Quantum Windbag
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- May 9, 2010
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I recently came across the supposition that some people have free will and others do not. This tends to support that supposition.
Rigonis team asked 30 people to read passages from Francis Cricks 1994 book The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. Half read a passage that didnt mention free will, while the others read a passage describing it as illusory. All were hooked to electroencephalograph machines that monitored electric activity known as readiness potential, which is linked to the neurological computations that occur in the milliseconds before voluntary movement.
The test subjects were then asked to press a mouse button when a cursor flashed on a computer screen for several seconds. Those who read the passage dismissing free will displayed significantly lower readiness potentials. Their actions seemed to involved less voluntary control than the control groups.
Tested on when they decided to press the button, the non-free-will group reported doing so a fraction of a second before their counterparts. To lose confidence in free will seemingly introduced a lag between conscious choice and action.
Earlier psychological studies of free will have found that discrediting free will seems to trigger an increase in cheating aggressiveness, encourage people to be less helpful and generally sap motivation.
Disbelieving Free Will Makes Brain Less Free | Wired Science | Wired.com