University of Cologne, Germany.
Ghent University, Belgium.
Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2023 Feb;27(1):52-82. doi: 10.1177/10888683221087527. Epub 2022 Jun 8.
Ever since some scientists and popular media put forward the idea that free will is an illusion, the question has risen what would happen if people stopped believing in free will. Psychological research has investigated this question by testing the consequences of experimentally weakening people's free will beliefs. The results of these investigations have been mixed, with successful experiments and unsuccessful replications. This raises two fundamental questions: Can free will beliefs be manipulated, and do such manipulations have downstream consequences? In a meta-analysis including 145 experiments (95 unpublished), we show that exposing individuals to anti-free will manipulations decreases belief in free will and increases belief in determinism. However, we could not find evidence for downstream consequences. Our findings have important theoretical implications for research on free will beliefs and contribute to the discussion of whether reducing people's belief in free will has societal consequences.
自从一些科学家和大众媒体提出自由意志是一种幻觉的观点以来，人们不禁会想，如果人们不再相信自由意志，会发生什么。心理学研究通过实验削弱人们对自由意志的信念，来探讨这个问题。这些研究的结果喜忧参半，既有成功的实验，也有不成功的重复实验。这提出了两个基本问题：自由意志的信念可以被操纵吗？这种操纵会产生后续的影响吗？在一项包含 145 项实验（95 项未发表）的荟萃分析中，我们表明，让个体接触反自由意志的操纵会降低对自由意志的信念，增加对决定论的信念。然而，我们没有发现后续影响的证据。我们的发现对自由意志信念的研究具有重要的理论意义，并有助于讨论减少人们对自由意志的信念是否会对社会产生影响。
