We are most grateful to Arudra Burra, Rachana Kamtekar, and the two anonymous referees for Mind & Language for their comments on this paper.
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Is Belief in Free Will a Cultural Universal?
Article first published online: 25 MAY 2010
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01393.x
© 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
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How to Cite
SARKISSIAN, H., CHATTERJEE, A., DE BRIGARD, F., KNOBE, J., NICHOLS, S. and SIRKER, S. (2010), Is Belief in Free Will a Cultural Universal?. Mind & Language, 25: 346–358. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01393.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 25 MAY 2010
- Article first published online: 25 MAY 2010
- Abstract
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Recent experimental research has revealed surprising patterns in people's intuitions about free will and moral responsibility. One limitation of this research, however, is that it has been conducted exclusively on people from Western cultures. The present paper extends previous research by presenting a cross-cultural study examining intuitions about free will and moral responsibility in subjects from the United States, Hong Kong, India and Colombia. The results revealed a striking degree of cross-cultural convergence. In all four cultural groups, the majority of participants said that (a) our universe is indeterministic and (b) moral responsibility is not compatible with determinism.