Olivia J. Murphy
Submitted 9 Mar 2020
1085 words
Conscious will may be the cause of an action or the apparent cause of an
action. Determinism states that it is the latter, whereas free will
states the opposite (Wegner, D.M., 2002). Determinism implies that
humans are not in control of their actions, but rather under the
illusion that they have control. Both sides of the debate offer credible
evidence, but much of the results from research in this area are still
inconclusive. For example, it is not possible to determine which area of
the brain the experience of will occurs at (Wegner, D.M., 2002).
Therefore, it is difficult to determine the true nature of the cause of
an individual’s actions. However, it is possible that free will and
determinism co-occur equally or at differing percentages. That is, human
actions may be due to an individual’s thoughts as well as predetermined
factors that one is unaware of. If the actions of humans are indeed
predetermined, then it becomes possible to accurately predict the
decisions that a person will make. On the other hand, if free will truly
exists alone, then actions would be unpredictable by a third party.
Lifetime events may be easier to predict than daily events. It is
dependent on the certainty with which one can conclude that an event is
predetermined. There are many variables that affect this certainty,
including dispositional and situational factors.
Dispositional factors having a large impact on human behaviour would
support the notion of determinism. Zautra A. J. et al. (1991) showed
that personality has little to do with the causation of daily events in
older adults, suggesting that actions may be triggered by thoughts and
are not predetermined. Contrary to this notion, it has been shown that
psychological stress levels can be anticipated by personality in people
of all ages, helping to predict major life events such as depressive
episodes (Kendler, K. S. et al., 2004). It is possible, however, that
the personality that correlates with the depressive episodes is a result
of the depressive episodes rather than the cause of them. If this is the
case, then personality would be ruled out as a significant indicator of
psychological stress. However, this does not account for factors such as
context, which may also play a role in determining a person’s behaviour.
Situational factors may determine how well a person copes with life as
well as whether a female will confront gender discrimination or not
(Ayres, M. M. et al., 2009; Fabes, R. A., & Eisenberg, N., 1997). This
proves that although dispositional factors may be a weak predictor of
daily life events, this is not the case for situational factors.
Everyday behaviour in students in particular has been shown to be
strongly influenced by situational factors including positive
reinforcement and availability of support services (Jackson, Y., &
Warren, J. S., 2000). It seems that context is an important predictor of
behaviour for children and adults. Other than these internal and
external factors, other causal factors exist in the anticipation of
human behaviour.
Wegner (2002) lists a number of “alternatives to thoughts as causes for
actions” such as impulse and emotion. From this, he endeavours to
explain that actions which are due to strong emotion lack voluntariness.
Furthermore, he implies that actions are not largely a result of our
thoughts and that we are being deceived when we attribute our actions to
free will. On the contrary, it is very possible that impulsive actions,
including those that are widely accepted as involuntary such as yawning,
may be partly or largely voluntary. One could argue that emotions are
heavily driven by our thoughts. Nussbaum (2001) goes as far as to refer
to emotions as “upheavals of thoughts”. This would suggest that
impulsive actions, which are due to emotions, are in fact due to intense
thoughts. Thoughts may therefore be the cause of impulsive actions which
may make these actions partly voluntary. Additionally, those with Autism
Spectrum Disorder are said to struggle when it comes to feeling empathy
(Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of
L’Aquila, 2014). As well as this, they are significantly less likely to
yawn contagiously (Senju, A. et al., 2007). Furthermore, it is believed
by some that yawning may be largely due to feelings of empathy (Palagi,
E. et al., 2009). It can be construed from this that yawning, an
impulsive action, may be caused by an “upheaval of thoughts”
(Nussbaum, M.C., 2003), making it a voluntary action. However, this
would not be labelled as part of conscious free will, as we are unaware
of the appearance of the urge to yawn before it appears (Wegner 2020).
The evidence supports the notion that there may be merit to both the
impression that we have control over our actions and the impression that
it is actually an illusion. Therefore, actions may be partially under an
individual’s own conscious control, and partially unconscious. However,
other research suggests otherwise.
The order of events when performing an action is crucial when it comes
to the debate of determinism and free will. If conscious will were to be
experienced prior to the biological processes involved in acting out a
movement, then free will would likely be a reality. On the other hand,
if research were to show that the body prepares for action even
milliseconds before the individual becomes aware of deciding to perform
that action, then it would be very likely that all actions are indeed
predetermined. In reality, the latter appears to be true, as “conscious
will kicks in after the brain has already started preparing for the
action” (Wegner, 2002). This strongly points to determinism and could
completely rule out the possibility that free will exists. However,
there have been little replications of the experiment used to unearth
this evidence and therefore its credibility can be questioned (Wegner,
2002). It seems that although research strongly suggests
predetermination of actions, more research is required to stabilize the
determinism claim and determine if human behaviour can in fact be
predicted accurately.
It is clear that there is not enough evidence to conclude whether free
will exists or not. Further research is required to determine to what
length the behaviour of others can be predicted and how accurate these
predictions can be. Evidence points towards a combination of
predeterminism and conscious choice, which suggests that some behaviour
can be predicted. In particular, external factors influence the daily
life events of individuals and allow us to make predictions, whilst
internal factors are possibly an influence for major life events.
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