Creating Optimism

There has been a lot of research lately on the subject of freewill and a lot of controversy in psychology and neuroscience circles.

It may be, as some researchers  attest,  that free will is an illusion. Yet it is undeniable that we persist in believing we are the masters of our fates—and that belief affects how we act.  If you think you determine the course of your life you're likely to work harder toward your goals and also feel better about yourself. Think you don't, and you're likelier to behave in ways that fulfil that prophesy.

“Folk psychology tells us if you feel in control, you perform better,  says Davide Rigoni, an experimental psychologist now at the University of Marseille. “What is crucial is that these effects are present at a very basic motor level, a deep level of brain activity.”

What the researchers working with Rigoni found was that shaking people's belief in self-mastery impairs their brains' readiness to act, even before they're aware of the intention to move. The study is published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science.

To see how the belief in free-will  affects the pre-conscious aspects of motor control, the team observed a well-known brain marker of voluntary action: the negative electrical wave of "readiness potential," which first fires in preparation to move and then, milliseconds later, activates as the brain sends signals to the muscles. Because the first part is not conscious but is modulated by intention, the researchers thought its strength might reflect belief—or disbelief—in free will.

The study divided 30 men and women into two groups. The experimental group read a text stating that scientists had discovered free will to be an illusion. The control group read about consciousness with no mention of free will. They were instructed to read carefully in preparation for a quiz.

Then the participants performed a "Libet task": pressing a button whenever and however many times they chose, while indicating on a screen the time they became aware of the intention to act. Meanwhile their brains were scanned to record activity.

Finally, participants answered questions assessing their beliefs in free will and determinism, both regarding people in general and themselves in particular.

The questionnaires showed the text worked: the first group's belief in their own self-determination was weaker than that of the control group's.

The same effect showed up in the Libet test. The no-free-will group's brain scans measured brain activity far lower than the control group's during that first, unconscious phase of readiness potential. Deep in the brain, the gumption to act flagged along with the belief in self-determination.

Impatient with the biological deterministic bent of science—"that genes and chemicals control us and we have no free will," Rigoni was motivated by the philosophical question: "Is it better to believe or not believe we are free? What if we all disbelieved in free will?" The study gives scientific support to his intuition that it is better to believe. "If we are not free," he says, "it makes no sense to put effort into actions and to be motivated."