Cargando…

Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games

Research in social psychology and experimental philosophy has investigated lay people’s free will beliefs (FWB). Using different approaches (i.e. experimental manipulations and vignette studies), they investigated how FWB relate to other concepts, and whether changing FWB has an impact on downstream...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tavernier, Nel, Wisniewski, David, Brass, Marcel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10457219/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36967410
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01815-x
_version_ 1785096875517411328
author Tavernier, Nel
Wisniewski, David
Brass, Marcel
author_facet Tavernier, Nel
Wisniewski, David
Brass, Marcel
author_sort Tavernier, Nel
collection PubMed
description Research in social psychology and experimental philosophy has investigated lay people’s free will beliefs (FWB). Using different approaches (i.e. experimental manipulations and vignette studies), they investigated how FWB relate to other concepts, and whether changing FWB has an impact on downstream processes such as social behavior. However, both approaches have shortcomings. While experimental manipulations used in social psychology suffer from demand effects, vignettes used in experimental philosophy are often highly abstract. Across two pre-registered studies, we developed a new approach by merging them in an online video game setting. Using this novel, experience-based FWB manipulation, we found that decreasing FWB impacted variables such as perceived control and responsibility in both studies. While the experience-based manipulation influenced participants’ beliefs in free will within the context of the experience (“Within the context of the scenario, would the agent believe in free will?”) in the first study, this manipulation effect did not transfer to participants’ general FWB (“Do you believe in free will?”) in the second study. Overall, our findings suggest a way forward in studying laypeople’s beliefs in free will.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10457219
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Springer Berlin Heidelberg
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-104572192023-08-27 Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games Tavernier, Nel Wisniewski, David Brass, Marcel Psychol Res Research Research in social psychology and experimental philosophy has investigated lay people’s free will beliefs (FWB). Using different approaches (i.e. experimental manipulations and vignette studies), they investigated how FWB relate to other concepts, and whether changing FWB has an impact on downstream processes such as social behavior. However, both approaches have shortcomings. While experimental manipulations used in social psychology suffer from demand effects, vignettes used in experimental philosophy are often highly abstract. Across two pre-registered studies, we developed a new approach by merging them in an online video game setting. Using this novel, experience-based FWB manipulation, we found that decreasing FWB impacted variables such as perceived control and responsibility in both studies. While the experience-based manipulation influenced participants’ beliefs in free will within the context of the experience (“Within the context of the scenario, would the agent believe in free will?”) in the first study, this manipulation effect did not transfer to participants’ general FWB (“Do you believe in free will?”) in the second study. Overall, our findings suggest a way forward in studying laypeople’s beliefs in free will. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2023-03-26 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10457219/ /pubmed/36967410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01815-x Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research
Tavernier, Nel
Wisniewski, David
Brass, Marcel
Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games
title Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games
title_full Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games
title_fullStr Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games
title_full_unstemmed Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games
title_short Manipulating free will beliefs using online video games
title_sort manipulating free will beliefs using online video games
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10457219/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36967410
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01815-x
work_keys_str_mv AT taverniernel manipulatingfreewillbeliefsusingonlinevideogames
AT wisniewskidavid manipulatingfreewillbeliefsusingonlinevideogames
AT brassmarcel manipulatingfreewillbeliefsusingonlinevideogames