free to punish a motivated strongaccountstrong of free will belief.pdfVIP

ATTITUDES AND SOCIAL COGNITION Free to Punish: A Motivated Account of Free Will Belief Cory J. Clark Jamie B. Luguri University of California, Irvine Yale University Peter H. Ditto Joshua Knobe University of California, Irvine Yale University . y Azim F. Shariff Roy F. Baumeister l . d s a University of Oregon Florida State University r o e r h b s i d l b e u t a p n d i Belief in free will is a pervasive phenomenon that has important consequences for prosocial actions and e m i e l s punitive judgments, but little research has investigated why free will beliefs are so widespread. Across 5 l a s i s d studies using experimental, survey, and archival data and multiple measures of free will belief, we tested the t i e f b hypothesis that a key factor promoting belief in free will is a fundamental desire to hold others morally o o e t responsible for their wrongful behaviors. In Study 1, participants reported greater belief in free will after n t o o considering an immoral action than a morally neutral one. Study 2 provided evidence that this effect