollege Learning classappearsto about brain science alsorecommendedabouthalftheprisontime tosuchmaterials. Participantswho werenotexposed whoread thandidvolunteers criminalaslessculpable animaginary viewed mentionoffreewill—people noovert lie humanactions—with describingtheneural mechanismsthatmagazine articles under- readingglossypopularscience punishment foracrime.After think aboutitand,consequently, decideappropriate howthey mentionfreewilltochange theway to explicitly people necessary teers in the other group. free willrecommendedhalfasmuchtimeinprisondidvolun- toargumentsagainst whohad beenexposed him.Those reform fi made it clear that imprisonment would not help story ght. The forkillingsomeoneinabar manconvicted about ahypothetical will’s subsequentlyreadastory Alltheparticipants existence. thefi weexpected, As groupbecame moredoubtfuloffree rst read apassage fromthesamebookthat wasunrelated tofreewill. ofhumanbeingsleaves otherhalf view noroomforfreewill.The arguingthat readabookexcerpt arational of ourparticipants harm but have no to seek vengeance. further themselvesagainst wanttoprotect ral phenomena:they break thelaw wouldviruses,raging fl asthey oods orothernatu- bilitate perpetrators.In e freewillskeptics treatect, peoplewho e onthemost instead waysective todiscourage crimeandreha- ment, whichabandonsthenotionofcomeuppanceandfocuses for“consequentialist” punish- free willdidnotdiminishsupport su er fortheirtransgressions. futurecrimebutrather primarily todeter make favor they “retributive”outnot punishment—punishmentmeted research, wefoundthat themorepeopledoubtfreewill,less In follow-up experiments, we discovered that it was not even In wediscoveredthat itwasnoteven follow-upexperiments, A subsequentinvestigation reachedasimilarconclusion.Half of Management at the University of Minnesota. of Excellence inMarketing at the Carlson School Kathleen D. Vohs of Management at the University of Minnesota. of Excellence inMarketing at theCarlson School he runshe runs the the CultureCulture and and MoralityMorality Lab. Lab. psychologypsychology atat the the UniversityUniversity of of Oregon, Oregon, where where Azim F. Shariff is Land O’is Land Lakes Professor is anassistant professor of Yet about what peoplebelieved 4/17/14 5:52PM

PRECEDING PAGES: MITCH PAYNE (photograph) Social Disorder will, it seems, the less strength we have to restrain ourselves from Although increased leniency as a result of doubting free will the urge to lie, cheat, steal and feed hot sauce to rude people. might be a thing in many instances, completely abandon- ing criminal punishment would be disastrous. Such punishment New is vital to a well-functioning society. Experimental research by If neuroscience research continues to degrade people’s belief Bettina Rockenbach of the University of Cologne in Germany has that they have free will, how will society change? shown that although few people like the abstract of belong- We see three possibilities. is replete with examples of ing to a group that punishes its members for , in moral norms evolving with new of the world. In his practice they overwhelmingly prefer it. Rockenbach and her col- recent book The Better Angels of Our , Harvard University leagues asked volunteers to play cooperative games and gave psychologist documents a “humanitarian revolu- them the choice between joining a group that either could or tion” over the past 300 years in which previously institutionalized could not punish its members for failing to help out. Initially practices such as and cruel and unusual punishment only a third of the participants chose to join the group that could became widely reviled as morally abhorrent. Pinker credits the penalize its members, but after 30 rounds nearly all of them had change, in part, to the expanded knowledge of different cultures switched over to the punishing group. Why? Because these ex­­ and human behavior afforded by the Enlightenment’s massive periments confirmed what human societies have found over and increase in literacy, learning and exchange. over again throughout history: when laws are not established New research unveiling the biological machinery behind and enforced, people have little motivation to work together for human and action may prompt a similarly dramatic a greater good. Instead they put themselves above everyone else change in moral views. This is the first possibility. As they have and shirk all responsibility, lying, cheating and stealing their way before, changes in moral sentiments may actually help improve to societal collapse. the U.S.’s penal system. Currently, criminal punishment is driven Free will skepticism can be dangerous even to a society that primarily by eye-for-an-eye retribution—the kind of punishment has laws, however. Some of our research reveals that such doubt, favored by people who believe in free will—and, perhaps as a which weakens a sense of accountability for one’s actions, en­­ result, is woefully ineffective at deterring future crime. Society courages people to abandon existing rules. In studies conducted should stop punishing people solely for the sake of seeing them with Jonathan W. Schooler of the University of California, Santa suffer and instead focus on the most effective ways to prevent Barbara, participants who read an anti–free will passage cheated criminal activity and turn past lawbreakers into productive citi- on an academic test—electing to peek at the answers—50 percent zens—strategies that become more appealing when people ques- more than participants who read a neutral passage. Moreover, in tion the of free will. Though uncomfortable at , doubt- another study where participants were paid for each test ques- ing free will may end up as a kind of growing pain for our society, tion they answered correctly, those who read anti–free will state- aligning our moral intuitions and legal institutions with new sci- ments claimed they had answered more questions correctly, and entific knowledge and making us stronger than before. accepted payment accordingly, than did other participants. It may not happen that way, though. As our research has sug- Equally disturbing for social cohesion, diminished belief in gested, the more people doubt free will, the more lenient they free will also seems to release urges to harm others. One of the become toward those accused of crimes and the more willing admittedly odd ways that psychologists measure aggression in they are to break the rules themselves and harm others to get the laboratory is by giving people the opportunity to add hot what they want. Thus, the second possibility is that newfound sauce or salsa to a snack that they know will be served to some- skepticism of free will may end up threatening the humanitarian one who hates spicy food. Roy F. Baumeister of Florida State Uni- revolution, potentially culminating in anarchy. versity and his colleagues asked a group of volunteers to read More likely is the third possibility. In the 18th century arguments for or against the existence of free will before prepar- famously asserted that if did not exist, we would need to in­­ ing plates of tortilla chips and clearly labeled hot salsa for anoth- vent him because the idea of God is so vital to keeping law and or­­ er volunteer who had rebuffed each group member earlier, refus- der in society. Given that a belief in free will restrains people from ing to work together with that person. This same aloof , engaging in the kind of wrongdoing that could unravel an ordered the subjects knew full well, was not a fan of spiciness, and the per- society, the parallel is obvious. What will our society do if it finds son would have to eat everything that was handed out. Those who itself without the of free will? It may well reinvent it. had read texts doubting free will’s existence used nearly double the amount of salsa. Neuroscience has revealed that at least one way skepticism MORE TO EXPLORE about free will erodes ethical behavior is by weakening willpow- Who’s in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain. Michael S. Gazzaniga. er. Before people make a —such as reaching for a cup—a Ecco, 2011. Free Will and Punishment: A Mechanistic View of Human Nature Reduces Retri- particular of electrical activity known as readiness poten- bution. A. F. Shariff, J. D. Greene, J. C. Karremans, J. Luguri, C. J. Clark, J. W. Schooler, tial occurs in the brain’s motor cortex, which helps to regulate R. F. Baumeister and K. D. Vohs in Psychological Science (in press). movement. By placing electrodes on the scalp, Davide Rigoni of the University of Padua in and his colleagues showed that FROM OUR ARCHIVES diminishing people’s belief in free will decreased this electrical Is Free Will an Illusion? Shaun Nichols; Scientific American , November/ activity. In a follow-up study, people whose free will beliefs had December 2011. Free Won’t. Michael Shermer; Skeptic, August 2012. been weakened were less able to inhibit impulsive reactions dur- ing a computerized test of willpower. The less we believe in free scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa

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