著者

渡辺 匠 岡田 真波 酒井 真帆 池谷 光司 唐沢 かおり

出版者

人間環境学研究会

雑誌

人間環境学研究 (ISSN:13485253)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, no.1, pp.59-65, 2013

被引用文献数

1

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There were two primary purpose of this study. One major purpose was to test the effects of disbelief in free will on self-control and the other purpose was to examine whether free will beliefs affect causal attribution of success and failure. Although a great deal of effort has been made on the definition or existence of free will, only few attempts have so far been made at how people's belief in free will influences subsequent judgment and behavior. As an example of such attempts, Rigoni, Wilquin, Brass, and Burle (2013) found that induced disbelief in free will weakens people's motivation of self-control, which suggests dismissing free will leads people to rely on more automatic and impulsive actions. On the basis of this earlier research, the authors intended to confirm the phenomenon that disbelief in free will reduces motivation of self-control. Furthermore, we investigated the processes of causal attribution by belief in free will since they are thought to be associated with both free will beliefs and self-control. Fifty-two undergraduates participated in the study and they were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (free will, determinism, or control). After free will manipulation, participants completed the Stroop task, whose performance reflects motivation to self-control. Finally, participants received false feedback of success or failure in the Stroop task and they answered attributional questionnaire. The results did not confirm our hypothesis regarding self-control: Participants who were induced to disbelieve in free will performed equally well in the Stroop task as other conditions. However, causal attribution was linked with manipulation of disbelief in free will: Participants who were induced to disbelieve in free will showed less self-effacing bias in task attribution. The findings are suggestive that free will beliefs alter causal attribution processes, which in turn affect a person's social judgment and behavior.