Free Will and Punishment: A Mechanistic View of Human Nature Reduces Retribution

Abstract

If free-will beliefs support attributions of moral responsibility, then reducing these beliefs should make people less retributive in their attitudes about punishment. Four studies tested this prediction using both measured and manipulated free-will beliefs. Study 1 found that people with weaker free-will beliefs endorsed less retributive, but not consequentialist, attitudes regarding punishment of criminals. Subsequent studies showed that learning about the neural bases of human behavior, through either lab-based manipulations or attendance at an undergraduate neuroscience course, reduced people's support for retributive punishment (Studies 2-4). These results illustrate that exposure to debates about free will and to scientific research on the neural basis of behavior may have consequences for attributions of moral responsibility.

Free will beliefs predict attitudes toward unethical behavior and criminal punishment

“…Exposure to anti-free will messages can incite selfishness (8) and aggression (9), both of which have bases in morality (5,10). Chiefly related to the present investigation, treatments that weaken the belief in free will, compared with leaving it unchanged, incite more unethical behavior (e.g., in the form of cheating) (11) and reduce support for harsh punishment for criminals (e.g., by recommending shorter prison sentences) (12). The latter two experimental findings formed the basis of the current hypotheses.…”

“…Following recommendations by Simmons, et al (37), we estimated models with and without statistical control variables that have been shown to correlate with free will beliefs or moral attitudes (4,12,32,38): gender (1 = female; 0 = male), age (in years), educational attainment (less than secondary, secondary, or postsecondary), overall happiness (1 = not at all; 4 = very happy), and the personal importance of religion (1 = not at all; 4 = very important). Unless otherwise specified, the results and robustness checks reported above refer to models including control variables (see also SI Robustness Checks and Tables S6 and S7).…”

“…Laboratory experiments using WEIRD samples have shown that stronger free will beliefs predict lower rates of unethical behavior (11) and stronger support for criminal punishment (12). Accordingly, we expected that in countries with moderate-to-high levels of institutional integrity, which fit the WEIRD profile (17), respondents' free will beliefs would predict the degree to which they view unethical behaviors as unjustifiable and their support for criminal punishment.…”

The Public Health-Quarantine Model

“…Recent work in experimental philosophy further revels that where belief in free will is strongest we tend to find increased punitiveness (see Shariff et al 2014;Carey and Paulhus 2013). Perhaps the strongest evidence for this linking comes from a set of recent studies by Shariff et al (2014).…”

“…Perhaps the strongest evidence for this linking comes from a set of recent studies by Shariff et al (2014). Shariff and his colleagues hypothesized that if free will beliefs support attributions of moral responsibility, then reducing these beliefs should make people less punitive in their attitudes about punishment.…”